LXR Cross Referencer vs Shebe
LXR Cross Referencer
lxr.sourceforge.ioShebe
github.comSide by side
| Figure | LXR Cross Referencer | Shebe |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Code Search Tools | 7.6 (#21) | 7.8 (#12) |
| Purpose | LXR indexes and cross-references source code for web browsing, linking identifiers to their definitions and uses. | Shebe is a local code-search tool that uses BM25 full-text search for code repositories. |
| Search | LXR 2.3 adds full-text search for source management repositories except CVS and BitKeeper, if users accept checking out repository sources. | Code search supports ranked results, phrases, Boolean queries, and literal matching. |
| Security | The feature log says release 2.3 added protection against a vulnerability that allowed arbitrary command execution. | The README says Shebe runs locally and uses no cloud service; the linked security policy page could not be fetched during this research. |
| Support | The project directs users to its forum and trackers to contact developers and report issues. | The project provides installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and MCP setup guides in its repository. |
Plans
In their own words
LXR Cross Referencer
LXR Cross Referencer has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Shebe
Shebe is a local code-search tool that uses BM25 full-text search across code repositories. It ranks results and supports phrase searches, Boolean queries, and literal matching. Fourteen MCP tools serve coding agents with functions including search, repository indexing, file reading, and reference finding. Shebe runs without embeddings, a GPU, or a cloud service, but repositories must be cloned locally before indexing; remote repository URLs are not supported. Its text-based search does not provide semantic similarity, so related words such as “login” and “authenticate” may not match. Prebuilt binaries are listed for Linux x86_64 and macOS on Apple Silicon and Intel; Linux ARM64 is planned. Windows users need to build it from source. The installation guide covers MCP setup and Zed configuration and points to the organization for VS Code and other editor extensions. Shebe is free and licensed under Apache-2.0. The README reports 2 ms query latency and indexing rates from 1,928 to 11,210 files per second in its listed benchmarks.