OpenGrok vs Shebe
OpenGrok
oracle.github.ioShebe
github.comSide by side
| Figure | OpenGrok | Shebe |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Code Search Tools | 7.8 (#11) | 7.8 (#12) |
| Purpose | OpenGrok is a Java source code search and cross-reference engine for searching, cross-referencing, and navigating source trees. | Shebe is a local code-search tool that uses BM25 full-text search for code repositories. |
| Security | OpenGrok provides a granular authorization framework, while authentication is handled by the application server or a reverse proxy. | 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 discussions and mailing lists, and asks users to report bugs or feature requests through GitHub Issues. | The project provides installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and MCP setup guides in its repository. |
Plans
In their own words
OpenGrok
OpenGrok is a Java source code search and cross-reference engine for searching and navigating source trees. It searches full text, definitions, symbols, paths and revision history, with subtree searches, wildcards and date-range filters. Its read-only web interface provides syntax-highlighted cross-references, file and directory history, and revision diffs. Supported revision control systems include Git, Mercurial, Subversion, CVS, Perforce, ClearCase, Bazaar, Monotone, Razor, RCS, SCCS, Teamware and AccuRev. Plugins can add support for programming languages or revision control systems. The web application provides a REST API under `/api/v1/` and a granular authorization framework; authentication is handled by the application server or a reverse proxy. Setup requires creating an index and deploying the web application. The guide lists Java 21 through 25, Universal Ctags and a servlet container such as Tomcat 10.x. OpenGrok is free and open source under the CDDL license, and is maintained by volunteers. Support and project requests go through discussions, mailing lists and GitHub Issues.
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.