Shebe vs Woboq Code Browser
Shebe
github.comWoboq Code Browser
woboq.comSide by side
| Figure | Shebe | Woboq Code Browser |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Code Search Tools | 7.8 (#12) | 7.2 (#24) |
| Intended users | The project positions Shebe for developers and AI coding agents working with large codebases and says it complements structural tools such as Serena MCP. | Woboq describes the browser as a way for developers to understand code and dependencies without installing all source code on each developer's machine. |
| License | The GitHub organization lists the Shebe repository under the Apache-2.0 license. | The README describes use under a commercial license from Woboq or a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license that excludes use to assist development of commercial software. |
| Purpose | Shebe is a local code-search tool that uses BM25 full-text search for code repositories. | Woboq Code Browser is a web-based browser for C and C++ projects. |
| Support | The project provides installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and MCP setup guides in its repository. | The README invites licensees and other users to contact [email protected] for help and directs bug reports to GitHub issues. |
Plans
In their own words
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.
Woboq Code Browser
Woboq Code Browser has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.