Feature Semantic Search

Find code by what
it does, not what
it's called.

Search your project in plain language. Nexus indexes every file so a query like “where do we retry failed payments” lands on the right function, even if it never says retry.

Rated 4.5/5 from 1400 Users
Nexus semantic search results ranked by meaning for a natural language query
to search a million-line repository
<1s
index that updates as you save
Auto
fewer searches to find the right file
5×
How it works

From question to the right line

  1. 01

    Nexus indexes the project

    On first open it builds a local index of your code and keeps it fresh as files change.

  2. 02

    Ask in plain language

    Describe what the code does, or paste a snippet to find similar code.

  3. 03

    Jump to the result

    Results are ranked by meaning, with the matching lines highlighted and a short summary.

In detail

Search that understands intent

  • Natural language

    Ask the way you think

    No regex, no guessing names. Describe the behaviour and Nexus finds the code that implements it.

    • Plain-language queries
    • Search by example snippet
    • Filter by folder or file type
  • Indexing

    An index that keeps up with you

    Nexus builds the index locally and updates it in the background on every save, branch switch and pull.

    • Local, incremental indexing
    • Respects .gitignore
    • Large monorepo support
  • Rules

    Teach Nexus your conventions

    Add project rules in plain text. Search, Chat and Agent all use them to understand your folders, patterns and naming.

    • Rules in a .nexus/rules file
    • Shared with the whole team
    • Used by Chat and Agent too
Use cases

What people search for

  • Find the implementation

    Go from a feature name to the code behind it.

  • Spot duplicates

    Paste a function and find code that does the same thing.

  • Audit risky patterns

    Find every place that touches secrets or raw SQL.

  • Prepare a refactor

    See every caller before you change a shared helper.

  • Answer support tickets

    Find where an error message is thrown and why.

  • Explore a new repo

    Ask where things live instead of reading folder by folder.

“Search finds the function I half remember. I have not opened grep for a week.”

Luis Romero Backend Engineer, Mavence
Specs

The details

Everything you need to know before you turn on Semantic Search.

Compare plans
Where it runs
VS Code, JetBrains IDEs and the Nexus desktop app
Index
Built locally, incremental, respects .gitignore
Scale
Tested on repositories with millions of lines
Queries
Natural language, code snippets and filters
Plans
Every plan, with team-shared rules on Team
Privacy
Embeddings stay in your workspace. SOC 2 Type II

Semantic Search FAQ

On your machine, in the workspace folder. Team plans can opt in to a shared, encrypted index for faster setup.

No. Exact text and regex search still work. Semantic Search is for when you know what code does but not what it is called.

Most projects index in under a minute. Very large monorepos take a few minutes the first time, then update incrementally.

Yes. Nexus skips anything in .gitignore, and you can add more paths to a .nexusignore file.

Can’t find your answer? Contact our support team

Every feature shares the same project index, so they work better together.

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