Qartez MCP
A Rust MCP server: a repository knowledge graph, 43 tools, edit impact analysis and a guard against dangerous changes
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- Last commit
Extended access
Why this level
- The installer downloads binaries and edits settings files of every detected IDE, including Claude Code hooks
- The server reads source code of the whole repository and builds an index from it on disk
Install
- Works in
Manual install
curl -sSfL https://qartez.dev/install | shmacOS, Linux and WSL 2. The script installs three programs and configures detected IDEs.
Access and checks
How we reviewExtended accessThe tool runs code or makes network calls and only reads external data.
- The installer downloads binaries and edits settings files of every detected IDE, including Claude Code hooks
- The server reads source code of the whole repository and builds an index from it on disk
This is third-party code. Review the repository files before installing.
What it does
Qartez builds a repository index once and serves it to the agent through MCP. The graph holds symbols, imports, call edges, blast radius of changes, file PageRank, git co-change, cyclomatic complexity, structural clones through AST hashes and architecture boundary violations. The agent queries the index and does not reread files on every question. Indexing starts by itself at session start, and a file watcher keeps the index fresh. A core set of eight tools is always available: `qartez_map` builds a project map by importance, `qartez_find` and `qartez_grep` search symbols, `qartez_read` reads a symbol source without reading the file, `qartez_outline` gives a file outline, `qartez_impact` shows direct and transitive dependents before an edit, and `qartez_deps` and `qartez_stats` give the dependency graph and a summary. Extra tiers, for example analysis, are enabled through `qartez_tools`: `qartez_refs`, `qartez_calls`, `qartez_cochange`, `qartez_diff_impact` for a range like `main..HEAD`, `qartez_hotspots` for the places most dangerous to refactor and `qartez_unused` for dead code. There are 43 tools in total. The author compares calls: a symbol definition costs 52 tokens against 1490 with a grep sweep, an edit impact check 352 against 9243, and overall token use drops by about 94 percent. These are the project own measurements, so recheck them on your code. It installs together with `qartez-guard`, Claude Code hooks that guard changes, and `qartez-setup`, which configures every IDE it detects.
Who it is for. Developers on large codebases working with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and other MCP clients who want to save tokens and see the consequences of edits.
Good fit when
- Before editing `utils.ts` you need to know how many files import it and what breaks
- An agent burns tokens finding where `handleRequest` is defined by sweeping hundreds of files
- Before a refactor you need a list of the functions most dangerous to refactor by complexity, graph weight and edit history
- A branch must be checked for impact across the `main..HEAD` range in one call
- You need to find dead code and structural clones
Not a fit when
- The repository is small and fits in context: the index brings little benefit
- You need a run without downloading binaries and editing IDE configs: the installer edits settings files of detected editors
- You need a license that permits commercial embedding with no conditions: the project is dual licensed, read LICENSE and COMMERCIAL.md
Example request
Show through qartez_impact what breaks if I change storage/read.rs and list the files that change together with it.MCP
- Transport
- stdio
- Authentication
- not required
Limitations
Supported are macOS 13 and newer, Ubuntu 22.04 and newer with other modern Linux distributions, Windows with PowerShell 5.1 or 7 and WSL 2, on x86_64 and arm64. For platforms without a prebuilt binary the installer builds the project locally, which needs Rust 1.90 or newer.
Install through `curl -sSfL https://qartez.dev/install | sh` downloads binaries, verifies SHA-256, installs three programs (`qartez`, `qartez-guard`, `qartez-setup`) and configures every IDE it detects, backing up their configs. The license is dual: see LICENSE and COMMERCIAL.md. The token savings figures come from the author.
How to disable. Run `make uninstall` in the cloned repository: it removes Qartez from every IDE config and deletes the binaries. For a manual setup, remove the qartez block from `mcpServers` in your client.
FAQ
How do I install Qartez MCP?
On macOS, Linux and WSL 2 run `curl -sSfL https://qartez.dev/install | sh`, and on Windows the install.ps1 command in PowerShell. The installer verifies SHA-256, installs three programs and configures the detected IDEs.
Which agents and editors does it work with?
With 19 clients, including Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Gemini, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, Cline, Roo Code, Goose, OpenCode and Codex CLI. A subset can be chosen with `qartez-setup --ide cursor,zed,claude`.
How do I reindex a project by hand?
With `qartez --root /path/to/your/project --reindex`. Normally the index is built by itself at session start and updated by the file watcher.
How do I enable the extra tools?
Call `qartez_tools` with a parameter, for example `enable: ["analysis"]` or `"all"`. The core eight tools are available without it.
How do I remove Qartez?
Run `make uninstall` from the repository clone: it removes it from every configured IDE config and deletes the binaries.
Discussion
No questions or reviews yet.
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Comparison with similar tools
Cards that share the main search query, and how they differ.
| Tool | Official | Authentication | Repository stars | Main difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qartez MCP (this card) | no | not required | 73 | |
| Serena | no | not required | 31,335 | gives the agent symbol search and edits through language servers, while this one builds a precomputed graph with edit impact, PageRank and co-change |
| codebase-memory-mcp | no | not required | 48,531 | stores a knowledge graph of code, while this one adds diff impact, hotspots and AST clone detection |
README in short
The description opens with the thesis that grep and cat were made for humans while an agent needs a precomputed code graph. It then covers installation, the list of 43 tools by tier, token savings examples, change protection, supported languages and comparisons.