Silica Core plugin
Silica Core finds the passage or function in a folder of code and PDFs and hands the agent path, section and lines, no model call
- 70 ★ on the repository
- Last commit
- MIT
Extended access
Why this level
- The server reads every file in the chosen folder and silica_write_note writes notes to disk
- The plugin starts a local process through uv, and the dense leg downloads a model from the network
Install
- Works in
In your terminal, with SkillFoxx CLI
npx skillfoxx add plugins/silica-coreDetects the agents on your machine, shows the access level and pins the version.
Other ways to install
Access and checks
How we reviewExtended accessThe tool runs code or makes network calls and only reads external data.
- The server reads every file in the chosen folder and silica_write_note writes notes to disk
- The plugin starts a local process through uv, and the dense leg downloads a model from the network
This is third-party code. Review the repository files before installing.
What it does
Silica Core indexes Markdown, source code, PDFs and office files under one root and serves them to agents as MCP tools or as shell commands. A hit carries a path, a section, a line, a window of text and numbers to judge it by. The loop stays with the agent: Silica only locates the source. There are five tools. silica_files shows what was indexed, silica_search runs BM25 and returns ranked passages, silica_read reads a slice by lines or heading, silica_code_pack builds an AST context pack for one file within a character budget, and silica_write_note writes a note atomically with a structure and wikilink lint. In source code every function, method, class and constant is a separate unit. Search says when the corpus does not answer. The coverage field shows the share of rare query terms the hit carries, terms_absent lists words that occur nowhere, and terms_near suggests a close spelling. For paraphrased questions an optional dense leg runs the potion-retrieval-32M model with no GPU and no torch. No API key or network is needed; the one download is the model itself.
Who it is for. Developers and researchers whose agent burns turns grepping a large folder of code, papers and PDFs and has to cite a page or a line.
Good fit when
- An agent answers from a folder of nine PDF papers and must name the file, page and passage
- The repository holds thousands of files, and finding a function by meaning costs the agent extra turns
- You keep notes in an Obsidian-style folder and the agent needs to write a note with wikilink checks
- One index should serve Claude Code, Cursor and Codex with no cloud service
- A folder of docx scans and PDFs returns nothing and you want to see how many files the agent could not read
Not a fit when
- You want meaning-based search out of the box: the dense leg ships as a separate extra and a separate setting
- The corpus sits in several unrelated folders: the server serves one root opened by the client
- You need a call graph or dependency analysis: Silica finds passages and builds no graph
- The folder is not adopted with silica-core init and you do not want to change it
Example request
Install the Silica Core plugin and find the passage about leveled compaction in the papers folder, citing file and pageLimitations
- The server works only with folders that silica-core init adopted and serves the single root a client opens; another root is set with the --vault flag or SILICA_VAULT.
- The dense leg needs the dense extra, the SILICA_EMBEDDING_MODEL variable and vectors built with silica-core index --embed. Until the vectors are ready search stays lexical and reports dense: warming.
- The Claude Code plugin needs uv on PATH and Claude Code 2.1.275 or newer. Installing both the plugin and a separate server through setup leaves two servers on one folder.
- Code and PDFs are read locally, but the potion-retrieval-32M model downloads once.
How to disable. The Claude Code plugin comes off with claude plugin uninstall silica-core. A server written by silica-core setup is removed from the client config, where the command keeps a backup of the previous file. The package is removed with uv tool uninstall silica-core.
FAQ
How do I install Silica Core in Claude Code?
Run claude plugin install silica-core --marketplace kiycoh/silica-core: the plugin brings the server and skills. It needs uv on PATH and Claude Code 2.1.275 or newer. Then run silica-core init in the working folder.
Does it need an API key or internet?
No. Search runs locally with no key. Only the potion-retrieval-32M model downloads, once, if you enable the dense leg.
How can I tell the folder has no answer?
Read the reply fields. A low coverage, a non-empty terms_absent and no matched rare terms mean the corpus does not cover the question.
How is silica_search different from grep?
It ranks passages by BM25, returns path, section, lines and numbers to judge them, and splits source files into functions and classes. Exact identifiers are still found by the lexical leg.
Which clients does silica-core setup support?
silica-core setup --list prints them: Claude, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Goose, OpenCode, Gemini and more. For the rest it prints a shell, Python or generic MCP recipe.
Discussion
No questions or reviews yet.
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README in short
The README opens with install and a three-command quickstart, then describes the five tools and the fields a search reply carries. Benchmarks on BEIR and SWE-QA, the client list and a section on the Claude Code plugin follow.