Quick Start

First install Bobbin, then verify a disposable project. You need Git and Python 3 for this example. Initial indexing downloads the model.

A reproducible first result

mkdir -p bobbin-demo && cd bobbin-demo && git init -q && printf 'def greeting(name):\n    return "Hello, " + name\n' > greeting.py
bobbin init --quiet && BOBBIN_GPU=0 bobbin index --quiet --skip-calibrate
bobbin grep greeting --json | python3 -c 'import json,sys; r=json.load(sys.stdin)["results"][0]; print("{}:{}-{}".format(r["name"], r["start_line"], r["end_line"]))'

The final command prints:

greeting:1-2

Bobbin found a parsed function, with its source range, in the index you just built.

Use your own repository

1. Initialize

Navigate to your project and initialize bobbin:

cd your-project
bobbin init

This creates a .bobbin/ directory containing configuration (config.toml), a SQLite database for coupling data, and a LanceDB vector store.

2. Index

Build the search index:

bobbin index

Bobbin walks your repository (respecting .gitignore), parses source files with tree-sitter into semantic chunks (functions, classes, structs, etc.), generates 384-dimensional embeddings using a local ONNX model, and stores everything in LanceDB.

Indexing time varies with your repository, model and hardware.

3. Search

Find code by meaning:

bobbin search "error handling"

This runs a hybrid search combining semantic similarity (vector search) with keyword matching (full-text search), fused via Reciprocal Rank Fusion. Results show the file, function name, line range, and a content preview.

4. Explore More

Try these commands to see what bobbin can do:

# Keyword/regex search
bobbin grep "TODO"

# Task-aware context assembly
bobbin context "fix the login bug"

# Find files that change together
bobbin related src/main.rs

# Find symbol definitions and usages
bobbin refs parse_config

# Identify high-churn, high-complexity files
bobbin hotspots

# Check index statistics
bobbin status

5. Interactive Tour

For a guided, interactive walkthrough of every feature, run:

bobbin tour

The tour runs each command against your actual repository, explaining what it does and how to use it. You can also tour a specific feature:

bobbin tour search
bobbin tour hooks

Next Steps

• Core Concepts — understand chunks, embeddings, hybrid search, and coupling
• Agent Setup — connect bobbin to an AI coding assistant via MCP
• Configuration — tune index patterns, search weights, and embedding settings