Use cases

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Quick start

One command. 30 seconds.

uvx --from "code-context-engine[local]" cce init    # install + index + configure, one shot

Or if you prefer a persistent install:

uv tool install "code-context-engine[local]"    # or: pipx install "code-context-engine[local]"
cd /path/to/your/project
cce init

Restart your editor. Done. Every question now hits the index instead of re-reading files.

Already have Ollama? Skip [local] and use uv tool install code-context-engine instead. CCE auto-detects Ollama at localhost:11434 and uses nomic-embed-text.

<details> <summary><strong>System requirements</strong></summary>

Python 3.11+ and a C compiler (for tree-sitter grammars).

Tested on macOS, Linux, Windows with Python 3.11/3.12/3.13. </details>

cce init auto-detects your editor and writes the right config. To target a specific agent, use --agent claude, --agent codex, --agent copilot, or --agent all.

Multiple editors in the same project? All get configured in one command.

Codex note: Codex CLI reads MCP servers from ~/.codex/config.toml only — it has no per-project config. cce init adds one [mcp_servers.cce-<project>-<hash>] section per project so multiple projects coexist; cce uninstall removes only the section for the current project.

  my-project · 38 queries · last query 5m ago

  ⛁ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶  88% tokens saved

  Input savings   1.9M  tokens   $27.78
  Output savings  4.8k  tokens   $0.36
  ──────────────────────────────────────────
  Total saved   1.9M  tokens   $28.15

  Breakdown:
    retrieval              84%  ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰    1.8M   $26.76 · 12 calls
    chunk compression       3%  ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱   68.5k    $1.03 · 12 calls
    output compression*    <1%  ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱    4.8k    $0.36 · 12 calls

  Cost estimate based on Opus pricing (input $15.0/1M, output $75.0/1M)

Supports Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google model pricing. Configure via pricing.model in ~/.cce/config.yaml.

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Configuration

Zero-config by default. Override what you need in ~/.cce/config.yaml or .context-engine.yaml:

compression:
  level: standard          # minimal | standard | full
  output: standard         # off | lite | standard | max
  ollama_url: http://localhost:11434   # point at a remote Ollama if desired

retrieval:
  top_k: 20
  confidence_threshold: 0.5

pricing:
  model: opus              # opus | sonnet | haiku | gpt-4o | gemini-2.5-pro | ...
  # input: 15.0            # override $/1M input tokens
  # output: 75.0           # override $/1M output tokens

Remote Ollama: If you run Ollama on another machine in your network, set compression.ollama_url (e.g. http://nas.local:11434) or export CCE_OLLAMA_URL — the env var wins. CCE probes the endpoint and falls back to truncation-only compression when it's unreachable, so a flaky link won't break indexing.

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Benchmark: FastAPI (reproducible)

We benchmarked CCE against FastAPI (53 source files, 180K tokens) with 20 real coding questions. No cherry-picking, no synthetic queries.

Methodology: For each query, "without CCE" means reading the full content of every file the query touches. "With CCE" means the relevant chunks after compression.

Important baseline note: The 94% number is measured against full-file reads, not against what Claude Code actually does. In practice, Claude Code already uses grep, partial file reads, and targeted tools, so the real-world savings compared to normal Claude Code behavior will be lower than 94%. We use full-file as the baseline because it's reproducible and deterministic (no agent behavior variability). The benchmark measures CCE's retrieval efficiency, not a head-to-head comparison with Claude Code's built-in exploration.

CLI at a glance

cce init                    # Index + install hooks + register MCP
cce                         # Status banner
cce savings                 # Token savings with dollar estimates
cce savings --all           # All projects
cce dashboard               # Web dashboard with live charts
cce search "auth flow"      # Test a query
cce status                  # Index health + config
cce services                # Ollama + dashboard + MCP status
cce commands add-rule '...' # Project rules for Claude
cce uninstall               # Clean removal of all CCE artifacts

Run cce list for the full command reference.

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FAQ