Semtools: Semantic Search

Perform semantic (meaning-based) search across code and documents using embedding-based similarity matching.

Purpose

The semtools skill provides access to Semtools, a high-performance Rust-based CLI for semantic search and document processing. Unlike traditional text search (ripgrep) which matches exact strings, or structural search (ast-grep) which matches syntax patterns, semtools understands semantic meaning through embeddings.

Key capabilities:

Semantic Search: Find code/text by meaning, not just keywords
Workspace Management: Index large codebases for fast repeated searches
Document Parsing: Convert PDFs, DOCX, PPTX to searchable text (requires API key)

Semtools excels at discovery - finding relevant code when you don't know the exact keywords, function names, or syntax patterns.

When to Use This Skill

Use the semtools skill when you need meaning-based search: