Docs Search

Search the local Grounded Docs index for library documentation. These commands return structured data (JSON by default in non-interactive sessions) and never modify the index.

When to use

• You need to answer a question about a library's API or behaviour.
• You want to check which libraries and versions are already indexed.
• You need to resolve which documentation version best matches a constraint.

Always run list first if you are unsure whether a library has been indexed. If nothing is indexed yet, use the docs-manage skill to scrape documentation before searching.

Commands

list

List every indexed library and its available versions.

npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest list [--output yaml]

Flag	Description
--output json|yaml|toon	Structured output format (default: JSON in non-interactive)
--server-url <url>	Connect to a remote pipeline worker instead of the local store
--quiet	Suppress non-error diagnostics
--verbose	Enable debug logging

Example output (YAML):

- library: react
  versions:
    - "19.0.0"
    - "18.3.1"
- library: typescript
  versions:
    - "5.7.0"

search

Search documents in an indexed library by natural-language query.

npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest search <library> "<query>" [options]

Flag	Alias	Default	Description
--version <ver>	-v	latest	Version constraint (exact or range, e.g. 18.x, 5.2.x)
--limit <n>	-l	5	Maximum number of results
--exact-match	-e	false	Only match the exact version, no fallback
--embedding-model <model>			Embedding model (e.g. openai:text-embedding-3-small)
--server-url <url>			Remote pipeline worker URL
--output json|yaml|toon		JSON	Structured output format
--quiet			Suppress non-error diagnostics
--verbose			Enable debug logging

Example:

npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest search react "useEffect cleanup" --version 18.x --limit 3 --output yaml

Each result contains a content snippet, source URL, and relevance score.

find-version

Resolve the best matching documentation version for a library.

npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest find-version <library> [--version <pattern>]

Flag	Alias	Description
--version <pattern>	-v	Version pattern to match (supports ranges)
--server-url <url>		Remote pipeline worker URL
--output json|yaml|toon		Structured output format
--quiet		Suppress non-error diagnostics
--verbose		Enable debug logging

Example:

npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest find-version react --version "18.x" --output yaml

Returns the resolved version string and library metadata.

Interpreting output

All three commands emit structured data to stdout. Diagnostics and progress messages go to stderr and are suppressed by default in non-interactive sessions. Use --verbose (or set LOG_LEVEL=INFO) to re-enable them. Use --quiet to suppress all non-error diagnostics regardless of session type.

To capture results programmatically, parse stdout as JSON (the default) or request --output yaml for a more readable format.

Typical workflow

# 1. Check what is indexed
npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest list --output yaml

# 2. Search for relevant docs
npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest search react "server components" --version 19.x --output yaml

# 3. If no results, index the docs first (see docs-manage skill), then retry