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https://github.com/oraios/serena

A powerful coding agent toolkit providing semantic retrieval and editing capabilities (MCP server & other integrations)
https://github.com/oraios/serena

agent ai ai-coding claude claude-code language-server llms mcp-server programming vibe-coding

Last synced: 21 days ago
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A powerful coding agent toolkit providing semantic retrieval and editing capabilities (MCP server & other integrations)

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README 

          


  

  






    Serena is the IDE for your coding agent.




* Serena provides essential **semantic code retrieval, editing and refactoring tools** that are akin to an IDE's capabilities,

  operating at the symbol level and exploiting relational structure.

* It integrates with any client/LLM via the model context protocol (**MCP**).



Serena's **agent-first tool design** involves robust high-level abstractions, distinguishing it from

approaches that rely on low-level concepts like line numbers or primitive search patterns.



Practically, this means that your agent operates **faster, more efficiently and more reliably**, especially in larger and

more complex codebases.



## Features



Serena supports two code intelligence backends:



* **Language servers** implementing the language server protocol (LSP) — the free/open-source alternative.

* **The Serena JetBrains Plugin**, which leverages the capabilities of your JetBrains IDE.



Language Servers, while very powerful, have inherent limitations.

The JetBrains variant is the more advanced solution, as detailed below. It is also more memory-efficient, especially in

multi-agent scenarios.



### Language Support



#### Language Servers



When using Serena's language server backend, we provide **support for over 40 programming languages**, including

AL, Ansible, Bash, C#, C/C++, Clojure, Dart, Elixir, Elm, Erlang, Fortran, F# (currently with some bugs), GLSL, Go, Groovy (partial support), Haskell, HLSL, Java, Javascript, Julia, Kotlin, Lean 4, Lua, Luau, Markdown, MATLAB, Nix, OCaml, Perl, PHP, PowerShell, Python, R, Ruby, Rust, Scala, Solidity, Swift, TOML, TypeScript, WGSL, YAML, and Zig.



#### The Serena JetBrains Plugin



The [Serena JetBrains Plugin](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/28946-serena/)

leverages the powerful code analysis capabilities of your JetBrains IDE.

The plugin naturally supports all programming languages and frameworks that are supported by JetBrains IDEs,

including IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, Android Studio, WebStorm, PhpStorm, RubyMine, GoLand, and potentially others (Rider and CLion are unsupported though).






See our [documentation page](https://oraios.github.io/serena/02-usage/025_jetbrains_plugin.html) for further details and instructions on how to apply the plugin.



### Retrieval



Serena's retrieval tools allow agents to explore codebases at the symbol level, understanding structure and relationships

without reading entire files.



| Capability                       | Language Servers | JetBrains Plugin |

|----------------------------------|------------------|------------------|

| find symbol                      | yes              | yes              |

| symbol overview (file outline)   | yes              | yes              |

| find referencing symbols         | yes              | yes              |

| search in project dependencies   | --               | yes              |

| type hierarchy                   | --               | yes              |

| find declaration                 | --               | yes              |

| find implementations             | --               | yes              |

| query external projects          | yes              | yes              |



### Refactoring



Without precise refactoring tools, agents are forced to resort to unreliable and expensive search and replace operations.



| Capability                                | Language Servers   | JetBrains Plugin                  |

|-------------------------------------------|--------------------|-----------------------------------|

| rename                                    | yes (only symbols) | yes (symbols, files, directories) |

| move (symbol, file, directory)            | --                 | yes                               |

| inline                                    | --                 | yes                               |

| propagate deletions (remove unused code)  | --                 | yes                               |



### Symbolic Editing



Serena's symbolic editing tools are less error-prone and much more token-efficient than typical alternatives.



| Capability             | Language Servers  | JetBrains Plugin |

|------------------------|-------------------|------------------|

| replace symbol body    | yes               | yes              |

| insert after symbol    | yes               | yes              |

| insert before symbol   | yes               | yes              |

| safe delete            | yes               | yes              |



### Basic Features



Beyond its semantic capabilities, Serena includes a set of basic utilities for completeness.

When Serena is used inside an agentic harness such as Claude Code or Codex, these tools are typically disabled by default,

since the surrounding harness already provides overlapping file, search, and shell capabilities.



- **`search_for_pattern`** – flexible regex search across the codebase 

- **`replace_content`** – agent-optimised regex-based and literal text replacement

- **`list_dir` / `find_file`** – directory listing and file search

- **`read_file`** – read files or file chunks

- **`execute_shell_command`** – run shell commands (e.g. builds, tests, linters)



### Memory Management



A memory system is elemental to long-lived agent workflows, especially when knowledge is to be shared across

sessions, users and projects.

Despite its simplicity, we received positive feedback from many users who tend to combine Serena's memory management system with their

agent's internal system (e.g., `AGENTS.md` files).

It can easily be disabled if you prefer to use something else.



### Configurability



Active tools, tool descriptions, prompts, language backend details and many other aspects of Serena

can be flexibly configured on a per-case basis by simply adjusting a few lines of YAML.

To achieve this, Serena offers multiple levels of (composable) configuration:



* global configuration

* MCP launch command (CLI) configuration

* per-project configuration (with local overrides)

* execution context-specific configuration (e.g. for particular clients)

* dynamically composable configuration fragments (modes)



## Serena in Action



#### Demonstration 1: Efficient Operation in Claude Code



A demonstration of Serena efficiently retrieving and editing code within Claude Code, thereby saving tokens and time. Efficient operations are not only useful for saving costs, but also for generally improving the generated code's quality. This effect may be less pronounced in very small projects, but often becomes of crucial importance in larger ones.



https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ab78ebe0-f77d-43cc-879a-cc399efefd87



#### Demonstration 2: Serena in Claude Desktop



A demonstration of Serena implementing a small feature for itself (a better log GUI) with Claude Desktop.

Note how Serena's tools enable Claude to find and edit the right symbols.



https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6eaa9aa1-610d-4723-a2d6-bf1e487ba753



## Quick Start



**Prerequisites**. Serena is managed by *uv*. If you don’t already have it, you need to [install uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/) before proceeding.



> [!NOTE]

> Some language servers require additional dependencies to be installed; see the [Language Support](https://oraios.github.io/serena/01-about/020_programming-languages.html) page for details.



**Starting the MCP Server**. The easiest way to start the Serena MCP server is by running the latest version from GitHub using uvx.

Issue this command to see available options:



```bash

uvx -p 3.13 --from git+https://github.com/oraios/serena serena start-mcp-server --help

```



**Configuring Your Client**. To connect Serena to your preferred MCP client, you typically need to [configure a launch command in your client](https://oraios.github.io/serena/02-usage/030_clients.html).

Follow the link for specific instructions on how to set up Serena for Claude Code, Codex, Claude Desktop, MCP-enabled IDEs and other clients (such as local and web-based GUIs). 



> [!TIP]

> While getting started quickly is easy, Serena is a powerful toolkit with many configuration options.

> We highly recommend reading through the [user guide](https://oraios.github.io/serena/02-usage/000_intro.html) to get the most out of Serena.

> 

> Specifically, we recommend to read about ...

>   * [Serena's project-based workflow](https://oraios.github.io/serena/02-usage/040_workflow.html) and

>   * [configuring Serena](https://oraios.github.io/serena/02-usage/050_configuration.html).



## User Guide



Please refer to the [user guide](https://oraios.github.io/serena/02-usage/000_intro.html) for detailed instructions on how to use Serena effectively.



## Acknowledgements



A significant part of Serena, especially support for various languages, was contributed by the open source community.

We are very grateful for the many contributors who made this possible and who played an important role in making Serena

what it is today.