OpenViking Code Repository Search

IMPORTANT: All ov commands are terminal (shell) commands — run them via the bash tool. Execute directly — no pre-checks, no test commands. Handle errors when they occur.

How OpenViking Organizes Data

OpenViking stores content in a virtual filesystem under the viking:// namespace. Each URI maps to a file or directory, e.g. viking://resources/fastapi/routing.py . Each directory has AI-generated summaries (abstract / overview ). The key principle: narrow the URI scope to improve retrieval efficiency. Instead of searching all repos, lock to a specific repo or subdirectory — this reduces noise and speeds up results significantly.

Search Commands

Choose the right command based on what you're looking for:

Command Use when Example

ov search

Semantic search — use for concept/intent based queries "dependency injection", "how auth works"

ov grep

You know the exact keyword or symbol function name, class name, error string

ov glob

You want to enumerate files by pattern all *.py files, all test files

Semantic search

ov search "dependency injection" --uri viking://resources/fastapi --limit 10 ov search "how tokens are refreshed" --uri viking://resources/fastapi/fastapi/security ov search "JWT authentication" --limit 10 # across all repos ov search "error handling" --limit 5 --threshold 0.7 # filter low-relevance results

Keyword search — exact match or regex

ov grep "verify_token" --uri viking://resources/fastapi ov grep "class.*Session" --uri viking://resources/requests/requests

File enumeration — by name pattern (always specify --uri to scope the search)

ov glob "/*.py" --uri viking://resources/fastapi ov glob "/test_.py" --uri viking://resources/fastapi/tests ov glob "**/.py" --uri viking://resources/ # across all repos

Narrowing scope: once you identify a relevant directory, pass it as --uri to restrict subsequent searches to that subtree — this is faster and more precise than searching the whole repo.

Query formulation: write specific, contextual queries rather than single keywords.

ov search "API" # too vague ov search "REST API authentication with JWT tokens" # better ov search "JWT token refresh flow" --uri viking://resources/backend # best

Read Content

Directories: AI-generated summaries

ov abstract viking://resources/fastapi/fastapi/dependencies/ # one-line summary ov overview viking://resources/fastapi/fastapi/dependencies/ # detailed breakdown

Files: raw content

ov read viking://resources/fastapi/fastapi/dependencies/utils.py ov read viking://resources/fastapi/fastapi/dependencies/utils.py --offset 100 --limit 50

abstract / overview only work on directories. read only works on files.

Browse

ov ls viking://resources/ # list all indexed repos ov ls viking://resources/fastapi # list repo top-level contents ov ls viking://resources/fastapi --simple # paths only, no metadata ov ls viking://resources/fastapi --recursive # list all files recursively ov tree viking://resources/fastapi # full directory tree (default: 3 levels deep) ov tree viking://resources/fastapi -L 2 # limit depth to 2 levels ov tree viking://resources/fastapi -l 200 # truncate abstract column to 200 chars ov tree viking://resources/fastapi -L 2 -l 200 # combined: 2 levels deep, 200-char summaries

-L controls how many levels deep the tree expands. -l controls the length of the AI-generated summary per directory. Use ov tree -L 2 -l 200 as a good starting point to understand a repo's structure before diving in.

Add a Repository

ov add-resource https://github.com/owner/repo --to viking://resources/repo --timeout 300

--timeout is required (seconds). Use 300 (5 min) for small repos, increase for larger ones.

After submitting, run ov observer queue once and report status to user. Indexing runs in background — do not poll or wait.

Repo Size Files Est. Time

Small < 100 2–5 min

Medium 100–500 5–20 min

Large 500+ 20–60+ min

Remove a Repository

ov rm viking://resources/fastapi --recursive

This permanently deletes the repo and all its indexed content. Confirm with the user before running.

Error Handling

command not found: ov → Tell user: pip install openviking --upgrade . Stop.

url is required / CLI_CONFIG error → Auto-create config and retry:

mkdir -p ~/.openviking && echo '{"url": "http://localhost:1933"}' > ~/.openviking/ovcli.conf

CONNECTION_ERROR / failed to connect:

• ~/.openviking/ov.conf exists → auto-start server, wait until healthy, retry: openviking-server > /tmp/openviking.log 2>&1 & for i in $(seq 1 10); do ov health 2>/dev/null && break; sleep 3; done

• Does not exist → Tell user to configure ~/.openviking/ov.conf first. Stop.

More Help

For other issues or command details, run:

ov help ov <command> --help # e.g. ov search --help