The full upstream README, mirrored here for reference. Install config, tool schemas, adoption signals, and an original overview live on the Cortex listing page.
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Cortex is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes semantic search over a local knowledge base. It lets Claude, Codex and Gemini find the right passage in your documents without wasting their context window. Search is semantic (by meaning, not keyword), in French and in English. Cortex processes and indexes the knowledge base locally without sending its content; the MCP client may still pass requested chunks to its model under its own policy. The optional Confluence writer only downloads explicitly allowlisted spaces; the generated Markdown, vector index, and lexical index remain local.
Starting with 2026.0906.01, Companion offers a guided home screen, operation history and Confluence setup from one page or space link. Connection and measured scope confirmation stay in the flow; successful collection is followed by indexing. Use the combined installer to keep Cortex and Companion compatible.
With paired version 2026.0909.02, Confluence updates preserve the served generation when subtree enumeration fails and apply changed target/classification settings on retry. Search uses multilingual vector retrieval by default; CLI and MCP callers can explicitly select hybrid or reranked search. The first successful collection after upgrading regenerates older publication revisions, and the following sync removes obsolete index entries.
Companion brings local documents and Confluence together in My sources, with one Update my documents action. Search previews are resizable, large page trees render visible rows, and cancelling review preparation keeps the draft. Readiness now follows the saved document folder and configuration, including after restart. Run one document update after upgrading to establish this evidence for older indexes. See the release notes.
Adding a Confluence source measures its page, subtree and whole-space scopes with one indexed count each instead of reading the space page by page. On a 5916-page space that measurement took 3 min 19 s, past the timeout of every graphical caller, so Companion showed nothing at all. It now answers in about a second, and the emitted contract is unchanged.
Two whole-space numbers shift by one as a result: the resolved page is no longer folded into the space total, and a space with no visible page reports zero rather than one. A deployment whose search endpoint returns no total cannot measure a scope and reports that as a permanent failure instead of a retryable one. See the contracts.
Paired Companion 2026.0907.00 restores the contrast of the scope window, whose options were drawn in the system text colour, and stops reporting a timeout as a connection failure or advising a delay increase that silently reverts.
The workflow includes search, remote page trees, impact review, evidence-based readiness, save-and-update, last-removal undo and recovery actions. See the contracts.
Paired version 2026.0906.02 provides visible My sources cards, a prefilled selection editor, confirmed page/space removal and browser links to originals. Removal only changes Cortex tracking; search reflects it after successful collection and indexing.
Removing the final source explicitly writes spaces = [] in a schema v2 or v3
configuration. This intentional empty allowlist permits an empty publication
with tombstones for prior documents. An absent spaces key remains incomplete
configuration and collection is refused. Connection and credential validation
and publication safeguards still apply. Both updated components are required;
this capability is absent from the installed 2026.0906.01 release.
The simplest path: one installer for Cortex, Cortex Companion, the windowless Confluence converter, and the offline models. No separate Python or .NET runtime is required.
Cortex-Setup.exe and SHA256SUMS from the
latest release.Get-FileHash .\Cortex-Setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256 in PowerShell and verify
that it exactly matches the Cortex-Setup.exe line in SHA256SUMS.More info, then Run anyway.Index everything in this folder, and finish. Cortex Companion opens when installation completes.
Indexing only starts when you request synchronization in Companion.Settings and verify the knowledge-base folder. The
Cortex executable installed with Companion is detected automatically.Local database, then select
Synchronize local documents.Companion then lets you synchronize, schedule, diagnose, and configure Cortex without a terminal. Details, silent mode and reinstall: Windows install.
Every release also ships one ZIP archive per platform. It contains the single
cortex or cortex.exe binary (MCP server + CLI, no Python) and the licenses
for every embedded dependency. See
Standalone distribution.
This path installs the CLI and MCP server, but not Cortex Companion. The model is downloaded on first use if its cache is empty.
install.bat initializes the configuration, installs the dependencies, offers
to register Cortex in the detected MCP clients, and validates the installation.
Details: Setup.
The embedding model is the multilingual ONNX
paraphrase-multilingual-MiniLM-L12-v2. The Windows installer bundles it; a
source installation or standalone binary downloads it when the local cache is
empty.
knowledge, projects, notes).These modes govern the user-selected document folder. Generated ingestion
documents are indexed separately from the current published generation with
source_kind=doc and section sources.
Details: Configuration.
cortex commandThe installed package exposes a single command:
| Subcommand | Purpose |
|---|---|
cortex setup | Config + index + client registration in one go (--kb-path, --yes, --no-index, --reset). |
cortex serve | Runs the MCP server (used by clients). |
cortex sync | Incremental index synchronization. |
cortex search | Searches the index from the console (debugging aid). |
cortex ingestion | Shows source health and whether catch-up is due. |
cortex confluence | Stores the PAT interactively or runs the allowlisted writer. |
cortex config | Reads or changes configuration through an atomic JSON contract, notably for Companion. |
cortex bundle | Describes or verifies an encrypted portable archive. |
cortex doctor | Installation diagnostics (read-only). |
cortex register / cortex unregister | Adds or removes Cortex from MCP clients. |
cortex init | Creates the single per-user configuration. |
cortex check | Verifies the installation. |
cortex --help describes every subcommand and cortex <command> --help describes
its options. A prompt-free installation scripts as:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
cortex_search | Multilingual vector search by default; optional retrieval_mode (vector, hybrid, rerank). Parameters: query, section, top_k (1-10), source/author filters, and occurred/updated date ranges. |
cortex_sync | Triggers an incremental sync of the selected folder and, on a full sync, the current published document generation. |
cortex_list_sections | Lists included sections and "out of policy" folders. |
cortex_freshness | Read-only vault and ingestion freshness summary. Parameters: section (optional), include_entries (false by default). |
config.toml, indexing modes,
sections, data home, migration.requirements.lock,
--require-hashes, regenerating the lock.| Path | Requirements |
|---|---|
| Windows installer | No separate Python or .NET runtime. At least ~500 MB of space (applications, model + index). |
| Standalone archive | No Python. ~500 MB of space (model + index). |
| From source | Python 3.10+. ~500 MB of space. |
| Client | Claude Desktop/Code, Codex, Gemini, Antigravity, LM Studio, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code (MCP support). |
Apache 2.0. See LICENSE.
See the validation guide for the desktop JSON search contract, the isolated FR/EN relevance corpus, performance measurements and exact paired-commit checks.