GitHits FAQ

GitHits is the code context layer for AI coding agents. It gives agents tools to search open-source code and documentation, read exact source files, inspect packages, check vulnerabilities, review changes, compare upgrades, and find prior art.

GitHits can search and navigate open-source repositories whether or not they are published as packages. Package-specific tools, such as dependency, vulnerability, license, changelog, and upgrade inspection, are available for supported package ecosystems.

To get started, run npx -y githits@latest init. GitHits detects your coding tool, signs you in, and configures the MCP server automatically.

GitHits is useful when a task calls for context from open-source code, documentation, or package data. Common cases include researching an integration, understanding how a library works, investigating version-specific behavior, checking a package, or finding prior art.

During setup, the GitHits CLI wizard can install guidance that tells your agent when and how to use GitHits. You can also ask the agent to use GitHits explicitly.

GitHits indexes open-source repositories, documentation, and package data by package version or repository ref. When an agent asks for a specific target, GitHits resolves it to the corresponding commit and makes that source queryable.

The index records files, symbols, imports, call relationships, and documentation, so the agent can search and read the exact code it needs.

Fixed package versions and commits remain tied to the same underlying source. GitHits may re-index them as its parsing and search improve, but the source itself does not change.

Moving refs, such as branches and HEAD, follow the repository and update as it changes.

GitHits uses GitHub authentication to identify your account. Signing in does not give GitHits access to your private repositories.

No. GitHits does not access, index, search, or store your private repository code.

Your coding agent works with the code in your local repository. GitHits provides context from open-source code, documentation, and package data.

No. GitHits does not use your code, prompts, outputs, or personal data to train AI models. Service data is processed only to provide GitHits and remains governed by our Privacy Policy and Data Processing Agreement.

GitHits retrieves indexed open-source code, documentation, package data, changelogs, vulnerability data, and examples. It does not modify your code.

Its search infrastructure and MCP tools include guardrails intended to reduce prompt injection and other malicious-content risks. No external source should be treated as automatically safe, and developers should review generated code before shipping it.

For code, documentation, and package queries, the agent specifies a package, version, repository, or ref. GitHits resolves that target to indexed source and package data.

For prior art, GitHits ranks open-source examples using relevance and repository signals such as activity, adoption, maintenance, and license status. License filters are applied before examples are selected, and results link back to their sources.

Prior-art searches use strict license filtering by default. This excludes repositories with copyleft licenses and repositories that do not declare a license. You can relax these restrictions or disable license filtering.

Package inspection also reports license information, so agents can check a dependency's license before recommending or using it.