ACE-Tool - Semantic Code Search & Prompt Enhancement

High-performance semantic search, code indexing, and AI-powered prompt enhancement. Standalone CLI (no MCP dependency).

Execution Methods

# Prerequisites: pip install httpx tenacity
# Environment: ACE_API_URL, ACE_API_TOKEN (optional for local fallback)

# Index project for remote search (upload code blobs to ACE service)
python scripts/ace_cli.py index -p /path/to/project

# Search codebase with natural language (remote if API configured, else local fallback)
python scripts/ace_cli.py search_context -p /path/to/project -q "function that handles authentication"

# Enhance prompt (interactive mode - default, opens browser)
python scripts/ace_cli.py enhance_prompt -p "implement login feature" -H "User: what auth method?\nAssistant: JWT"

# Enhance prompt (non-interactive, JSON output)
python scripts/ace_cli.py enhance_prompt --no-interactive -p "implement login feature"

# Enhance prompt with project context (enables cloud retrieval for all endpoints)
python scripts/ace_cli.py enhance_prompt -p "implement login feature" --project-root /path/to/project

# Enhance prompt with specific endpoint
python scripts/ace_cli.py --endpoint claude enhance_prompt -p "implement login feature"

# Enhance prompt with codex endpoint
python scripts/ace_cli.py --endpoint codex enhance_prompt -p "implement feature"

# Check configuration
python scripts/ace_cli.py get_config

Tool Routing Policy

Prefer ACE-Tool Over Built-in Tools

When to Use Built-in Tools

• Exact string matching (known identifiers)
• File path patterns (known naming conventions)
• Simple text replacement

Command Reference

index

Index project files for remote codebase retrieval. Scans, hashes, chunks large files, and uploads to the ACE batch-upload API. Uses incremental indexing with gzip JSON cache at .ace-tool/index.json.gz. Respects both .gitignore and .aceignore patterns.

python scripts/ace_cli.py index -p <project_root>

Options:
  -p, --project-root    Project root path (required)

search_context

Search codebase using natural language descriptions. Routes to remote API (POST /agents/codebase-retrieval) when configured, with automatic local keyword fallback.

python scripts/ace_cli.py search_context -p <project_root> -q <query>

Options:
  -p, --project-root    Project root path (required)
  -q, --query           Natural language query (required)

enhance_prompt

Enhance prompts with codebase context and conversation history. All endpoints inject cloud retrieval context when --project-root is provided. Third-party endpoints additionally support search context injection via PROMPT_ENHANCER_INCLUDE_SEARCH_CONTEXT.

python scripts/ace_cli.py [--endpoint TYPE] enhance_prompt -p <prompt> [options]

Global Options:
  --endpoint            Endpoint type: new, old, claude, openai, gemini, codex (default: new)
  --api-url             Override API base URL
  --token               Override API token

Command Options:
  -p, --prompt          Original prompt (required)
  -H, --history         Conversation history: "User: xxx\nAssistant: yyy"
  --history-file        File containing conversation history
  --project-root        Project root path (enables cloud retrieval context)
  --no-interactive      Disable web UI, output JSON directly
  --no-browser          Don't auto-open browser, just print URL
  --port                Port for web server (default: 8765)

get_config

Show current configuration status including endpoint resolution, env readiness, and search context injection state.

python scripts/ace_cli.py get_config

Output fields: base_url, endpoint, endpoint_effective, endpoint_env_ready, token_configured, third_party_configured, search_context_injection.

Interactive Enhancement

Default mode opens web UI with actions:

Keyboard Shortcuts: Ctrl+Enter Send | Esc Cancel

Endpoint Architecture

Supported Endpoints

Endpoint Resolution Order

PROMPT_ENHANCER_ENDPOINT > ACE_ENHANCER_ENDPOINT (legacy) > --endpoint CLI flag > new (default)

Third-Party Endpoints

claude, openai, gemini, codex are third-party endpoints. They require:

• PROMPT_ENHANCER_BASE_URL — API base URL
• PROMPT_ENHANCER_TOKEN — API key/token
• PROMPT_ENHANCER_MODEL — (optional) override default model

Missing configuration raises ValueError immediately (hard error, no silent fallback).

URL Construction

All HTTP calls use build_api_url(base_url, path) which handles /v1/, /v1beta/ version prefix deduplication. No hardcoded f-string URL construction.

Environment Variables

Search Context Injection

When PROMPT_ENHANCER_INCLUDE_SEARCH_CONTEXT is enabled and a third-party endpoint is used, the system automatically:

1. Performs a remote codebase search via ACE API using the original prompt as query
2. Normalizes the result (placeholder if empty, truncate at 12000 chars if too long)
3. Wraps the search results in <codebase_context> XML tags
4. Wraps the original prompt in <original_request> XML tags
5. Sends the combined prompt to the third-party LLM

Requires --project-root and valid ACE_API_URL/ACE_API_TOKEN. Raises ValueError if project_root is missing when injection is enabled.

.aceignore

Place a .aceignore file in the project root to exclude additional patterns from code indexing (beyond .gitignore). Uses the same glob syntax as .gitignore. Patterns from both files are merged (union). Comments (#) and empty lines are skipped.

# .aceignore example
test_fixtures/
*.generated.ts
large_data/
node_modules/
.*/
logs/
tests/

Workflow

Phase 0: Index Project (once or after major changes)

index -p .                                            # Upload code blobs to ACE

Phase 1: Semantic Search

search_context -p . -q "database connection pooling"  # Remote retrieval or local fallback

Phase 2: Prompt Enhancement

enhance_prompt -p "optimize query performance" --project-root .  # With cloud context
# Review and refine enhanced prompt
# Use Regenerate/Refine as needed
# Send Enhanced to confirm

Error Handling

{"error": "error message", "status_code": 401}

Anti-Patterns