Workspace MCP mode

In workspace mode, every one of the seven MCP tools takes an extra repo parameter. The default repo (set by repowise workspace set-default) is targeted when repo is omitted — just like single-repo mode.

Three ways to address a workspace

Examples

# Get an architecture summary of the whole workspace
get_overview(repo="all")

# Search every repo at once
search_codebase("authentication flow", repo="all")

# Risk assessment in a specific repo
get_risk(targets=["src/auth/service.py"], repo="backend")

# Decision archaeology across repos
get_why("why caching?", repo="all")

How federated queries work

Each tool implements repo="all" slightly differently:

• get_overview(repo="all") — returns workspace-level totals (repos, files, symbols), per-repo dependency graph, and cross-repo topology / contract links.
• search_codebase(repo="all") — runs the search in each repo and merges results with Reciprocal Rank Fusion (k=60).
• get_dead_code(repo="all") — aggregates findings via RRF; applies a cross-repo confidence adjustment when a "dead" symbol has external consumers.
• get_why(repo="all") — keyword search across every repo's decision records (capped at 15 merged results).
• get_context and get_risk — when the target lives in repo A but has cross-repo co-change partners or contract consumers in repos B and C, those signals are appended to the response.

Setting the default

repowise workspace set-default backend

The default determines what repo-less queries hit. Set it to whichever repo your team works in most often.

Single endpoint, no extra setup

repowise init . at the workspace root writes a single .mcp.json that points at the workspace MCP server. Your editor doesn't need to know which repo it's targeting — the tools handle routing.