GrepAI Watch Daemon

This skill covers the grepai watch command and daemon management for real-time code indexing.

When to Use This Skill

• Starting initial code indexing
• Setting up real-time file monitoring
• Running the daemon in background
• Troubleshooting indexing issues

What the Watch Daemon Does

The watch daemon:

1. Scans all source files in your project
2. Chunks code into segments (~512 tokens)
3. Generates embeddings via your configured provider
4. Stores vectors in your configured backend
5. Monitors for file changes in real-time
6. Updates the index when files change

Basic Usage

Start Watching (Foreground)

cd /your/project
grepai watch

Output:

🔍 GrepAI Watch
   Scanning files...
   Found 245 files
   Processing chunks...
   ████████████████████████████████ 100%
   Indexed 1,234 chunks
   Watching for changes...

Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Start in Background

grepai watch --background

Output:

🔍 GrepAI Watch (background)
   Daemon started with PID 12345
   Log file: ~/.grepai/daemon.log

Check Daemon Status

grepai watch --status

Output:

✅ GrepAI Daemon Running

   PID: 12345
   Started: 2025-01-28 10:30:00
   Project: /path/to/project

   Statistics:
   - Files indexed: 245
   - Chunks: 1,234
   - Last update: 2 minutes ago

Stop the Daemon

grepai watch --stop

Output:

✅ Daemon stopped (PID 12345)

Command Reference

Command	Description
grepai watch	Start daemon in foreground
grepai watch --background	Start daemon in background
grepai watch --status	Check daemon status
grepai watch --stop	Stop running daemon

Configuration

Watch Settings

# .grepai/config.yaml
watch:
  # Debounce delay in milliseconds
  # Groups rapid file changes together
  debounce_ms: 500

Debounce Explained

When you save a file, editors often write multiple times quickly. Debouncing waits for changes to settle:

Value	Behavior
100	More responsive, more reindexing
500	Balanced (default)
1000	Less responsive, fewer reindexing

Initial Indexing

What Gets Indexed

The daemon indexes files:

• Matching supported extensions (.go, .js, .ts, .py, etc.)
• Not in ignore patterns (node_modules, .git, etc.)
• Respecting .gitignore

Indexing Progress

Large codebases show progress:

Scanning files...
Found 10,245 files
Processing chunks...
████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 50% (5,122/10,245)

Indexing Time Estimates

Codebase	Files	Time (Ollama)	Time (OpenAI)
Small	100	~30s	~10s
Medium	1,000	~5min	~1min
Large	10,000	~30min	~5min

Real-Time Monitoring

After initial indexing, the daemon watches for:

• File creation
• File modification
• File deletion
• File renames

File Change Detection

Uses OS-native file watching:

• macOS: FSEvents
• Linux: inotify
• Windows: ReadDirectoryChangesW

What Triggers Reindexing

Action	Result
Save existing file	Re-embed file chunks
Create new file	Index new chunks
Delete file	Remove from index
Rename file	Update path, keep vectors

Background Daemon Management

Starting on System Boot

macOS (launchd)

Create ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.grepai.watch.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.grepai.watch</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/grepai</string>
        <string>watch</string>
    </array>
    <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
    <string>/path/to/your/project</string>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Load:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.grepai.watch.plist

Linux (systemd)

Create ~/.config/systemd/user/grepai-watch.service:

[Unit]
Description=GrepAI Watch Daemon
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/your/project
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/grepai watch
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Enable:

systemctl --user enable grepai-watch
systemctl --user start grepai-watch

Checking Logs

# Background daemon logs
tail -f ~/.grepai/daemon.log

# Or with systemd
journalctl --user -u grepai-watch -f

Multiple Projects

One Daemon Per Project

Run separate daemons for each project:

# Terminal 1: Project A
cd /path/to/project-a
grepai watch --background

# Terminal 2: Project B
cd /path/to/project-b
grepai watch --background

Using Workspaces

For multi-project setups:

grepai workspace create my-workspace
grepai workspace add my-workspace /path/to/project-a
grepai workspace add my-workspace /path/to/project-b
grepai watch --workspace my-workspace

Troubleshooting

Daemon Won't Start

❌ Problem: "Another daemon is already running"
✅ Solution:

grepai watch --stop
grepai watch --background

❌ Problem: "Config not found"
✅ Solution: Initialize first:

grepai init
grepai watch

❌ Problem: "Embedder connection failed"
✅ Solution: Start your embedding provider:

ollama serve  # For Ollama

Indexing Issues

❌ Problem: Files not being indexed
✅ Solution: Check ignore patterns in config, ensure file extension is supported

❌ Problem: Indexing very slow
✅ Solutions:

• Use OpenAI for faster cloud embeddings
• Add more ignore patterns
• Increase chunking size

❌ Problem: Index seems outdated
✅ Solution: Clear and reindex:

rm .grepai/index.gob
grepai watch

File Watch Issues

❌ Problem: Changes not detected
✅ Solutions:

• Reduce debounce_ms
• Check inotify limits (Linux):

  echo 65536 | sudo tee /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches
  

Best Practices

1. Run in background: For continuous monitoring
2. Use workspace for monorepos: Better organization
3. Set up auto-start: launchd or systemd
4. Check logs periodically: Monitor for errors
5. Reindex after config changes: Especially after changing embedding model

Status Check

Regular health check:

grepai status

Output:

✅ GrepAI Status

   Project: /path/to/project
   Config: .grepai/config.yaml

   Embedder: Ollama (nomic-embed-text)
   Storage: GOB (.grepai/index.gob)

   Index:
   - Files: 245
   - Chunks: 1,234
   - Size: 12.5 MB
   - Last updated: 2025-01-28 10:30:00

   Daemon: Running (PID 12345)

Output Format

Watch daemon status:

✅ Watch Daemon Active

   Mode: Background
   PID: 12345
   Project: /path/to/project

   Initial Index:
   - Files scanned: 245
   - Chunks created: 1,234
   - Duration: 45s

   Real-time Monitor:
   - Debounce: 500ms
   - Events processed: 23
   - Last event: 5 minutes ago

   Next steps:
   - Run 'grepai search "query"' to search
   - Run 'grepai watch --status' to check status
   - Run 'grepai watch --stop' to stop daemon