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[Search & Filtering](/categories/search) 4. / 5. vielhuber/searchhelper ActiveLibrary[Search & Filtering](/categories/search) vielhuber/searchhelper ====================== MCP-capable PHP helper for indexed file search via Everything and plocate. 1.0.3(2w ago)014↓100%MITPHPPHP ^8.3 Since May 26Pushed 2w agoCompare [ Source](https://github.com/vielhuber/searchhelper)[ Packagist](https://packagist.org/packages/vielhuber/searchhelper)[ RSS](/packages/vielhuber-searchhelper/feed)WikiDiscussions main Synced 1w ago READMEChangelogDependencies (2)Versions (5)Used By (0) [![build status](https://github.com/vielhuber/searchhelper/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/vielhuber/searchhelper/actions)[![GitHub Tag](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/1d6244d6a65b9756de72ed8171cedc374ffe6a525f01e4e42158e1c7cad100e4/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f6769746875622f762f7461672f7669656c68756265722f73656172636868656c706572)](https://github.com/vielhuber/searchhelper/tags)[![Code Style](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/1540f8ce219727155ab62506c77b818b720421c22c4cf0b18a5f160942132e2d/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f62616467652f636f64655f7374796c652d7073722d2d31322d6666363962342e737667)](https://www.php-fig.org/psr/psr-12/)[![License](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/f2cb15bd08b9be7692d7811f007690e35e031046b06991d32e697c0ac50fe341/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f6769746875622f6c6963656e73652f7669656c68756265722f73656172636868656c706572)](https://github.com/vielhuber/searchhelper/blob/main/LICENSE.md)[![Last Commit](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/04c44dd4096507eb1bb46cc7eb2e39f6cd7886fa35bcc248a6a0c2c64e24c5c1/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f6769746875622f6c6173742d636f6d6d69742f7669656c68756265722f73656172636868656c706572)](https://github.com/vielhuber/searchhelper/commits)[![PHP Version Support](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/6feb44c4fb78075201f9a5ad0f7ef99a3c0e0d782ef97b25bd3b2be61cc79600/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f7061636b61676973742f7068702d762f7669656c68756265722f73656172636868656c706572)](https://packagist.org/packages/vielhuber/searchhelper)[![Packagist Downloads](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/54e2c4d68c7a11de77165d721bb188cee5c35aa67c2faf50208af7280620d989/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f7061636b61676973742f64742f7669656c68756265722f73656172636868656c706572)](https://packagist.org/packages/vielhuber/searchhelper) 🔎 searchhelper 🔎 ================ [](#-searchhelper-) searchhelper is a small PHP helper and MCP server for indexed file search. it wraps fast host indexes instead of recursively scanning slow mounts: - **Everything** on Windows via its HTTP server - **plocate** on Linux via CLI installation ------------ [](#installation) install once with [composer](https://getcomposer.org): ``` composer require vielhuber/searchhelper ``` then add this to your files: ``` require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php'; use vielhuber\searchhelper\searchhelper; ``` setup ----- [](#setup) searchhelper reads configuration from the `.env` in your project root. ``` SEARCHHELPER_ROOTS=/host/data/documents,/host/data/projects SEARCHHELPER_ENGINES=everything,plocate SEARCHHELPER_EVERYTHING_URL=http://host.docker.internal:8081 SEARCHHELPER_EVERYTHING_USERNAME= SEARCHHELPER_EVERYTHING_PASSWORD= SEARCHHELPER_PATH_MAPPINGS=C:\Data=>/host/data MCP_TOKEN= ``` `SEARCHHELPER_ROOTS` is the final search allowlist. Everything and plocate may index more files, but searchhelper only returns results below these roots. use focused roots like `/host/data/documents`. `SEARCHHELPER_PATH_MAPPINGS` is only needed for Everything. Everything returns Windows paths, while code running in Docker/WSL usually needs Linux paths. usage ----- [](#usage) ``` $search = searchhelper::create(); $result = $search->searchFiles( query: 'project notes', limit: 10 ); print_r($result['items']); ``` everything ---------- [](#everything) 1. install [Everything](https://www.voidtools.com). 2. settings > `HTTP-Server` > enable, Port: `8081` 3. set `SEARCHHELPER_EVERYTHING_URL=http://host.docker.internal:8081` when searchhelper runs in Docker. 4. set `SEARCHHELPER_PATH_MAPPINGS` so Windows result paths can be converted to mounted Linux paths. when Everything returns Windows paths, `SEARCHHELPER_PATH_MAPPINGS` maps them back into the container. example: ``` SEARCHHELPER_PATH_MAPPINGS=C:\Data=>/host/data ``` then a result like `C:\Data\documents\file.pdf` becomes `/host/data/documents/file.pdf`. plocate ------- [](#plocate) `plocate` is mainly useful when searchhelper runs directly on the Linux system that owns the index, for example in WSL. for Docker setups with slow Windows/OneDrive mounts, prefer Everything on the Windows host. short setup in WSL/Linux: ``` apt-get update apt-get install -y plocate updatedb ``` searchhelper executes `plocate` where PHP runs. if the MCP server runs directly in WSL, WSL's `plocate` is used. installing `plocate` inside Docker only helps when the relevant files are on fast container-local or Linux-native mounts. mcp server ---------- [](#mcp-server) searchhelper ships as a standalone MCP server: ``` vendor/bin/mcp-server.php ``` available tools: - `search_files(query, limit?)` - `status()` tests ----- [](#tests) ``` vendor/bin/phpunit ``` ### Health Score 43 — FairBetter than 89% of packages Maintenance98 Actively maintained with recent releases Popularity8 Limited adoption so far Community6 Small or concentrated contributor base Maturity51 Maturing project, gaining track record Bus Factor1 Top contributor holds 100% of commits — single point of failure How is this calculated?**Maintenance (25%)** — Last commit recency, latest release date, and issue-to-star ratio. Uses a 2-year decay window. **Popularity (30%)** — Total and monthly downloads, GitHub stars, and forks. Logarithmic scaling prevents top-heavy scores. **Community (15%)** — Contributors, dependents, forks, watchers, and maintainers. Measures real ecosystem engagement. **Maturity (30%)** — Project age, version count, PHP version support, and release stability. ### Release Activity Cadence Every ~0 days Total 4 Last Release 14d ago ### Community Maintainers ![](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/3183737?v=4)[David Vielhuber](/maintainers/vielhuber)[@vielhuber](https://github.com/vielhuber) --- Top Contributors [![vielhuber](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/3183737?v=4)](https://github.com/vielhuber "vielhuber (4 commits)") ### Code Quality TestsPHPUnit ### Embed Badge ![Health badge](/badges/vielhuber-searchhelper/health.svg) ``` [![Health](https://phpackages.com/badges/vielhuber-searchhelper/health.svg)](https://phpackages.com/packages/vielhuber-searchhelper) ``` ### Alternatives [shyim/opensearch-php-dsl OpenSearch/Elasticsearch DSL library 186.7M12](/packages/shyim-opensearch-php-dsl)[awesome-nova/dependent-filter Dependent filters for Laravel Nova 26190.2k](/packages/awesome-nova-dependent-filter) PHPackages © 2026 [Directory](/)[Categories](/categories)[Trending](/trending)[Changelog](/changelog)[Analyze](/analyze)