ast-grep vs Sensegrep
ast-grep is no longer listed on any marketplace we read: these are its last known data, as of 2026‑10‑23.
ast-grep is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by iowarp. No marketplace we read lists it any more. Sensegrep is an MCP server published by Stahldavid. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Official MCP Registry). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-23. A plugin in this pair is no longer listed on any marketplace we read, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |  Sensegrep | |
|---|---|---|
| Community marketplace iowarp/clio-kit | Removed on 2026-10-16 Version: 0.3.0 Forks (GitHub): 5 Stars (GitHub): 8 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Community marketplace iowarp/clio-coder | Removed on 2026-10-23 Version: 0.3.1 Forks (GitHub): 5 Stars (GitHub): 8 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Official MCP Registry | Not listed | Listed Version: 1.5.3 Downloads/month (npm): 1 550 Downloads/week (npm): 28 Forks (GitHub): 0 Stars (GitHub): 1 Not marked · First seen |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | ast-grepno longer listed · | Sensegrep |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it (differs) | 0 | 1 |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 8 | 1 |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 5 | 0 |
| Last release | Not published | Not published |
| Where it runs (differs) | Installs as a plugin bundle | On your machine (@sensegrep/mcp) |
| Transport (differs) | Not stated | stdio |
| Tools it declares | Not published | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for (differs) | Not published | 3, secrets among them: 1 |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/iowarp/clio-coder | github.com/stahldavid/sensegrep |
| Changes in the last 7 days (differs) | 6 | 0 |
| First seen (differs) | 2026-10-13 | 2026-10-11 |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. No value is marked better or worse: a plugin no marketplace lists any more is shown with its last known data, which we do not rank against current figures.
What to use instead of ast-grep
Plugins still listed whose own names, descriptions, tools and skills are closest in meaning to it. Comparable, not endorsed.
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Guide for writing ast-grep rules to perform structural code search and analysis. Use when users need to search codebases using Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) patterns, find specific…
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ast-grep is a fast and polyglot tool for code structural search, lint, rewriting at large scale.
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Semantic code search for Claude Code. High-performance Rust implementation with automatic project indexing.
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Semantic code search using mgrep for efficient codebase exploration. This skill should be used when searching or exploring codebases with more than 30 non-gitignored files and/or…
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Fast code search for Android/Kotlin/Java, iOS/Swift/ObjC, Dart/Flutter, TypeScript/JavaScript, Rust, Ruby, C#, PHP, Python, Go, Perl, C++, Protocol Buffers, and WSDL/XSD projects
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Find code by describing it, and ask yes/no questions about files, without pulling them into the agent's context.
What each says it does
ast-grep
Structural code search with ast-grep rules: finds code by shape when grep on text is too noisy, and never rewrites it. Not for plain string or filename lookups; use grep or find.
Sensegrep
Semantic + structural code search MCP server for AI-native development.
How to run each
ast-grep
No data for an automatic command: what its marketplaces declare does not say unambiguously how to connect it.
Sensegrep As a local MCP server: npm package
claude mcp add --env "GEMINI_API_KEY=<YOUR_GEMINI_API_KEY>" --transport stdio sensegrep -- npx -y @sensegrep/mcpRequires: GEMINI_API_KEY (secret)
Commands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
Neither one's marketplaces publish a list of tools, so there is nothing to compare.
Settings each asks for
The marketplaces of ast-grep publish no settings it asks for, so we do not compare settings.
What it can do: ast-grep · What it can do: Sensegrep · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from public marketplace files in GitHub repositories of their authors. Data comes from the Official MCP Registry (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io), CC0 1.0. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.