Ace tool

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

Task	Avoid	Use ACE-Tool CLI
Find function by purpose	grep "def func"	search_context -q "function that..."
Locate feature code	find . -name "*.py"	search_context -q "feature description"
Clarify requirements	Manual analysis	enhance_prompt -p "requirement"
Understand code flow	Multiple grep/read	search_context -q "flow description"
Index codebase	N/A	index -p <project_root>

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. If a parent directory already has a .ace-tool cache (lookup stops before home / filesystem root), it is reused as the effective index root; child caches in subtrees covered by the root's scan are absorbed (deleted) after a successful index save. Concurrent runs need no locks: a save interrupted by a concurrent absorption abandons persistence (the next run inherits the ancestor root), and absorption skips caches it cannot delete, retrying on the next run. A 400 unknown blobs response during remote search triggers an automatic index rebuild, re-upload, and a single retry.

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, authentication source, and search context injection state.

python scripts/ace_cli.py get_config

Output fields:

• base_url - Currently configured API base URL
• endpoint - Active enhancer endpoint (new/old/claude/openai/gemini/codex)
• endpoint_effective - Resolved endpoint after env variable resolution
• endpoint_env_ready - Whether required endpoint configuration is complete
• token_configured - Whether authentication token is set
• third_party_configured - Whether third-party endpoint config is complete
• auth_source - Authentication source: constructor | session.json | AUGMENT_SESSION_AUTH | ACE_API_TOKEN | none
• search_context_injection - Whether search context injection is enabled

Interactive Enhancement

Default mode opens web UI with actions:

Button	Action
Regenerate	Discard current, generate new enhancement from original prompt
Refine	Iteratively improve current version, preserving your edits
Use Original	Return the original prompt without enhancement
Send Enhanced	Confirm and use the current enhanced prompt
Cancel	Abort the enhancement process

Keyboard Shortcuts: Ctrl+Enter Send | Esc Cancel

Endpoint Architecture

Supported Endpoints

Endpoint	API Path	Default Model	Auth Header	Status
new	/prompt-enhancer	claude-sonnet-4-5	Bearer ACE_API_TOKEN	⚠️ Currently unavailable
old	/chat-stream (SSE)	claude-sonnet-4-5	Bearer ACE_API_TOKEN	⚠️ Currently unavailable
claude	/v1/messages	sonnet-4-6-20250929	x-api-key	✅ Available
openai	/v1/chat/completions	gpt-5.4	Bearer PROMPT_ENHANCER_TOKEN	✅ Available
gemini	/v1beta/models/{model}:generateContent	gemini-3-flash-preview	x-goog-api-key	✅ Available
codex	/v1/responses	gpt-5.4	Bearer PROMPT_ENHANCER_TOKEN	✅ Available

Note: The official Augment endpoints (new and old) are currently experiencing service issues. Use third-party endpoints for prompt enhancement.

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

Authentication (Priority Order)

ACE-Tool supports multiple authentication methods with the following priority:

1. Constructor parameters (highest priority, programmatic use only)
2. ~/.augment/session.json (recommended, created by auggie login)
3. AUGMENT_SESSION_AUTH (CI/CD and headless environments)
4. Legacy ACE_API_* (deprecated, backward compatibility only)

Variable	Description
AUGMENT_SESSION_AUTH	JSON string with accessToken and tenantURL (new format, recommended for CI/CD)
ACE_API_URL	⚠️ Deprecated - ACE API base URL (use session.json or AUGMENT_SESSION_AUTH instead)
ACE_API_TOKEN	⚠️ Deprecated - ACE API authentication token (use session.json or AUGMENT_SESSION_AUTH instead)

Recommended: Use ~/.augment/session.json

Create this file via auggie login, or manually with this format:

{
  "accessToken": "your-token-here",
  "tenantURL": "https://api.example.com/",
  "scopes": ["email"]
}

For CI/CD: Use AUGMENT_SESSION_AUTH environment variable

export AUGMENT_SESSION_AUTH='{"accessToken":"token","tenantURL":"https://api.example.com/"}'

Migration Guide: Legacy to New Format

If currently using ACE_API_URL and ACE_API_TOKEN:

1. Option A (Recommended): Use auggie login to create ~/.augment/session.json
2. Option B: Convert to AUGMENT_SESSION_AUTH:

   export AUGMENT_SESSION_AUTH='{"accessToken":"YOUR_ACE_API_TOKEN","tenantURL":"YOUR_ACE_API_URL"}'
   

3. Remove old variables (optional, they'll be ignored if new format exists)

Legacy variables continue to work for backward compatibility but are not recommended for new setups.

Endpoint Configuration

Variable	Description
PROMPT_ENHANCER_ENDPOINT	Endpoint override: new, old, claude, openai, gemini, codex
ACE_ENHANCER_ENDPOINT	Legacy endpoint override (fallback if PROMPT_ENHANCER_ENDPOINT not set)
PROMPT_ENHANCER_BASE_URL	Third-party API base URL (for claude/openai/gemini/codex endpoints)
PROMPT_ENHANCER_TOKEN	Third-party API token
PROMPT_ENHANCER_MODEL	Override default model for third-party endpoints
PROMPT_ENHANCER_INCLUDE_SEARCH_CONTEXT	Enable search context injection for third-party endpoints (1, true, yes, on)

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}

Error	Recovery
No API configured	Uses local fallback for search_context; returns original for enhance
Token invalid (401)	Check API token (logged at ERROR level)
Access denied (403)	Token may be disabled (logged at ERROR level)
Upload failure	Index rollback to previous state; cached blobs still returned
Connection timeout	Retries up to 3 times with exponential backoff
No results	Broaden search query
Third-party not configured	ValueError raised immediately (no silent fallback)
Search context missing project_root	ValueError raised when injection enabled without --project-root

Anti-Patterns

Prohibited	Correct
Grep before semantic search	Use search_context first
Skip prompt enhancement	Use enhance_prompt for complex tasks
Ignore conversation history	Include history in enhance_prompt
Use exact match for conceptual search	Use natural language query
Always use non-interactive mode	Use interactive mode for review
Skip --project-root for enhance	Include it for cloud-based code context