Overview
Serena is an open-source toolkit that gives your AI coding agent the kind of code understanding a developer gets from an IDE. Instead of treating source as plain text, it works at the symbol level, so the agent can find a function, list everything that references it, and edit it without reading whole files.
It connects to any LLM client through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Terminal tools like Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini CLI, IDE assistants in VS Code, Cursor, and JetBrains, and desktop clients can all use Serena's tools. Serena supplies the tools; the LLM you already use does the actual reasoning and orchestration.
Under the hood, Serena relies on language servers (the free default backend) covering more than 40 programming languages, with an optional paid JetBrains plugin backend for deeper analysis. This lets an agent stay fast and reliable even in large, complex codebases.
What it does
- Symbol-level code retrieval: find symbols, view file outlines, and locate every reference without loading entire files
- Precise refactoring and editing tools that replace fragile, error-prone search-and-replace operations
- Connects to any MCP-capable client (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, VS Code, Cursor, JetBrains, Claude Desktop, and more)
- Language-server backend with support for over 40 programming languages, used by default and fully open source
- Optional paid JetBrains plugin backend that reuses your IDE's code analysis for all JetBrains-supported languages
- A memory system for long-lived agent workflows, with a layered configuration system to adapt to your needs
Getting started
Serena is managed by uv, so installing uv is the only prerequisite. After that you install the Serena agent, initialise it, then point your MCP client at it.
Install Serena with uv
Install the Serena agent as a uv tool. Once it finishes, the serena command is available in your shell.
uv tool install -p 3.13 serena-agentInitialise and verify your setup
Run init to set up Serena and confirm everything works. By default this uses the open-source language server backend; add -b JetBrains to use the JetBrains plugin backend instead.
serena initConnect your MCP client
Configure a launch command for Serena's MCP server in your client (Claude Code, Codex, Claude Desktop, or an MCP-enabled IDE), or start the server in HTTP mode and give the client its URL. See the Serena docs for the exact per-client setup.
Commands and code are distilled from the project's own documentation — always check the official repo for the latest.
When to use it
- Give a terminal coding agent like Claude Code or Codex IDE-grade navigation so cross-file renames, moves, and reference lookups become single reliable calls
- Help an agent work confidently in large or multi-language codebases by finding the right context at the symbol level instead of scanning whole files
- Perform safe refactors and edits driven by an LLM without relying on brittle text search-and-replace
- Add semantic code search and editing tools to MCP-enabled IDEs such as VS Code, Cursor, or JetBrains
How Serena compares
Serena alongside other open-source autonomous coding agents tools AI/TLDR tracks, ranked by GitHub stars.
| Tool | Stars | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| opencode | ★ 176k | OpenCode is an open source AI coding agent that runs in your terminal, with built-in build and plan agents and an optional desktop app. |
| Gemini CLI | ★ 105k | An open-source command-line AI agent from Google that connects your terminal to Gemini models for reading code, editing files, running shell commands, and searching the web. |
| OpenHands | ★ 77.8k | An open-source AI software-development agent that plans tasks, edits files, runs commands, and tests code, usable from a terminal CLI, a local web GUI, or a Python SDK. |
| Goose | ★ 49.8k | Goose is an open-source AI agent that runs on your machine for code, research, automation, and more, with a desktop app, CLI, and API built in Rust. |
| Continue | ★ 34.1k | Continue is an open-source coding agent available as a CLI, VS Code extension, and JetBrains plugin, plus version-controlled AI checks that run on pull requests in CI. |
| Vibe Kanban | ★ 27.1k | Vibe Kanban lets you plan tasks on a kanban board, run coding agents like Claude Code and Codex in isolated workspaces, then review their diffs and ship pull requests. |
| Serena | ★ 25.6k | Semantic code tools that turn your coding agent into an IDE |
| Crush | ★ 25.5k | Crush is a terminal coding agent from Charm. It connects your code, tools, and workflows to any OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible LLM, with LSP context and MCP plugins. |