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semantic_search tool barely used by Kilo Code while local codebase indexing is enabled #10271

Description

@sylwester-liljegren

Description

I have been using Kilo Code with local codebase indexing (implemented by @shssoichiro ) enabled for a great while and I have observed that it barely uses semantic_search at all, even for very open-ended question such as "How is authentication implemented in Kilo Code?". Previously in the legacy version of Kilo Code, it would have used codebase_search (the old name to current semantic_search) for such questions with significantly higher probability.

To provide an example while using Claude Opus 4.6:

I asked Kilo Code to provide me an answer to the prompt "How is authentication implemented for @kilocode-fork/ ?". The first thing it immediately does is to create an Explore Agent that in turn uses glob/grep commands before using a lot of read operations and further glob/grep commands (see the image for full context):

Image

Ideally, it should have started to use the semantic_search tool to get some better suggestions on files it should start digging into using e.g. grep/glob/read, but this is not the case.

I did then confront Kilo Code and asked about why it didn't use semantic_search in this scenario and then I got the following answer:

Image

It seems to me that it treats e.g. Explore Agent and semantic_search tool as opposing to each other and only one of them can be used at a time during the session instead of using these two altogether as separate calls. If my memory isn't betraying me here, surely do the subagents have access to semantic_search that they could call? Strange that the Explore Agent seems to omit the semantic_search tool when not explicitly asked to do use it.

Plugins

VS Code

Kilo version

7.2.52

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Operating System

Windows 11

Terminal

Git Bash in Windows Terminal

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