unified-search-mcp

A lightweight Rust MCP server that searches Slack, Confluence, JIRA, GitHub, and local files in parallel from a single tool call.

Why

Developer knowledge is scattered across Slack threads, Confluence pages, JIRA tickets, and local codebases. Finding "what did we decide about X?" means manually searching 4+ systems.

This MCP server gives your AI assistant one unified_search tool that fans out queries to all sources in parallel, merges results with configurable ranking, and returns a single ranked list with comments included.

Features

• Parallel fan-out -- all sources queried simultaneously via tokio
• Cross-source ranking -- weighted relevance scoring with deduplication
• Comments included -- JIRA and Confluence search results automatically include recent comments
• Deep-dive lookups -- get_detail fetches full JIRA tickets, Confluence pages, Slack threads, or GitHub PRs/issues with all comments, reviews, linked issues, subtasks, child pages, and thread replies
• Auto-detection -- pass a JIRA key (FIN-1234), Atlassian URL, Slack permalink, or GitHub PR URL and the tool figures out what to fetch
• GitHub integration -- search PRs, issues, and code across repos via gh CLI; get_detail returns full PR with reviews, line comments, and CI status
• Response caching -- in-memory LRU cache with configurable TTL (default 5min) eliminates redundant API calls; no_cache parameter for forced refresh
• Rich Confluence output -- get_detail preserves Markdown structure (headings, tables, lists, code blocks, Confluence macros) instead of stripping to plain text
• Metrics & adoption tracking -- JSONL telemetry + --stats CLI to see how often the tool is used vs individual MCPs
• 6 source adapters -- Slack, Confluence, JIRA, GitHub, local files (ripgrep), with a plugin architecture for adding more
• Lean -- single binary, ~7MB, ~12MB RAM, 6ms startup
• Preflight check -- --verify validates all credentials, scopes, and paths before first use

Why This Over Individual MCPs?

Most teams run separate JIRA, Confluence, and Slack MCP servers -- each a Node.js process with its own dependencies, memory footprint, and tool surface. To answer "what did we decide about X?", your AI assistant makes 4-5 sequential tool calls across multiple MCPs, each waiting for the previous one to finish.

unified-search-mcp replaces all of that with a single Rust binary.

Benchmarks (measured, not estimated)

Metric	Individual MCPs (Node.js)	unified-search-mcp (Rust)	Improvement
Disk footprint	~66MB (33MB JIRA + 33MB Confluence node_modules)	8MB single binary	8x smaller
Startup time	~1.9s (Node.js + V8 init + npm resolve)	6ms	300x faster
Runtime memory	~50-80MB per Node.js MCP process	~8-12MB	5-8x less
Processes needed	3 separate servers (JIRA + Confluence + Slack)	1 server	3x fewer
npm dependencies	~98 packages per server	0 (static binary)	No supply chain risk

Tool call efficiency

To answer "what context exists about topic X?":

Approach	Tool calls	Wall-clock time	Comments included?
Individual MCPs (sequential)	4-5 calls (jira_get, jira_get, conf_get, conf_get, ...)	~1.4s+	No -- separate calls needed
unified-search-mcp	1 call (unified_search)	~500ms	Yes -- inline in results
Deep dive after search	+1 call (get_detail FIN-1234)	+350ms	Full comments, linked issues, subtasks

What you get that individual MCPs don't

• Cross-system search in one call -- Slack + Confluence + JIRA + local code, ranked together
• Comments by default -- no extra round-trips to "get comments for this ticket"
• Slack thread resolution -- paste a Slack permalink, get the full thread with replies
• Adoption metrics -- --stats shows whether your AI assistant is actually using unified-search or falling back to individual MCPs
• Per-source latency in every response -- see exactly which source is slow

Prerequisites

Pre-built binaries are available for macOS and Linux -- no Rust needed. If building from source:

Rust toolchain (1.80+):

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source ~/.cargo/env

Optional: ripgrep for faster local file search:

brew install ripgrep   # macOS
# or: cargo install ripgrep

Quick Start

One-click install (recommended)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ganesh-tt/unified-search-mcp/master/install.sh | bash

Downloads a pre-built binary for your platform (macOS/Linux, x86_64/aarch64). Falls back to building from source if no binary is available. No Rust toolchain needed.

Download binary manually

Grab the latest release for your platform from Releases:

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/ganesh-tt/unified-search-mcp/releases/latest/download/unified-search-mcp-macos-aarch64.tar.gz | tar xz

# macOS (Intel)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/ganesh-tt/unified-search-mcp/releases/latest/download/unified-search-mcp-macos-x86_64.tar.gz | tar xz

# Linux (x86_64)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/ganesh-tt/unified-search-mcp/releases/latest/download/unified-search-mcp-linux-x86_64.tar.gz | tar xz

# Linux (aarch64)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/ganesh-tt/unified-search-mcp/releases/latest/download/unified-search-mcp-linux-aarch64.tar.gz | tar xz

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/ganesh-tt/unified-search-mcp.git
cd unified-search-mcp
cargo build --release

Binary is at target/release/unified-search-mcp (~8MB). Requires Rust 1.80+.

1. Get credentials

You only need credentials for sources you want to enable. Skip any you don't use.

Source	What you need	Where to get it
Slack	User token (xoxp-...)	api.slack.com/apps -- Create App -- OAuth -- Add scope search:read -- Install -- Copy User OAuth Token
Confluence + JIRA	Email + API token	id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens
GitHub	gh CLI authenticated	cli.github.com -- install, then gh auth login
Local files	File paths only	No credentials. Optional: install ripgrep for speed.

Slack note: You must use a user token (xoxp-...), not a bot token (xoxb-...). The search.messages API requires user-level access.

2. Create config

cp config.example.yaml config.yaml

Edit config.yaml. Set enabled: false for any source you don't use. Credentials use ${ENV_VAR} references so the config file is safe to commit:

server:
  name: "unified-search"
  max_results: 20
  timeout_seconds: 10
  metrics_path: "~/.unified-search/metrics.jsonl"   # optional

sources:
  slack:
    enabled: true
    user_token: "${SLACK_USER_TOKEN}"
    weight: 1.0
    max_results: 10

  confluence:
    enabled: true
    base_url: "${ATLASSIAN_BASE_URL}"       # e.g., https://yourorg.atlassian.net
    email: "${ATLASSIAN_EMAIL}"
    api_token: "${ATLASSIAN_API_TOKEN}"
    spaces: []                               # empty = search all spaces
    weight: 1.0
    max_results: 10

  jira:
    enabled: true
    base_url: "${ATLASSIAN_BASE_URL}"
    email: "${ATLASSIAN_EMAIL}"
    api_token: "${ATLASSIAN_API_TOKEN}"
    projects: []                             # empty = search all projects
    weight: 1.0
    max_results: 10

  github:
    enabled: true
    orgs: ["your-org"]             # GitHub org(s) to search
    repos: []                      # empty = all repos in org
    weight: 1.0
    max_results: 10

  local_text:
    enabled: true
    paths:
      - "~/projects/my-repo"
    include_patterns:
      - "**/*.{rs,py,scala,java,js,ts,go,sql,sh,toml,yaml,yml,md,txt}"
    exclude_patterns:
      - "**/target/**"
      - "**/node_modules/**"
      - "**/.git/**"
    weight: 0.8
    max_results: 10

3. Verify setup

# Set env vars (or export them in your shell profile)
export SLACK_USER_TOKEN="xoxp-..."
export ATLASSIAN_BASE_URL="https://yourorg.atlassian.net"
export ATLASSIAN_EMAIL="you@example.com"
export ATLASSIAN_API_TOKEN="your-api-token"

# Run preflight check
./target/release/unified-search-mcp --verify --config ./config.yaml

Example output:

unified-search-mcp v0.3.0 -- preflight check

[OK]  Config loaded from ./config.yaml (4 sources enabled)
[OK]  Slack: auth.test OK (320ms)
[OK]  Confluence: OK (180ms)
[OK]  JIRA: OK (150ms)
[OK]  Local text: paths accessible
       /Users/you/projects/my-repo -- directory, 1247 matching files
[OK]  ripgrep: ripgrep 14.1.0

Ready! 4 sources configured, 4 healthy.

4. Connect to your MCP client

Claude Code -- add to ~/.claude.json (global) or .mcp.json (per-project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "unified-search": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/unified-search-mcp",
      "args": ["--config", "/absolute/path/to/config.yaml"],
      "env": {
        "SLACK_USER_TOKEN": "xoxp-your-token",
        "ATLASSIAN_BASE_URL": "https://yourorg.atlassian.net",
        "ATLASSIAN_EMAIL": "you@example.com",
        "ATLASSIAN_API_TOKEN": "your-api-token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Other MCP clients -- any client that supports stdio transport can use this server. The command is unified-search-mcp --config /path/to/config.yaml.

MCP Tools

Tool	Tier	Description
unified_search	Fast	Search all enabled sources in parallel. Returns a ranked Markdown table with comments. Supports no_cache for forced refresh.
search_source	Fast	Search a single named source (slack, confluence, jira, github, local_text). Supports no_cache.
get_detail	Fast	Fetch full details for a specific item. Auto-detects JIRA keys, Atlassian URLs, Slack permalinks, GitHub PR/issue URLs. Returns rich Markdown.
list_sources	Fast	Show enabled sources and their health/latency status.
search_confluence_comments	Deep	Confluence search with full comment text inlined per result (max 10 results, 45s timeout).
search_jira_comments	Deep	JIRA search with all comments per ticket (max 10 results, 45s timeout).
search_slack_threads	Deep	Slack search with full thread replies per message (max 10 results, 45s timeout).

unified_search

Searches all enabled sources in parallel and returns a ranked Markdown table.

Query: "broadcast threshold decision"

| # | Source | Title | Snippet | URL |
|---|--------|-------|---------|-----|
| 1 | confluence | Broadcast Threshold Design | We settled on 500 msg/s... --- Comments (2 total): [Bob, 2026-03-12]: threshold at 500... | https://... |
| 2 | jira | FIN-1234: Fix broadcast OOM | Queue grows unbounded... --- Comments (3 total): [Charlie, 2026-03-15]: Verified on staging... | https://... |
| 3 | slack | broadcast threshold... | We need to decide on the broadcast threshold... | https://... |

Sources: slack (320ms, 5 results, 12 comments) | jira (180ms, 8 results, 24 comments) | confluence (450ms, 3 results, 6 comments) | Total: 460ms

get_detail

Fetches complete content for a single item. Accepts:

• JIRA key: FIN-1234
• JIRA URL: https://yourorg.atlassian.net/browse/FIN-1234
• Confluence URL: https://yourorg.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PROD/pages/123456/Page+Title
• Slack permalink: https://yourorg.slack.com/archives/C06ABC/p1712000000123456
• GitHub URL: https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/42 or https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/7
• GitHub shorthand: owner/repo#42 (with source: "github")

Optional source parameter forces interpretation (e.g., source: "confluence" with a page title).

JIRA response includes: summary, description, status, assignee, reporter, labels, fix versions, linked issues, subtasks, all comments

Confluence response includes: full page body, labels, child pages, all comments

Slack response includes: original message, all thread replies, channel name, participant list

GitHub PR response includes: title, body, status, reviews, line comments, diff stats, CI status

GitHub issue response includes: title, body, labels, assignees, all comments

Metrics & Adoption Tracking

Every tool call is logged to ~/.unified-search/metrics.jsonl (configurable). View your adoption stats:

./target/release/unified-search-mcp --stats --days 7

=== Unified Search Adoption Report (last 7 days) ===

Tool Calls:
  unified_search:  45 calls  (avg 420ms, p50 380ms, p95 890ms)
  search_source:   12 calls  (avg 280ms, p50 250ms, p95 650ms)
  get_detail:       8 calls  (avg 350ms, p50 310ms, p95 700ms)

Bypasses (Claude used individual MCPs for search/read):
  jira_get:         6 calls
  conf_get:         3 calls

Adoption Rate: 88% (65 unified / 74 total search-like operations)

The stats command also scans Claude Code conversation logs (~/.claude/projects/) to detect when your AI assistant chose individual JIRA/Confluence/Slack MCP tools instead of unified-search. This helps measure whether unified-search is actually replacing the fragmented workflow.

Configuration Reference

All settings in config.yaml:

server:
  name: "unified-search"          # Server name reported to MCP clients
  max_results: 20                  # Global max results per query
  timeout_seconds: 10              # Per-source timeout
  log_level: "info"                # (reserved for future use)
  metrics_path: "~/.unified-search/metrics.jsonl"  # Metrics log path

sources:
  slack:
    enabled: true/false
    user_token: "xoxp-..."        # Must be user token, not bot token
    weight: 1.0                   # Relevance multiplier (higher = ranked higher)
    max_results: 10               # Max results from this source per query

  confluence:
    enabled: true/false
    base_url: "https://..."       # Your Atlassian instance URL
    email: "you@example.com"
    api_token: "..."
    spaces: ["DEV", "OPS"]        # Optional: restrict to specific spaces (empty = all)
    weight: 1.0
    max_results: 10

  jira:
    enabled: true/false
    base_url: "https://..."
    email: "you@example.com"
    api_token: "..."
    projects: ["FIN", "PLAT"]     # Optional: restrict to specific projects (empty = all)
    weight: 1.0
    max_results: 10

  github:
    enabled: true/false
    orgs: ["your-org"]            # GitHub org(s) to search
    repos: ["repo1", "repo2"]     # Optional: restrict to specific repos (empty = all)
    weight: 1.0
    max_results: 10

  local_text:
    enabled: true/false
    paths:                        # Directories to search (tilde expanded)
      - "~/projects/my-repo"
    include_patterns:             # Glob patterns to include
      - "**/*.{rs,py,js,ts,md}"
    exclude_patterns:             # Glob patterns to exclude
      - "**/target/**"
      - "**/node_modules/**"
      - "**/.git/**"
    weight: 0.8
    max_results: 10

Environment variable interpolation: Use ${VAR_NAME} syntax in any string value. Missing env vars for disabled sources are silently ignored; missing vars for enabled sources produce a config error.

Architecture

                          MCP Client (Claude Code, etc.)
                                    |
                              stdio transport
                                    |
                             +-----------+
                             | McpServer |  (mcp.rs — rmcp tool routing)
                             +-----------+
                                    |
                         +-------------------+
                         | UnifiedSearchServer| (server.rs — handler logic)
                         +-------------------+
                          /        |         \
                  unified_search  get_detail  list_sources
                         |         |
                +----------------+ |
                | SearchOrchestrator| (core.rs — fan-out, merge, rank, dedup)
                +----------------+
                 /    |     |    \     \
              Slack  Conf  JIRA  GitHub  LocalText   (sources/*.rs — SearchSource trait)

Adding a new source: Implement the SearchSource trait (4 methods: name, description, health_check, search) and register it in main.rs. See src/sources/slack.rs for a complete example.

Development

# Run tests
cargo test

# Run with verbose output
cargo test -- --nocapture

# Build debug
cargo build

# Build release
cargo build --release

# Preflight check
cargo run -- --verify --config config.yaml

# View adoption stats
cargo run -- --stats --days 7

Test structure

File	Tests	What it covers
tests/test_jira.rs	25	Search, comments, get_detail, auth, errors
tests/test_confluence.rs	26	Search, comment enrichment, get_detail, errors
tests/test_confluence_markdown.rs	21	HTML-to-Markdown conversion, tables, macros
tests/test_slack.rs	13	Search, get_detail_thread, auth, rate limiting
tests/test_github.rs	16	PR/issue search, get_detail, CLI subprocess
tests/test_core.rs	16	Orchestrator fan-out, ranking, dedup, timeouts, per-source stats
tests/test_server.rs	7	MCP tool dispatch, get_detail wiring, error paths
tests/test_resolve.rs	20	Identifier auto-detection, URL parsing, force_source
tests/test_config.rs	13	YAML parsing, env var interpolation, validation
tests/test_cache.rs	8	LRU cache, TTL expiry, no_cache bypass
tests/test_metrics.rs	4	JSONL logging, serialization, rotation
tests/test_models.rs	13	Data model serialization, ordering
tests/test_local_text.rs	12	Ripgrep + fallback search, glob matching
tests/test_integration.rs	9	End-to-end flows

All HTTP-based tests use wiremock for deterministic mocking.

Resource Usage

Metric	Measured value
Binary size	8MB (stripped)
Runtime RAM	~8-12MB idle
Startup time	6ms
Query latency	400ms-1.5s (parallel fan-out, bounded by slowest source)
Source lines	~7,400 Rust
Test count	207

CLI Reference

unified-search-mcp [OPTIONS]

Options:
  --config <PATH>    Config file path (default: config.yaml)
  --verify           Run preflight checks and exit
  --stats            Show adoption report and exit
  --days <N>         Days to include in stats report (default: 7, used with --stats)

Without flags, the server starts on stdio and waits for MCP JSON-RPC messages.

License

MIT