Ory Lumen
Hacker ApprovedRanked 6 of 15 code search tools by recommenders
Recommended as local semantic code search for Claude Code that cuts tool calls and token use. Critics found it hard to figure out how it works.
Recommended as local semantic code search for Claude Code that cuts tool calls and token use. Critics found it hard to figure out how it works.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Cuts tool calls and tokens
“This reduces tool calls (and thus saves times and tokens) because instead of trying / guessing names repeatedly”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: ctx – an Agentic Development Environment (ADE)” “because the model doesn’t have to brute force different terms until it finds the match it needs”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “RTK reports token savings, but our cost benchmarks disagree” “properly indexed code bases (think IntelliJ) reduce token usage significantly”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “Pro Max 5x Quota Exhausted in 1.5 Hours Despite Moderate Usage” Local embedding-based codebase indexing
“What I had success with (although benchmarks are older) is to index the codebase with a dedicated local code embedding model.”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “RTK reports token savings, but our cost benchmarks disagree” “it's a realistic approach at RAG”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “RTK reports token savings, but our cost benchmarks disagree”
Other code search tools people recommend
The four most recommended other code search tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ripgrep | 122 | 18 | 87% | 12 | — | Approved |
| ast-grep | 21 | 3 | 88% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Semble | 20 | 7 | 74% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Graft (Claude Code hooks) | 13 | 4 | 76% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Ory LumenThis page | 10 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
10 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it's a realistic approach at RAG”
“because the model doesn’t have to brute force different terms until it finds the match it needs”
“it’s hard to measure the impact exactly but it feels significant”
“What I had success with (although benchmarks are older) is to index the codebase with a dedicated local code embedding model.”
“properly indexed code bases (think IntelliJ) reduce token usage significantly”
“This reduces tool calls (and thus saves times and tokens) because instead of trying / guessing names repeatedly”
“Lumen, Nanite, Substrate, Metahumans, and Chaos Physics all come to mind as major innovations driven by Epic”
“They are bleeding edge when it comes to real-time rendering tech”
“Great idea, will give it a try.”
“We could not immediately figure out exactly how Lumen works, and builds appear to be failing”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.