Features

Features#

Serena provides a wide range of tools for efficient code retrieval, editing and refactoring, as well as a memory system for long-lived agent workflows.

Given its large scope, Serena adapts to your needs by offering a multi-layered configuration system.

Retrieval#

Serena’s retrieval tools allow agents to explore codebases at the symbol level, understanding structure and relationships without reading entire files.

Capability

Language Servers

JetBrains Plugin

find symbol

yes

yes

symbol overview (file outline)

yes

yes

find referencing symbols

yes

yes

search in project dependencies

–

yes

type hierarchy

–

yes

find declaration

–

yes

find implementations

–

yes

query external projects

yes

yes

Refactoring#

Without precise refactoring tools, agents are forced to resort to unreliable and expensive search and replace operations.

Capability

Language Servers

JetBrains Plugin

rename

yes (only symbols)

yes (symbols, files, directories)

move (symbol, file, directory)

–

yes

inline

–

yes

propagate deletions (remove unused code)

–

yes

Symbolic Editing#

Serena’s symbolic editing tools are less error-prone and much more token-efficient than typical alternatives.

Capability

Language Servers

JetBrains Plugin

replace symbol body

yes

yes

insert after symbol

yes

yes

insert before symbol

yes

yes

safe delete

yes

yes

Basic Features#

Beyond its semantic capabilities, Serena includes a set of basic utilities for completeness. When Serena is used inside an agentic harness such as Claude Code or Codex, these tools are typically disabled by default, since the surrounding harness already provides overlapping file, search, and shell capabilities.

  • search_for_pattern – flexible regex search across the codebase

  • replace_content – agent-optimised regex-based and literal text replacement

  • list_dir / find_file – directory listing and file search

  • read_file – read files or file chunks

  • execute_shell_command – run shell commands (e.g. builds, tests, linters)

Memory Management#

A memory system is elemental to long-lived agent workflows, especially when knowledge is to be shared across sessions, users and projects. Despite its simplicity, we received positive feedback from many users who tend to combine Serena’s memory management system with their agent’s internal system (e.g., AGENTS.md files). It can easily be disabled if you prefer to use something else.

Configurability#

Active tools, tool descriptions, prompts, language backend details and many other aspects of Serena can be flexibly configured on a per-case basis by simply adjusting a few lines of YAML. To achieve this, Serena offers multiple levels of (composable) configuration:

  • global configuration

  • MCP launch command (CLI) configuration

  • per-project configuration (with local overrides)

  • execution context-specific configuration (e.g. for particular clients)

  • dynamically composable configuration fragments (modes)

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