Sourcegraph

advanced

Code search and intelligence platform.

Overview

Sourcegraph is an enterprise-grade code search and navigation platform that provides universal code search across all repositories, programming languages, and version control systems. Originally developed to solve the challenge of finding and understanding code at scale, Sourcegraph has evolved into a comprehensive code intelligence platform used by major tech companies like Uber, Lyft, and Yelp to navigate massive codebases efficiently. The platform combines powerful search capabilities with advanced code intelligence features, enabling developers to quickly locate code, understand dependencies, and make informed changes across large, distributed codebases. This Docker deployment leverages the official Sourcegraph server image to create a single-container instance that includes all necessary components: the web interface, search indexing engine, code intelligence services, and database storage. The configuration provides a complete code search solution that can index repositories from GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and other code hosts, offering features like cross-repository search, semantic code navigation, and automated code insights. This setup is particularly valuable for development teams, engineering managers, and organizations that need to maintain visibility and control over large codebases, enabling faster code reviews, more efficient debugging, and better architectural decision-making through comprehensive code analytics and search capabilities.

Key Features

Universal code search across multiple repositories with support for regular expressions, structural search, and symbol-based queries
Code intelligence with precise hover tooltips, go-to-definition, and find-references functionality across 40+ programming languages
Batch changes system for executing large-scale code modifications and refactoring across multiple repositories simultaneously
Integration with major code hosts including GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Phabricator, and Azure DevOps for automatic repository synchronization
Code insights dashboard providing visualizations of code metrics, security vulnerabilities, and technical debt patterns
Browser extensions for GitHub, GitLab, and other platforms to bring Sourcegraph functionality directly to code review workflows
API-driven architecture enabling custom integrations and programmatic access to search and code intelligence features
Campaign management for tracking and managing large-scale code changes across organizations with approval workflows

Common Use Cases

1Large engineering organizations needing to search and navigate across hundreds or thousands of repositories
2Security teams conducting code audits and vulnerability assessments across entire codebases
3Development teams performing large-scale refactoring projects that span multiple repositories and services
4Engineering managers tracking code quality metrics and technical debt across development teams
5Open source maintainers managing complex projects with multiple contributors and extensive codebases
6DevOps teams investigating incidents by quickly locating relevant code across microservices architectures
7Code review processes requiring deep context about code changes and their impact across repositories

Prerequisites

Minimum 4GB RAM and 2 CPU cores for small to medium codebases (8GB+ recommended for larger deployments)
At least 50GB free disk space for code indexing and search data storage
Access tokens or credentials for code hosts (GitHub, GitLab, etc.) that will be connected to Sourcegraph
Understanding of Git workflows and repository management for configuring code host integrations
Network connectivity to external code repositories for initial indexing and ongoing synchronization
Basic knowledge of search syntax and regular expressions to effectively utilize advanced search features

For development & testing. Review security settings, change default credentials, and test thoroughly before production use. See Terms

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  sourcegraph: 
3    image: sourcegraph/server:latest
4    container_name: sourcegraph
5    restart: unless-stopped
6    volumes: 
7      - sourcegraph_config:/etc/sourcegraph
8      - sourcegraph_data:/var/opt/sourcegraph
9    ports: 
10      - "7080:7080"
11    environment: 
12      SRC_LOG_LEVEL: info
13
14volumes: 
15  sourcegraph_config: 
16  sourcegraph_data:

.env Template

.env

1# Configure repositories via web UI

Usage Notes

1Docs: https://docs.sourcegraph.com/
2Access at http://localhost:7080 - setup wizard on first visit
3Add code hosts: Site admin > External services
4Cross-repository code search with regex support
5Code intelligence: hover, go to definition, find references
6Batch changes for large-scale refactoring

Quick Start

terminal

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  sourcegraph:
5    image: sourcegraph/server:latest
6    container_name: sourcegraph
7    restart: unless-stopped
8    volumes:
9      - sourcegraph_config:/etc/sourcegraph
10      - sourcegraph_data:/var/opt/sourcegraph
11    ports:
12      - "7080:7080"
13    environment:
14      SRC_LOG_LEVEL: info
15
16volumes:
17  sourcegraph_config:
18  sourcegraph_data:
19EOF
20
21# 2. Create the .env file
22cat > .env << 'EOF'
23# Configure repositories via web UI
24EOF
25
26# 3. Start the services
27docker compose up -d
28
29# 4. View logs
30docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

terminal

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/sourcegraph/run | bash

Troubleshooting

Repository sync failing with authentication errors: Verify code host tokens have correct permissions and haven't expired in Site admin > External services
Search results showing outdated code: Check repository sync status and manually trigger re-indexing from the repository settings page
High memory usage causing container restarts: Increase Docker memory limits or reduce the number of repositories being indexed simultaneously
Code intelligence not working for specific languages: Ensure language servers are enabled in site configuration and repositories have been fully indexed
Slow search performance on large codebases: Configure search indexing settings and consider excluding binary files or large data directories
Browser extension not connecting to Sourcegraph instance: Verify the Sourcegraph URL is accessible and CORS settings allow browser extension connections

Community Notes

Loading notes...

Download Recipe Kit

Get all files in a ready-to-deploy package

Includes docker-compose.yml, .env template, README, and license

Components

sourcegraph

Related Recipes

Ad Space

Shortcuts: C CopyF FavoriteD Download