FAQ & gotchas

Short answers to the first-run surprises — most are discoverable only by hitting them otherwise.

The first index_repo is slow, or downloads a lot

The first time you use embeddings (index_repo, or search_code against a non-empty index), Sankshep downloads the local embedding model (~127 MiB, once, checksum-verified). It is fully offline afterwards. For air-gapped hosts, side-load the model and set SANKSHEP_MODEL_OFFLINE=1 — see Deployment.

My container / Helm pod won't start — "Refusing to start … no authentication"

Since 1.8.0 the HTTP server fails closed on a non-loopback bind (0.0.0.0) when auth is None. Configure SANKSHEP_API_KEYS (or SANKSHEP_OAUTH_*), or — only on a trusted, network-isolated deployment — set SANKSHEP_ALLOW_UNAUTHENTICATED=1. See Security → network exposure.

I ran index_repo, but search_code returns nothing

Confirm you indexed the same repo the server serves, that your files are a supported type, then re-run index_repo. Deleting <repo>/.sankshep/index.db forces a clean rebuild. See Troubleshooting.

summarize_repo returns almost nothing for my Go / TS / Python repo

Not since 2.0.0 — it covers every language on the languages table, not just C#. If a summary still looks thin, check the second line of the response: it says TRUNCATED: N of M files shown when the maxTokens budget stopped the walk. Raise maxTokens, summarize a subdirectory, or use search_code to go straight to what you need.

My HTML / SCSS / template files aren't in the results

Sankshep minimizes and indexes the source languages on the languages table, plus .docx/.pdf documents. HTML, SCSS, and framework templates are not currently indexed or minimized.

get_context returned nothing for a file outside my repo

That is deliberate, and in 2.0.0 the boundary is tighter than it was. Relative paths are confined to the served --repo root — a ../.. escape is refused, not read — and the refusal now says so instead of returning an empty result.

An absolute path is not a general escape hatch:

Transport	Absolute path inside the root	Absolute path outside the root
stdio	accepted	refused
HTTP	refused	refused

index_repo refuses an absolute path on both transports. If you need a file that lives outside the repository, serve a root that contains it, or copy it in. See Security.

Which minimization level should I use?

Balanced (the default) for almost everything — it keeps the code relevant to your query and collapses the rest. Conservative when you want every body verbatim (e.g. an exhaustive review). Aggressive only when you want structure and signatures, not behavior — it collapses answer bodies too. See How it works.