Revolutionizing Code Search: Building SiftDB, a Grep-Native Database for AI Agents

SiftDB is a high-performance, grep-native database designed specifically for AI agents to efficiently search and analyze codebases. This talk demonstrates how integrating tool calls into developer workflows enables agents to perform precise, lightning-fast code queries, transforming debugging, refactoring, and knowledge discovery. We’ll cover the architecture, implementation challenges, and real-world results from building a system that achieves sub-4ms search latency on large codebases.