# Chat with codebase vs Chat difference

**URL:** <https://forum.cursor.com/t/chat-with-codebase-vs-chat-difference/7248>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [August 8, 2024, 11:12am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/chat-with-codebase-vs-chat-difference/7248 "2024-08-08T11:12:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![litecode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/litecode/32/2966_2.png) [@litecode](https://forum.cursor.com/u/litecode)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 12:05pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/chat-with-codebase-vs-chat-difference/7248/2 "2024-08-08T12:05:20Z")

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Good question, I’d like to have a better understanding of that too.

First, it seems it would be good to list the terms involved, and then describe each of them.

I am away from computer now, but I add below this first pass of terms and their descriptions as a ‘first pass’ on the process of understanding more.

**Terms:**

`Chat with codebase`:

[https://docs.cursor.com/chat/codebase](https://docs.cursor.com/chat/codebase)

`@ symbols`:

[https://docs.cursor.com/context/@-symbols/basic](https://docs.cursor.com/context/@-symbols/basic)

`@Codebase`:

[https://docs.cursor.com/context/@-symbols/@-codebase](https://docs.cursor.com/context/@-symbols/@-codebase)

`Codebase Indexing`:

[https://docs.cursor.com/context/codebase-indexing](https://docs.cursor.com/context/codebase-indexing)

**Related Links:**

The `Chat` section at:

[https://www.cursor.com/features](https://www.cursor.com/features)

**Related Posts:**

> [@Codebase Indexing](https://forum.cursor.com/t/codebase-indexing/36):
>
> Hey there, nice editor. How does the Codebase Indexing feature works, for it to not store any of the code on the servers? And are the embeddings made through the API? Thanks!

> [@Codebase indexing VS chat with codebase](https://forum.cursor.com/t/codebase-indexing-vs-chat-with-codebase/283):
>
> So i’ve got a question. 1- you can already Chat with codebase without index being Enable in the settings. Is that right? 2- what’s the advantage of Enabling it? a better answer? How much is the difference? is it worth it? 3- are they working differently? (indexing codebase vectorize and embedd the code while chat with codebase just search through the file in the workspace) ASking this question because if we can still have a good chat with the codebase and entire workspace and the quality is …

> [@Context without codebase indexing](https://forum.cursor.com/t/context-without-codebase-indexing/4122):
>
> If I were to turn of codebase indexing, will it still look through all the files in my workspace and find additional context for the prompt?

> [@Codebase indexing doesn't include entire codebase](https://forum.cursor.com/t/codebase-indexing-doesnt-include-entire-codebase/2707):
>
> Hi, I am trying to use the codebase indexing feature on what I think isn’t an unreasonably large codebase. It seems like after indexing, Cursor has only considered some of the files and it really just seems clueless about others when I ask the AI. Just struggling to know if this is a recognized issue or just a user error, thanks!

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