| name | searching-text |
| description | Use when searching for text patterns across files, finding specific code locations, or getting lines with surrounding context in a single call |
ripgrep: Powerful, one-shot text search
Always invoke searching-text skill for text search - do not execute bash commands directly.
Default Strategy
Invoke searching-text skill for fast text search with one-shot patterns. Use -e 'pattern' -n -C 2 to get files, line numbers, and context in a single call.
This minimizes iterations and context usage. Always prefer getting line numbers and surrounding context over multiple search attempts.
Common workflow: searching-text skill → other skills (fuzzy-selecting, viewing-files, replacing-text, analyzing-code-structure) for interactive selection, preview, or modification.
Tool Selection
Grep tool (built on ripgrep) - Use for structured searches:
- Basic pattern matching with structured output
- File type filtering with
type parameter
- When special flags like
-F, -v, -w, or pipe composition are not needed
- Handles 95% of search needs
Bash(rg) - Use for one-shot searches needing special flags or composition:
- Fixed string search (
-F)
- Invert match (
-v)
- Word boundaries (
-w)
- Context lines with patterns (
-n -C 2)
- Pipe composition (
| head, | wc -l, | sort)
- Default choice for efficient one-shot results
Glob tool - Use for file name/path matching only (not content search)
When to Load Detailed Reference
Load ripgrep guide when needing:
- One-shot search pattern templates
- Effective flag combinations for complex searches
- Pipe composition patterns
- File type filters reference (
-t flags)
- Performance optimization for large result sets
- Pattern syntax examples
- Translation between Grep tool and rg commands
The guide focuses on practical patterns for getting targeted results in minimal calls.
Pipeline Combinations
- searching-text | fuzzy-selecting: Interactive selection from search results
- searching-text | replacing-text: Batch replacements on search results
- searching-text | xargs: Execute commands on matched files
Skill Combinations
For Discovery Phase
- finding-files → searching-text: Find files of specific type, then search within them
- extracting-code-structure → searching-text: Understand structure, then search for specific patterns
- querying-json/querying-yaml → searching-text: Extract field values, then search for their usage
For Analysis Phase
- searching-text → fuzzy-selecting: Interactive selection from search matches
- searching-text → viewing-files: View matched files with syntax highlighting
- searching-text → analyzing-code-structure: After finding text patterns, apply structural changes
For Refactoring Phase
- searching-text → replacing-text: Replace found patterns with new content
- searching-text → xargs: Execute commands on all matching files
- searching-text → analyzing-code: Get statistics for files containing specific patterns
- searching-text → analyzing-code-structure: After finding text patterns, apply structural changes
Integration Examples
rg "functionName" -l | fzf --multi --preview="bat --color=always --highlight-line $(rg -n "functionName" {} | head -1 | cut -d: -f2) {}" | xargs vim
rg "TODO|FIXME" -n | fzf --multi --preview="bat --color=always --highlight-line {2} {1}"
