| name | file-search |
| description | Use when searching codebases (text, structural/AST, files by name, PDFs/archives, code stats) or building context before a task. |
| license | (MIT AND CC-BY-SA-4.0). See LICENSE-MIT and LICENSE-CC-BY-SA-4.0 |
| compatibility | Requires ripgrep (rg). Optional: fd, ast-grep, rga, tokei, scc, semgrep. |
| metadata | {"author":"Netresearch DTT GmbH","version":"1.8.0","repository":"https://github.com/netresearch/file-search-skill"} |
| allowed-tools | Bash(rg:*) Bash(fd:*) Bash(sg:*) Bash(rga:*) Bash(tokei:*) Bash(scc:*) Bash(semgrep:*) Read Glob Grep |
File Search Skill
Efficient CLI search tools for AI agents.
Tool Selection Guide
| Task | Use | Instead of |
|---|
| Search text in code files | rg (ripgrep) | grep, grep -r |
| Find files by name/path | fd | find, ls -R |
| Structural/syntax-aware code search | sg (ast-grep) | regex hacks |
| Apply rule packs (security/lint, taint) | semgrep | regex CI checks |
| Search PDFs, Office docs, archives | rga (ripgrep-all) | manual extraction |
| Count lines of code by language | tokei | cloc, wc -l |
| Code stats with complexity metrics | scc | cloc, tokei |
Decision flow: text → rg | structural → sg | rule packs →
semgrep | filenames → fd | PDFs/archives → rga | LOC →
tokei/scc
Quick Examples
rg 'def \w+\(' -t py src/
rg -c 'TODO' -t js | wc -l
sg --pattern 'console.log($$$)' --rewrite 'logger.info($$$)' --lang js
fd -g '*.test.ts' --changed-within 1d
fd -g '*_test.go' -X rg 'func Test'
rga 'quarterly revenue' docs/
tokei --sort code
scc --wide
Best Practices
- Start narrow. Specify types (
-t, --lang, -e), scope dirs, count first (rg -c).
- Exclude noise (
-g '!vendor/', fd -E node_modules).
- Batch independent queries. Union patterns with
rg -e P1 -e P2 -e P3 (one walk), or issue distinct queries as parallel tool calls in one message — never sequential && chains.
--json for programmatic processing.- rg ≠ fd types.
rg -t ts includes .tsx; fd -e ts does NOT. No -t tsx in rg.
See references/search-strategies.md.
Beyond Local Files
If local search finds nothing and context lives in issues/PRs/external
docs — hand off (gh, Jira, WebFetch). Issue keys in comments signal this.
See references/remote-handoff.md.
References
