ado-search

name	ado-search
description	Use when the user wants to search across Azure DevOps — across code files, wiki pages, or work items — using keywords or natural language. "find all usages of TokenService in code", "search for ADR-007 in the wiki", "find work items mentioning Redis", "where is the connection string defined", "search for open bugs related to authentication", "find all files containing TODO comments", "search wiki for deployment guide", "find work items with tag security in the Platform project"
license	MIT
metadata	{"version":"1.0"}

ADO Search

Search across Azure DevOps code repositories, wiki pages, and work items using keywords or natural language. Returns ranked results with context snippets.

When to use

• User wants to find code that references a specific class, method, or string
• User wants to find a wiki page by keyword or topic
• User wants to find work items matching a description or keyword (without writing WIQL)
• User is doing an impact analysis and needs to find all references across repos

MCP tools used

Tool	Purpose
search_code	Full-text search across all code in the organisation's repositories
search_wiki	Full-text search across all wiki pages in the organisation
search_workitem	Full-text search across work items (title, description, comments)

Workflow

Code search

1. Extract the search term(s) from the user request.
2. Identify optional filters: project, repository, file extension, branch.
3. Call search_code(query, project, repo, fileExtension).
4. Group results by repository and file.
5. Present the Code Search Results table with file path, line number, and context snippet.

Wiki search

1. Extract the search term(s).
2. Identify optional filter: project.
3. Call search_wiki(query, project).
4. Present the Wiki Search Results table with page title, project, and excerpt.

Work item search

1. Extract the search term(s) or topic.
2. Identify optional filters: project, work item type, state.
3. Call search_workitem(query, project, type, state).
4. Present the Work Item Search Results table.

Combined search

When the user's intent spans multiple areas (e.g. "find everything related to Redis"), run all three tools in sequence and present results grouped by type (Code, Wiki, Work Items).

Output Format

Code Search Results

Repository	File	Line	Match
api-gateway	src/Auth/AuthService.cs	87	var svc = new TokenService(config)
identity-service	tests/TokenServiceTests.cs	23	TokenService svc = fixture.Create()
shared-lib	src/Interfaces/ITokenService.cs	5	public interface ITokenService

3 results across 3 repositories.

Wiki Search Results

Page	Project	Excerpt
Architecture/ADRs/ADR-007	Platform	"...decided to use Redis for session caching because..."
Operations/Runbooks/Cache	Platform	"...flush Redis cache via redis-cli FLUSHDB..."

Work Item Search Results

ID	Type	Title	State	Project
1042	Story	Add MFA to login flow	Active	Platform
1058	Bug	Session token not refreshed	New	Platform
1063	Task	Evaluate Redis Sentinel setup	Done	Platform

Notes

• search_code searches the default branch of each repository unless a branch is specified.
• Results from search_code are ranked by relevance; the most relevant files appear first.
• For large result sets (>20 items), present the top 10 and offer to show more.
• When doing impact analysis, use search_code first to find all call sites, then offer to create a work item tracking the change.
• search_workitem is faster than constructing a WIQL query for keyword-based searches; use ado-work-items wit_query when the user needs precise field-based filtering.

Active context

This skill respects the session context set by the ado-context skill.

• If activeProject is set, scope searches to that project by default. For cross-project searches, the user can explicitly say "search across all projects" to override.
• If no context is set, search_code and search_wiki require a project — invoke Workflow E of ado-context to resolve it. search_workitem can run org-wide without a project; mention this to the user if no context is set.