searching-text

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Performs fast text search with one-shot patterns that minimize iterations by getting files, lines, and context in a single call. Use this skill when searching for text patterns, finding specific code locations, or getting context around matches

2installs

Sourceiota9star/my-skills

Added on2026-02-08

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add iota9star/my-skills searching-text

SKILL.md Content

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ripgrep: Powerful, one-shot text search

Always invoke ripgrep skill for text search - do not execute bash commands directly.

Default Strategy

Invoke ripgrep 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: ripgrep skill → other skills (fzf, bat, sd, 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

rg | fzf: Interactive selection from search results
rg | sd: Batch replacements on search results
rg | xargs: Execute commands on matched files

Skill Combinations

For Discovery Phase

fd → ripgrep: Find files of specific type, then search within them
extracting-code-structure → ripgrep: Understand structure, then search for specific patterns
jq/yq → ripgrep: Extract field values, then search for their usage

For Analysis Phase

ripgrep → fzf: Interactive selection from search matches
ripgrep → bat: View matched files with syntax highlighting
ripgrep → ast-grep: After finding text patterns, apply structural changes

For Refactoring Phase

ripgrep → sd: Replace found patterns with new content
ripgrep → xargs: Execute commands on all matching files
ripgrep → tokei: Get statistics for files containing specific patterns
ripgrep → analyzing-code-structure: After finding text patterns, apply structural changes

Integration Examples

bash

# Find and edit all references to a function
rg "functionName" -l | fzf --multi --preview="bat --color=always --highlight-line $(rg -n "functionName" {} | head -1 | cut -d: -f2) {}" | xargs vim

# Find TODOs and create summary
rg "TODO|FIXME" -n | fzf --multi --preview="bat --color=always --highlight-line {2} {1}"