file-search

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Use when searching codebases (text, structural/AST, files by name, PDFs/archives, code stats) or building context before a task.

18installs

Sourcenetresearch/file-search-skill

Added on2026-04-02

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add netresearch/file-search-skill file-search

SKILL.md Content

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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
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/regex →

rg

| code structure (empty catches, function sigs, multi-line patterns) →

sg

| files by name →

fd

| PDFs/archives →

rga

| codebase stats →

tokei

scc

Quick Examples

bash

rg 'def \w+\(' -t py src/          # rg: text search in Python files
rg -c 'TODO' -t js | wc -l         # rg: count first, then drill down
sg --pattern 'console.log($$$)' --rewrite 'logger.info($$$)' --lang js  # sg: structural replace
fd -g '*.test.ts' --changed-within 1d  # fd: -g for compound suffixes (NOT -e)
fd -g '*_test.go' -X rg 'func Test'   # fd+rg: find files, verify contents
rga 'quarterly revenue' docs/       # rga: search inside PDFs/archives
tokei --sort code                   # tokei: language stats
scc --wide                          # scc: complexity + COCOMO

Best Practices

Start narrow. Specify types (
```
-t
```
,
```
--lang
```
,
```
-e
```
), scope dirs, count first (
```
rg -c
```
).
Exclude noise (
```
-g '!vendor/'
```
,
```
fd -E node_modules
```
).
--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

Topic	File
rg flags, patterns, recipes	references/ripgrep-patterns.md
ast-grep patterns by language	references/ast-grep-patterns.md
fd flags, usage, fd+rg combos	references/fd-guide.md
rga formats, usage, caching	references/rga-guide.md
tokei and scc usage	references/code-metrics.md
Search targeting strategies	references/search-strategies.md
Tool comparison and decision guide	references/tool-comparison.md
Remote context handoff guide	references/remote-handoff.md