replacing-text

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Provides intuitive find & replace CLI with JavaScript regex and string-literal mode. Use this skill when performing text replacements, batch transformations, or need JavaScript-style regex syntax

10installs

Sourceiota9star/my-skills

Added on2026-02-08

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add iota9star/my-skills replacing-text

SKILL.md Content

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sd: Fast Find & Replace

Always invoke sd skill for find & replace operations - do not execute bash commands directly.

Use sd for intuitive text replacement that's 2-12x faster than sed.

When to Use sd vs ripgrep

Use sd when:

Performing replacements on known patterns
Batch text transformations across files
Need JavaScript-style regex syntax
Direct file modifications without search first

Use ripgrep when:

Finding unknown patterns or locations
Need search results without immediate changes
Complex file filtering and type matching
Want to preview before modifying

Common workflow: ripgrep skill → sd skill (search first, then replace)

Default Strategy

Invoke sd skill for fast find & replace operations. Use when performing replacements on known patterns, batch text transformations across files, or need JavaScript-style regex syntax.

Common workflow: ripgrep skill → sd skill (search first, then replace) or fd skill → sd skill for batch operations.

Key Options

```
-F
```
for string-literal mode (no regex)
```
$1, $2
```
or
```
${var}
```
for capture groups
```
--preview
```
to preview changes
```
--
```
before patterns starting with
```
-
```
```
$$
```
for literal
```
$
```
in replacement

When to Use

Quick file edits
Pipeline replacements:
```
cat file | sd "old" "new"
```
Batch operations across multiple files
Complex regex with capture groups

Common Workflows

```
fd → sd
```
: Find files and perform batch replacements
```
ripgrep | sd
```
: Search patterns and replace across matches
```
jq | sd
```
: Extract JSON data and transform to other formats
```
cat file | sd | bat
```
: Transform content and preview with highlighting

Core Principle

Replace text with familiar JavaScript/Python regex syntax - no sed escape hell.

Detailed Reference

For comprehensive find & replace patterns, regex syntax examples, and workflow tips, load sd guide when needing:

Advanced regex patterns with capture groups
Pipeline operations and batch processing
Escape sequence handling
Common text transformation recipes
Integration with other command-line tools

The guide includes:

String-literal vs regex mode usage
Capture group patterns and replacements
Pipeline operations and batch processing
Advanced regex patterns and edge cases
Integration with other command-line tools

Skill Combinations

For Discovery Phase

ripgrep → sd: Search patterns first, then replace across matches
fd → sd: Find files and perform batch replacements
jq/yq → sd: Extract data and transform to other formats

For Analysis Phase

sd --preview → bat: Preview changes with syntax highlighting
sd → fzf: Interactive selection of changes to apply
sd → jq/yq: Transform data back to structured formats

For Refactoring Phase

sd → searching-text: Verify replacements didn't introduce issues
sd → analyzing-code-structure: Follow up with structural changes if needed
sd → analyzing-code: Measure impact of text-based changes

Integration Examples

bash

# Find and replace across project
fd -e js -x sd "oldPattern" "newPattern" --preview

# Chain transformations
cat config.json | jq '.version' | sd '"v' '' | sd '"' '' | xargs git tag

# Interactive replacement with preview
rg "deprecated" -l | fzf --multi | xargs sd "deprecated" "legacy" --preview | bat