Grep App

Grep.app

Use Grep.app directly over HTTP through the bundled cross-platform Python CLI.

Entry point

Cross-platform:

uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py ...

Set <skill-dir> to this skill directory. Do not rely on shell sourcing, executable bits, or shebang dispatch.

Environment check policy: do not treat an unset GREP_APP_BASE_URL in the parent shell as a readiness failure. It is only an optional override; the skill works with its default base URL.

When to use

• Real usage patterns for APIs, config, and framework code
• Public GitHub code only
• Literal search first; regex when needed

Quick start

uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py search "useState(" f.lang=TypeScript
uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py search "errgroup.WithContext(" f.repo=golang/sync
uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py regex "useState\\(" f.lang=TypeScript

Useful filters

Pass Grep.app filters as query params:

• f.repo=owner/repo
• f.path=src/
• f.lang=TypeScript
• case=true
• words=true

Environment

• Tracked template: .env.example
• Optional override: GREP_APP_BASE_URL

Failure handling

• grep-app does not use a skill-local API key in this helper flow, so there is no .env credential-loading step to debug by default
• Distinguish invocation issues from service issues:
  • usage errors mean local invocation is wrong
  • HTTP 429 means Grep.app rate-limited the request
  • other HTTP failures mean the service or endpoint responded with an error, not that the helper failed to initialize
• If 429 appears, report it as rate limiting and either retry later or fall back to another research route such as context7, gh, or firecrawl

Notes

• Public GitHub repos only
• search is literal by default
• regex sets regexp=true automatically
• Grep.app returns HTML snippets inside JSON; extract metadata like repo/path first
• Check licenses before reusing copied code

Validation

uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py --help

Query templates

See assets/query-templates.json.

Required follow-up reads