Searching Text

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

# 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}"