Windows Search

Bridge Search

Use this skill to set up and run the MCP bridge: implementation lives in bridge_search/; scripts/server.py is a thin compatibility launcher. This is the authoritative bridge for cross-OS search and file management.

Installation, mcporter, troubleshooting, and security: see README.md in this repo.

Files

• bridge_search/: authoritative Python package — server.py (MCP registration), search_backends.py (Everything, AnyTXT, WSL find/grep), file_ops.py (guarded I/O), path_policy.py (allow/denylist), config.py (config loading), result_models.py (response helpers), constants.py (error codes).
• scripts/server.py: compatibility wrapper that adds the repo root to sys.path then runs bridge_search.server.
• scripts/rediscover_anytxt_endpoint.py: standalone runtime discovery command that probes candidate AnyTXT URLs, persists the working endpoint, and prints a concise report.
• bridge_search/__main__.py: same MCP stdio entry as the server when run as python -m bridge_search (requires package import path).
• config/bridge-search.config.example.json: optional JSON policy (copy to config/bridge-search.config.json; BRIDGE_SEARCH_CONFIG can point elsewhere — see README). Profile examples: config/bridge-search.config.everything-only.example.json, config/bridge-search.config.anytxt-only.example.json, config/bridge-search.config.everything-and-anytxt.example.json. Use backends for other combinations (e.g. WSL-only).
• references/install-registration.md: concise install/registration notes, including the mcporter package-name gotcha and verification steps.
• references/repo-discovery-audio-stem-separation.md: session notes on finding and validating an audio stem-separation repo across Windows and GitHub.

Workflow

1. Confirm WSL2 is the current environment.
2. Directory Naming (MANDATORY for Discovery): If you have just cloned this repository and the folder is not named windows-search, you must rename it to windows-search before proceeding. Agent discovery of this skill is tied to the folder name.
3. Verify Python 3.10+ and the mcp package are available (prefer ./install.sh from the windows-search root on Debian/Ubuntu WSL—it installs missing python3/pip/venv via apt when needed, then runs setup_skill.py --venv; otherwise run python3 scripts/setup_skill.py --venv; add --dev as needed; --skip-checks if backends exclude Windows services). If sudo prompts for a password, the human must run ./install.sh locally.
4. For rediscovering a previously used Windows repo or app, search by tool/repo name variants first, then verify with git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree and git remote -v before treating a folder as canonical. See references/repo-discovery-audio-stem-separation.md for a compact example.
5. Confirm Windows-side prerequisites match backends in config/bridge-search.config.json (defaults: Everything + AnyTXT):

• Voidtools Everything is installed and running (if backends.everything). es.exe comes from the Everything CLI package on Voidtools downloads—it is a separate download from the main GUI installer.
• es.exe resolution order is explicit: first Windows PATH; if not found, check the standard install paths C:\Program Files\Everything\es.exe and C:\Program Files (x86)\Everything\es.exe.
• AnyTXT Searcher is installed and the HTTP Search Service is enabled on the configured URL (probe the live WSL host gateway; a typical WSL2 URL is http://<wsl-default-gateway>:9921, and older sample docs may mention 9920) if backends.anytxt. The bridge talks to the live HTTP search service, and on this host that service is the Wt HTML search UI: fetch the session page, extract the tokenised form controls, and submit the search form when a JSON endpoint is not available. Do not look for an AnyTXT CLI binary.
  • Optional: curl http://$(ip route show default | awk '{print $3; exit}'):9921/ or rely on setup_skill.py post-install probes. From WSL, test the Windows host IP if localhost routing fails. Treat the Wt HTML search page returning HTTP 200 without the expected search form as “service reachable, bridge API/UI path not yet compatible/configured”, not as an unreachable service.
  • For endpoint recovery, use python3 scripts/rediscover_anytxt_endpoint.py first. It performs a lightweight UI/session probe and persists the working URL; add --verify-search only when you need content-search confirmation. The helper first checks C:\ProgramData\Anytxt\config\config.db for HttpSearch; if that setting is 0, the HTTP Search Service is disabled and rediscovery cannot succeed until the service is enabled in the AnyTXT app.

5. Tool-Only Enforcement:
   • DO NOT call es.exe or grep directly via run_shell_command if the MCP server can be started.
   • DO NOT search for an AnyTXT executable. It is handled exclusively via HTTP on the configured service port.
6. Use this search order:
   • Everything (locate_file_or_folder, default target_env=windows) for filename/path search. Use everywhere only when you also need WSL-side find (scoped to $HOME by default; full / requires config or BRIDGE_SEARCH_ALLOW_ROOT_LOCATOR=1).
   • AnyTXT (locate_content_inside_files) for content search.
   • Accept a "zero-hit" from Everything as no match in Everything’s indexed scope for that query (usually “not found” unless indexing lag, wrong filters, or path outside indexed locations—see Guardrails).
7. Default search scope should be the current Windows user’s document-style folders, for example under the profile (e.g. %USERPROFILE%\Documents, %USERPROFILE%\Desktop, %USERPROFILE%\Downloads). Adjust to the user’s actual layout when known.
8. For OneDrive searches, start at the configured OneDrive root (for example D:\OneDrive) and search the full tree first. Do not split the job into multiple narrower subdirectory searches unless there is a specific reason to isolate a subtree.
9. For large WSL-to-OneDrive backups, use references/large-archive-onedrive-backup.md: create/hash the archive on WSL/ext4 first, then copy to OneDrive with temporary names and size verification, because large archive reads or compression directly on /mnt/<drive>/OneDrive can fail with transient Cannot allocate memory errors.

Tool selection

• locate_file_or_folder: filename/path search. Default to target_env=windows for Windows files. Query text must not be blank.
• locate_content_inside_files: indexed content search. Use target_env=windows for AnyTXT-only searches and everywhere when you intentionally want WSL grep too.
• map_directory: get scoped structure before broad file operations or when you need pagination through a tree.
• manage_file: read, write, copy, move, delete, and mkdir with policy checks and explicit mutation semantics.
• get_health: diagnose backend reachability before inventing workarounds. Successful probes should refresh the last-known-good AnyTXT URL in config.

Guardrails

• The Absolute Zero Rule: If Everything (es.exe) returns no hits for a filename query, STOP. Do not escalate to a slower brute-force find or grep on /mnt/c/. A zero is a high-signal “no match” for that query in the indexer unless the human says Everything is still indexing, the file lives outside indexed paths, or the query/filters were wrong—in those cases, refine the query or scope; still do not brute-force /mnt/c.
• Bridge-Only Execution: Use manage_file, map_directory, locate_file_or_folder, and locate_content_inside_files for all operations. Do not hand-roll path conversions or shell commands.
• Query validation: Blank or whitespace-only queries are rejected with query_required. Do not use empty searches to probe backends.
• Encoding & Quoting: The bridge tools handle Windows path quoting and cp1252 encoding. Manual run_shell_command calls are likely to fail on paths with spaces or special characters.
• AnyTXT is a Service: Treat AnyTXT as a networked local service. If search fails, debug the live HTTP search service or its configured URL, not the local filesystem.
• AnyTXT root page caveat: http://<host>:9921/ returning HTTP 200 only proves the web UI is reachable. The bridge content backend must be able to drive the live search surface actually exposed by the service (JSON API where present, otherwise the Wt HTML form with its session token and controls); if the page lacks the expected search form or the probe cannot complete a real search, report anytxt_incompatible_endpoint rather than treating the service as healthy. Do not equate a reachable root page with bridge-compatible content search. Keep the resolved endpoint in config/bridge-search.config.json as the last-known-good value and refresh it if the listener moves; successful health/content searches should write the verified endpoint back into config.
• Structured results: All bridge tools return success, results, errors, warnings, and meta. Issues include stable machine-readable code fields. A clean zero-hit search is not an error.
• Partial backend failures: In multi-backend searches, success can still be true when one backend returns hits and another errors or times out; always read errors and warnings. If both errors and results are non-empty, meta.degraded is true.
• Privacy & Noise: Ignore AppData, browser profiles, node_modules, and caches unless explicitly instructed otherwise.
• Path policy: Reads, writes, map_directory, and WSL grep roots honor the same denylist (resolved paths under /etc, /mnt/c/Windows, /usr, /var, etc. are blocked). Optional BRIDGE_SEARCH_ALLOWED_PREFIXES and config allowed_prefixes restrict file operations to those prefixes and, when set, filter search tool result rows (Everything/find, WSL grep, AnyTXT) to matching paths. The env parser accepts : or ;; prefer ; when any Windows-style C:\... path is present. If you want the bridge to search additional Windows volumes, explicitly include their roots, for example D:\;E:\;F:\;X:\ or /mnt/d;/mnt/e;/mnt/f;/mnt/x. Config entries may be WSL or Windows absolute paths.
• Confirmation flag: is_confirmed is an agent workflow toggle—not authorization, not cryptographic proof of human approval, and not a substitute for OS-level approval. All writes and deletes still require it so the model explicitly opts in.
• Safer file mutations: manage_file will not overwrite existing destinations on copy/move unless overwrite=True, refuses source==destination and directory-into-itself operations, and refuses deletion of filesystem root or the current home directory.
• Encoding & symlinks: manage_file(read) tries common text encodings (utf-8, BOM variants, utf-16, cp1252) before failing. Mutating operations (write, copy, move, mkdir) are blocked on symlink paths; if you really mean the target, resolve and pass the real path explicitly. delete removes the symlink itself.
• WSL grep default root: Empty wsl_search_path uses $HOME. Grep from / needs allow_grep_from_filesystem_root in config/bridge-search.config.json or BRIDGE_SEARCH_ALLOW_ROOT_GREP=1. When root grep is allowed, the bridge still avoids traversing /mnt.
• Config file: Optional config/bridge-search.config.json (see config/bridge-search.config.example.json) adjusts denylist strength, confirmation flags, grep-from-root, and resource caps without editing Python. Example files include _security_warning: relaxing settings is at your own risk (see README for what can go wrong).

Integration: Legal Research

• Primary Provider: This skill (bridge-search) is the sole provider of Windows-side file discovery for the legal-local-research skill.
• Cross-Matter Context: When legal-local-research needs to check for prior matters or precedents stored on the Windows host, it must call this bridge.

Fast mental model

• Everything = locate_file_or_folder (Fastest)
• AnyTXT = locate_content_inside_files (Indexed Content over AnyTXT’s HTTP Search Service)
• Diagnostic = get_health (Check connectivity/services)
• AnyTXT Port = the configured HTTP service root on the current WSL host gateway (for example http://<wsl-default-gateway>:9921). Windows Search itself is not a network service.
• WSL2 Localhost = Host discovery uses the WSL default route gateway when /etc/resolv.conf is owned by Tailscale or another DNS provider.
• No hit from Everything = No match in the indexer for that query (treat as “not found” unless indexing/scope/query issues apply). Stop brute-forcing /mnt/c.
• If everything_help_text() or a Windows filename query hangs inside Python but a shell call to es.exe works, suspect a bridge-side deadlock or interop issue rather than Everything itself. In particular, the help-path must not take a non-reentrant lock and then call resolve_es_exe() again; use a re-entrant lock or split the cache path from the lookup path.
• Everything execution is intentionally PowerShell-wrapped from WSL. Regression tests should assert against a flattened argv/PowerShell command string, not raw list membership, and path_policy.resolve_path() must tolerate mocked subprocess.run(..., text=True) returning bytes.
• For a mounted AnyTXT public path, pair the tunnel rule with a local prefix-stripping proxy and keep the upstream listener private; see references/anytxt-path-prefix-proxy.md.

References

• references/anytxt-http-api-notes.md: HTTP API/probe caveat and filename-vs-content search distinction.
• references/anytxt-endpoint-runtime-discovery.md: last-known-good endpoint persistence and rediscovery notes.
• references/anytxt-path-prefix-proxy.md: mounted-path AnyTXT proxy pattern, verification checklist, and pitfalls.

When details matter

Use README.md for install, troubleshooting, and security. Implementation details live in the bridge_search/ package (the authoritative source): server.py, search_backends.py, file_ops.py, path_policy.py, config.py, and result_models.py. The scripts/ directory contains compatibility wrappers and the installer.