Private Github Search

Private GitHub search

GitHub's modern code search (the one that indexes private repos) is web-only; gh search code uses the legacy engine and often returns nothing for private repos. Instead, search a local mirror of all the user's repos - it covers the same content as GitHub's index (default branch, non-fork) and a full search takes milliseconds.

Searching

Find the bundled sync script (works for plugin installs and manual symlinks):

find ~/.claude ~/.codex -name "private-github-search-sync.sh" 2>/dev/null | sort -V | tail -1

Always refresh first - it exits instantly if the mirror was synced within the last hour, and takes ~15s otherwise (--force syncs regardless of age):

bash <script-path>
rg -il 'pattern' ~/repo-mirror/repos          # which files
rg -in 'pattern' ~/repo-mirror/repos | head   # matching lines

First-time setup

If ~/repo-mirror/owners.txt doesn't exist: ask the user which GitHub accounts to mirror (don't guess - they may manage several), write them one per line to ~/repo-mirror/owners.txt, then run the sync script in the background (initial clone takes a few minutes; needs gh auth with access to those accounts).

Caveats

• Only the default-branch tip is mirrored - for history or other branches, use git log -S in a full clone or GitHub web search.
• The mirror may contain private data: keep it out of synced folders and never commit or publish its contents.

Source: ykdojo/claude-code-tips → skills/private-github-search/SKILL.md