ripgrep

name ripgrep description Use when searching text in files, codebases, books, or documents. Use when finding files by pattern, searching large files that are too big to read fully, extracting specific content from many files, or when grep/find is too slow. Triggers on "search for", "find occurrences", "look for pattern", "search in files". Ripgrep (rg) - Fast Text Search Tool Overview Ripgrep is a line-oriented search tool that recursively searches directories for regex patterns. It's 10-100x faster than grep and respects .gitignore by default. Use it instead of grep, find, or manually reading large files. Core principle: When you need to find text in files, use ripgrep. Don't read entire files into context when you can search them. When to Use Use ripgrep when: Searching for text patterns across a codebase or directory Finding all occurrences of a function, variable, or string Searching through books, documentation, or large text files Files are too large to read fully into context Looking for specific content in many files at once Finding files that contain (or don't contain) certain patterns Extracting matching lines for analysis Don't use when: You need the full file content (use Read tool) Simple glob pattern matching for filenames only (use Glob tool) You need structured data extraction (consider jq, awk) Quick Reference Task Command Basic search rg "pattern" [path] Case insensitive rg -i "pattern" Smart case (auto) rg -S "pattern" Whole word only rg -w "word" Fixed string (no regex) rg -F "literal.string" Show context lines rg -C 3 "pattern" (3 before & after) Show line numbers rg -n "pattern" (default in tty) Only filenames rg -l "pattern" Files without match rg --files-without-match "pattern" Count matches rg -c "pattern" Only matching part rg -o "pattern" Invert match rg -v "pattern" Multiline search rg -U "pattern.*\nmore" File Filtering By File Type Ripgrep has built-in file type definitions. Use -t to include, -T to exclude: # Search only Python files rg -t py "def main" # Search only JavaScript and TypeScript rg -t js -t ts "import" # Exclude test files rg -T test "function" # List all known types rg --type-list Common types: py , js , ts , rust , go , java , c , cpp , rb , php , html , css , json , yaml , md , txt , sh By Glob Pattern # Only .tsx files rg -g "*.tsx" "useState" # Exclude node_modules (in addition to gitignore) rg -g "!node_modules/**" "pattern" # Only files in src directory rg -g "src/**" "pattern" # Multiple globs rg -g "*.js" -g "*.ts" "pattern" # Case insensitive globs rg --iglob "*.JSON" "pattern" By File Size # Skip files larger than 1MB rg --max-filesize 1M "pattern" Directory Control # Limit depth rg --max-depth 2 "pattern" # Search hidden files (dotfiles) rg --hidden "pattern" # Follow symlinks rg -L "pattern" # Ignore all ignore files (.gitignore, etc.) rg --no-ignore "pattern" # Progressive unrestricted (-u can stack up to 3 times) rg -u "pattern" # --no-ignore rg -uu "pattern" # --no-ignore --hidden rg -uuu "pattern" # --no-ignore --hidden --binary Context Options # Lines after match rg -A 5 "pattern" # Lines before match rg -B 5 "pattern" # Lines before and after rg -C 5 "pattern" # Print entire file on match (passthrough mode) rg --passthru "pattern" Output Formats # Just filenames with matches rg -l "pattern" # Files without matches rg --files-without-match "pattern" # Count matches per file rg -c "pattern" # Count total matches (not lines) rg --count-matches "pattern" # Only the matched text (not full line) rg -o "pattern" # JSON output (for parsing) rg --json "pattern" # Vim-compatible output (file:line:col:match) rg --vimgrep "pattern" # With statistics rg --stats "pattern" Regex Patterns Ripgrep uses Rust regex syntax by default: # Alternation rg "foo|bar" # Character classes rg "[0-9]+" rg "[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*" # Word boundaries rg "\bword\b" # Quantifiers rg "colou?r" # 0 or 1 rg "go+gle" # 1 or more rg "ha*" # 0 or more rg "x{2,4}" # 2 to 4 times # Groups rg "(foo|bar)baz" # Lookahead/lookbehind (requires -P for PCRE2) rg -P "(?<=prefix)content" rg -P "content(?=suffix)" Multiline Matching # Enable multiline mode rg -U "start.*\nend" # Dot matches newline too rg -U --multiline-dotall "start.*end" # Match across lines rg -U "function\s+\w+\([^)]*\)\s*\{" Replacement (Preview Only) Ripgrep can show what replacements would look like (doesn't modify files): # Simple replacement rg "old" -r "new" # Using capture groups rg "(\w+)@(\w+)" -r " $2 :: $1 " # Remove matches (empty replacement) rg "pattern" -r "" Searching Special Files Compressed Files # Search in gzip, bzip2, xz, lz4, lzma, zstd files rg -z "pattern" file.gz rg -z "pattern" archive.tar.gz Binary Files # Include binary files rg --binary "pattern" # Treat binary as text (may produce garbage) rg -a "pattern" Large Files For files too large to read into context: # Search and show only matching lines rg "specific pattern" large_file.txt # Limit matches to first N per file rg -m 10 "pattern" huge_file.log # Show byte offset for large file navigation rg -b "pattern" large_file.txt # Use with head/tail for pagination rg "pattern" large_file.txt | head -100 Performance Tips Be specific with paths - Don't search from root when you know the subdir Use file types - -t py is faster than -g "*.py" Use fixed strings - -F when you don't need regex Limit depth - --max-depth when you know structure Let gitignore work - Don't use --no-ignore unless needed Use word boundaries - -w is optimized Common Patterns Find function definitions # Python rg "def \w+\(" -t py # JavaScript/TypeScript rg "(function|const|let|var)\s+\w+\s*=" -t js -t ts rg "^\s*(async\s+)?function" -t js # Go rg "^func\s+\w+" -t go Find imports/requires # Python rg "^(import|from)\s+" -t py # JavaScript rg "^(import|require\()" -t js # Go rg "^import\s+" -t go Find TODO/FIXME comments rg "(TODO|FIXME|HACK|XXX):" Find error handling # Python rg "except\s+\w+:" -t py # JavaScript rg "\.catch\(|catch\s*\(" -t js Find class definitions # Python rg "^class\s+\w+" -t py # JavaScript/TypeScript rg "^(export\s+)?(default\s+)?class\s+\w+" -t js -t ts Search in books/documents # Find chapter headings rg "^(Chapter|CHAPTER)\s+\d+" book.txt # Find quoted text rg '"[^"]{20,}"' document.txt # Find paragraphs containing word rg -C 2 "keyword" book.txt Combining with Other Tools # Find files, then search rg --files | xargs rg "pattern" # Search and count by file rg -c "pattern" | sort -t: -k2 -rn # Search and open in editor rg -l "pattern" | xargs code # Extract unique matches rg -o "\b[A-Z]{2,}\b" | sort -u # Search multiple patterns from file rg -f patterns.txt Exit Codes Code Meaning 0 Matches found 1 No matches found 2 Error occurred Useful for scripting: if rg -q "pattern" file.txt; then echo "Found" fi Common Mistakes Mistake Fix Pattern has special chars Use -F for fixed strings or escape: rg "foo\.bar" Can't find hidden files Add --hidden or -uu Missing node_modules Add --no-ignore (but it's usually right to skip) Regex too complex Try -P for PCRE2 with lookahead/lookbehind Output too long Use -m N to limit, or -l for just filenames Binary file skipped Add --binary or -a for text mode Need to see full line Remove -o (only-matching) flag When to Prefer Other Tools Task Better Tool Structured JSON queries jq Column-based text processing awk Stream editing/substitution sed (actually modifies files) Find files by name only fd or find Simple file listing ls or glob Full file content needed Read tool