Winston Searchill

A whole-codebase contextual search for VS Code. Results are ranked by relevance (exact matches first) and shown as context cards in a panel that opens to the right of your editor — each card shows the matched line with configurable context above and below, so you can see where a term is defined or used without leaving the results view.

Features

• Relevance ranking, highest first:
  1. Exact whole-word, case-sensitive
  2. Exact whole-word, any case
  3. Substring, case-sensitive
  4. Substring, any case Matches whose file path contains the query are boosted within their tier.
• Context cards — default 3 lines above / 10 below the match, configurable.
• Syntax highlighting in the context cards, via a locally bundled highlight.js (no network access). The palette follows your light / dark / high-contrast theme; see the note below on how closely it matches.
• Results grouped by file with collapsible headers and per-file match counts.
• Click a card to jump to that exact line in the editor (opened in the left group).
• Live search as you type, with in-panel toggles for match-case, whole-word, and regex that override your defaults for that search. Queries shorter than 3 characters don't auto-search (they match too much); press Enter to run them.
• Non-blocking, streaming search. The scan runs incrementally on the extension host and yields between files, so typing never freezes. A centered loading indicator shows files-searched / files-total while results are being found; once the first result arrives it moves to a compact indicator under the search box and cards stream in, staying ranked (exact matches first) as they appear.
• Expand all / collapse all file groups.

Usage

• Command Palette → Winston Searchill: Search Workspace (default keybinding Cmd+Shift+F on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+F elsewhere). This overrides VS Code's built-in Find in Files on that chord; native search is still reachable from the Search view icon and the Command Palette.
• With text selected or the cursor on a word → Winston Searchill: Search Selection or Word Under Cursor (Cmd+Alt+G / Ctrl+Alt+G).

Settings (winstonSearchill.*)

The case / whole-word / regex toggles in the panel override the corresponding setting for the current search only; the settings are the defaults each time the panel opens.

Known limitation: panel width

VS Code's extension API does not allow forcing an editor group to an exact fraction of the window. The panel opens beside your editor and this extension requests a roughly one-third split via vscode.setEditorLayout, but the exact width depends on VS Code and can be adjusted by dragging the divider.

Note: syntax highlighting fidelity

VS Code does not expose a theme's syntax token colors to webviews, so the cards can't reproduce your theme's exact keyword/string/etc. hues. Instead, the extension bundles highlight.js locally and applies a curated palette that switches on your light / dark / high-contrast mode and borrows VS Code color variables where good matches exist (e.g. comments). The result is consistent with your theme and correct for light/dark, but keyword colors are an approximation rather than a pixel-exact match. Highlighting covers ~40 common languages (inferred from the file extension); unknown types fall back to plain text with the match still highlighted.

Development

npm install
npm run build      # bundle with esbuild
npm run typecheck  # type-check only
npm run watch      # rebuild on change

Press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host and try it.

Building and installing the .vsix

npm install
npm run package    # runs `vsce package`, producing winston-searchill-<version>.vsix

Install the resulting file with either:

code --install-extension winston-searchill-0.1.0.vsix

or in VS Code: Extensions view → ⋯ menu → Install from VSIX… → pick the file. Reload the window when prompted.

Roadmap (not in v1)

Fuzzy matching, search history / saved searches, per-card context adjustment, include/exclude glob UI, copy-result, and a read-only replace preview.