🔍 Search Everywhere Lite

Fast, minimalistic text search for VS Code & Cursor.
🚀 Born from the need to move from JetBrains IDEs (like WebStorm) to VS Code/Cursor — this is the perfect “Search Everywhere”-style solution you’ve been missing.

Last updated: August 10, 2025

Why this extension?

JetBrains IDEs have an amazing Search Everywhere feature that’s quick, smart, and shows results with context.
When switching to VS Code or Cursor, I couldn’t find anything that felt the same — so I built it.
Now you can enjoy lightning-fast, keyboard-driven search without leaving your flow.

✨ Features

• 🔎 Text search across files (case-insensitive by default)
• ⚡ Instant results with highlighted matches
• 🧠 Context preview around each match
• 🌐 Custom WebView with Prism.js syntax highlighting
• 🎯 Keyboard navigation (Enter, ↑/↓, Esc)
• 🧭 Scopes: Workspace / Open files / Current file / node_modules
• 🏷 Flags: Case / Regex / Word — re-searches immediately when toggled
• 📌 Single pinned panel (no duplicate tabs), opens from anywhere in the UI
• 🚦 Live progress + cancels previous searches; ignores stale results
• 🧷 Stable UI: no flicker while toggling flags or changing scope

🎯 Scopes & Flags

Scopes

• Workspace (default) — ignores node_modules, .git, dist, build, out.
• Open files — currently visible editors + loaded docs.
• Current file — search only in the active file.
• node_modules — focused scan with smart limits (caps file size & per-file matches).

Flags

• Case — case sensitive matches.
• Regex — treat query as RegExp (invalid patterns show a friendly error).
• Word — whole-word matches.

Switching scope or toggling any flag re-runs the search immediately with your last query.

🏎 Performance & UX

• Native-first: prefers VS Code’s built-in search (findTextInFiles); falls back to a fast parallel FS scan when needed.
• Smart scanning:
  • Cheap prefilter for non-regex queries
  • Size caps for huge files; stricter limits inside node_modules
  • Parallel workers with cancellation
• Responsive by design:
  • Cancels the previous search when you type/toggle/switch scope
  • Ignores stale results (monotonic sequence IDs)
  • Live progress: updates match & file counts while searching
• Smooth UI:
  • Single pinned WebView panel (no duplicate tabs)
  • Stable reveal from any view (Explorer/Git/Extensions/Terminal)
  • Atomic results update (no interim blank states)
  • No focus/scroll jank while the Flags menu is open

⌨️ Usage & Keybindings

Open

• Cmd+Shift+A (macOS) / Ctrl+Shift+A (Win/Linux)
  Works from anywhere (Explorer, Git, Extensions, Terminal).

Use

• Type to search; results update instantly (debounced).
• ↑/↓ navigate results · Enter open · Esc close.
• Change Scope or toggle Flags — search re-runs immediately.

Commands

• Search Everywhere: Open Custom Search (Text Search)
  (searchEverywhere.openCustomSearch)
• Search Everywhere: Bind to ⌘⇧F (override Find in Files)
  (searchEverywhere.bindCmdShiftF)

Optional: replace Find in Files (⌘⇧F)

[
  { "key": "cmd+shift+f", "command": "searchEverywhere.openCustomSearch", "when": "editorTextFocus || !editorIsOpen" },
  { "key": "cmd+shift+f", "command": "-workbench.action.findInFiles" }
]

✅ Lightweight – zero config
💡 Perfect for large monorepos
🌈 Built with TypeScript, Prism.js, and WebView magic

Screenshots

Single result

Multiple results
Syntax-highlighted matches with <mark> highlighting and context

Flags used for search

🛠 Development (for contributors)

pnpm install
pnpm run compile
pnpm exec vsce package