R3BL Fuzzy Search

Interactive fuzzy search across file contents using fzf, with live preview and instant results.

Features

• Interactive Search Panel: Always-editable search box with live preview as you type
• Fuzzy Search: Smart search using fzf that tolerates typos and is case-insensitive
• Fast Results: Powered by ripgrep for lightning-fast file content search
• Live Preview: See results update in real-time as you type (250ms debounce)
• Dual View Modes:
  • Preview results in interactive panel with clickable navigation
  • Press Enter to open full results in a code editor tab
• Customizable Excludes: Configure which files and directories to exclude from search on-the-fly
• Gitignore Support: Toggle .gitignore respect on/off during search
• Result Limit: Configurable maximum number of results (default: 100) with visual warning
• Respects VS Code Settings: Font size, line height, and editor settings automatically applied
• Smart Result Ranking: Best matches appear first, sorted by relevance

Screenshots

Interactive search panel with live preview and always-editable search box

Live preview shows results as you type with 250ms debounce

Click any result to jump directly to that location in your code

Press Enter to open full results in a Search Editor tab with clickable line numbers

Configure exclude patterns and .gitignore respect with interactive buttons

Requirements

This extension requires the following command-line tools to be installed:

• ripgrep (rg): Fast file content search

  • macOS: brew install ripgrep
  • Linux: sudo apt install ripgrep (Debian/Ubuntu) or sudo dnf install ripgrep (Fedora)
  • More: https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep#installation

• fzf: Fuzzy finder

  • macOS: brew install fzf
  • Linux: sudo apt install fzf (Debian/Ubuntu) or sudo dnf install fzf (Fedora)
  • More: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf#installation

Platform Support: macOS and Linux only (Windows is not supported)

Usage

Keyboard Shortcut

Press Alt+Shift+D to start a fuzzy search (same shortcut for both macOS and Linux).

Search Workflow

1. Open search panel: Press Alt+Shift+D to open the interactive search panel
2. Type your query: Start typing your fuzzy search pattern (e.g., exprt will find export)
3. See live results: Results appear in real-time as you type (250ms debounce)
4. Navigate instantly: Click any result in the panel to jump directly to that location
5. Modify and re-search: Edit your query anytime to refine results
6. Open full results (optional): Press Enter to save results to /tmp/ and open in a Search Editor tab
7. Configure settings: Use icon buttons to toggle .gitignore respect or modify exclude patterns
   • Gear icon: Modify exclude patterns
   • Search-stop icon: Toggle .gitignore respect on/off

Example

Search for exprt activate (with a typo):

• Type in the interactive panel
• Live results show: export function activate, export const activate, etc.
• Click any result to navigate instantly
• Press Enter to open full results in editor tab
• Results saved to: /tmp/exprt_activate.code-search

Extension Settings

This extension contributes the following settings:

• r3blFuzzySearch.fzfPath: Path to fzf executable (default: fzf)
• r3blFuzzySearch.ripgrepPath: Path to ripgrep executable (default: rg)
• r3blFuzzySearch.defaultExcludePattern: Default comma-separated glob patterns for files to exclude (default: **/node_modules/**,**/.git/**,**/.vscode/**,**/target/**)
• r3blFuzzySearch.resultLimit: Maximum number of search results to display (default: 100, range: 1-10000)
• r3blFuzzySearch.respectGitignore: Automatically respect .gitignore files when searching (default: true)

Commands

• R3BL Fuzzy Search: Interactive Search - Open interactive search panel with live preview

Keyboard Shortcuts

You can customize this shortcut in VS Code's Keyboard Shortcuts settings by searching for the command ID above.

Advantages Over Built-in Search

Known Issues

• Results are limited to the configured maximum (default 100). If you hit this limit, consider narrowing your search query.
• Windows is not supported due to simplified path handling for Unix-like systems.

Shared Infrastructure

This extension uses the R3BL Shared extension for centralized services across all R3BL extensions (message queuing, global configuration, and more).

See the R3BL Shared documentation for available services, API usage, and configuration options.

Release Notes

See CHANGELOG.md for detailed release notes and version history.

License

MIT

Contributing

Found a bug or have a feature request? Please open an issue at: https://github.com/r3bl-org/r3bl-vscode-extensions/issues

Enjoy fuzzy searching!