Search everywhere

The extension is inspired by JetBrains IDEs feature "Search Everywhere". It allows user to easily navigate through files and symbols in the whole workspace.

It is the alternative for "Go to Symbol in Workspace..." - fully customizable.

🚀 v3.2.0 Released: In-File Scope Search, Split Editor & Remote Fixes

• 🔍 In-File Scope Search & Outline Navigation: Search symbols in the current active file (searchEverywhere.searchCurrentFile), or drill down into any file with alt + right / right-arrow button, and back with alt + left / Back button.
• 📖 Open to the Side: Open any file or symbol in a side-by-side editor with cmd + enter / ctrl + enter or alt + enter.
• ⚡ Sub-millisecond query latency (~0.20 ms) powered by covering B-Tree indexes (and 0.00 ms instant LRU cache).
• 🌐 Remote Development Fix: Seamless multi-tab caching for SSH, WSL, Dev Containers, and virtual file systems.
• 🐘 Massive scale: Effortlessly indexes and searches workspaces with over 2,000,000 symbols with 95% less RAM.

How it works

The extension indexes the whole workspace using an embedded SQLite WebAssembly database. It scans both files and all symbols for each file according to configured patterns. The scan can be initialized automatically on startup of Visual Studio Code or postponed until the first launch.

After the scan is completed, the extension continuously tracks changes in the workspace:

• add, rename, or delete functions, classes, variables, or React components
• add, rename, delete, or move files across directories or different projects in a multi-root workspace

Next-Gen Performance Highlights (v3.0)

Features

• Init on startup or first call

• Notification placeholder

  toast

  

  status bar

  

• Debounce of search results while filtering

  enabled

  

  disabled

  

• Highlight of selected symbol

  enabled

  

  disabled

  

• Customizable icon for each item type

• Customizable filter phrase for each item type

  

• Customizable items filter to reduce items set

• Customizable help phrase

• Customizable exclude patterns

• Customizable include pattern

• Ability to decide whether use extension exclude patterns or "Files: Exclude" and "Search: Exclude" patterns

• Item icon to open it to the side

• Drill-down search in a specific file: search symbols inside any file by clicking the right-arrow icon button or using a shortcut (alt + right). Return to workspace search anytime with alt + left or the Back button.

• Dedicated output with logs related to triggered actions, scanned directories structure, etc.

• Ability to decide whether the items should be sorted by type

• Ability to cache the scanned workspaceData to as a result scan the workspace only once

• Shared cache across git worktrees and local clones of the same repository

• Recent items and currently open editor files displayed when search query is empty

Commands

• searchEverywhere.search

  Search any symbol/file in the currently opened workspace.

  Default keybinding for the command is:

  • mac: alt + cmd + p
  • win/linux: ctrl + alt + p

• searchEverywhere.searchCurrentFile

  Search symbols within the currently active editor file (scoped file search / outline).

  Default keybinding:

  • mac: alt + cmd + o
  • win/linux: ctrl + alt + o

• searchEverywhere.navigateIntoFile

  Drill down into the selected file item to search symbols within it while inside Search Everywhere. Also available via the right-arrow button on file items.

  Default keybinding: alt + right (mac/win/linux, configurable)

• searchEverywhere.navigateBack

  Navigate back to the workspace search from a file search, preserving your previous query. Also available via the Back button on the title bar.

  Default keybinding: alt + left (mac/win/linux, configurable)

• searchEverywhere.openToTheSide

  Open the selected symbol or file into a split editor beside the active editor. Also available via the split editor icon button on each item.

  Default keybindings:

  • mac: cmd + enter or alt + enter (configurable)
  • win/linux: ctrl + enter or alt + enter (configurable)

• searchEverywhere.reload

  Re-index the whole workspace.

• searchEverywhere.clearSharedCache

  Clear the shared repository cache used across git worktrees and clones.

Extension Settings

• searchEverywhere.shouldInitOnStartup

Should indexing be initialized on Visual Studio Code startup. Default value: false.

• searchEverywhere.shouldDisplayNotificationInStatusBar

Should display indexing notification in toast or status bar. Default value: false.

• searchEverywhere.shouldHighlightSymbol

Should the selected symbol be highlighted. Default value: false.

• searchEverywhere.shouldUseDebounce

Should the debounce function be used while returning filter results (useful in case of the large workspace). Default value: true.

• searchEverywhere.icons

Ability to define icons that should be displayed for appropriate item types. According to VSC API, only Octicons are allowed. Not defined item type will not have any icon.

Default value:

{
  "0": "symbol-file",
  "1": "file-submodule",
  "2": "symbol-namespace",
  "3": "package",
  "4": "symbol-class",
  "5": "symbol-method",
  "6": "symbol-property",
  "7": "symbol-field",
  "8": "symbol-ruler",
  "9": "symbol-enum",
  "10": "symbol-interface",
  "11": "variable-group",
  "12": "symbol-variable",
  "13": "symbol-constant",
  "14": "symbol-string",
  "15": "symbol-numeric",
  "16": "symbol-boolean",
  "17": "symbol-array",
  "18": "symbol-keyword",
  "19": "symbol-key",
  "20": "remove",
  "21": "symbol-enum-member",
  "22": "symbol-structure",
  "23": "symbol-event",
  "24": "symbol-operator",
  "25": "type-hierarchy-sub"
}

Below you can find the table with information which symbol kind refers to which symbol name:

• searchEverywhere.itemsFilter

Ability to define a filter that should be applied to items. All kinds can be find here: https://code.visualstudio.com/api/references/vscode-api#SymbolKind

Default value:

{
  "allowedKinds": [],
  "ignoredKinds": [],
  "ignoredNames": []
}

Below is an example which will remove from items all arrays (17), booleans (16) and the ones containing "foo" string in the name:

{
  "allowedKinds": [],
  "ignoredKinds": [16, 17],
  "ignoredNames": ["foo"]
}

• searchEverywhere.shouldUseItemsFilterPhrases

Should be a possibility to filter by assigned filter phrases. Default value: true.

• searchEverywhere.itemsFilterPhrases

Phrases for item type which could be used for narrowing the results down.

Default value:

{
  "0": "$$",
  "4": "@@",
  "11": "!!",
  "14": "##",
  "17": "%%"
}

• searchEverywhere.helpPhrase

A phrase which should invoke help. Default value: ?

• searchEverywhere.shouldItemsBeSorted

Ability to decide whether items should be sorted by type. Default value: true

• searchEverywhere.exclude

An array of globs. Any file matching these globs will be excluded from indexing.

Default value:

[
  "**/.git",
  "**/.svn",
  "**/.hg",
  "**/.CVS",
  "**/.DS_Store",
  "**/package-lock.json",
  "**/yarn.lock",
  "**/node_modules/**",
  "**/bower_components/**",
  "**/coverage/**",
  "**/.vscode/**",
  "**/.vscode-test/**",
  "**/.history/**",
  "**/.cache/**",
  "**/.cache-loader/**",
  "**/out/**",
  "**/dist/**"
]

• searchEverywhere.include

String with include pattern. Any file matching this glob will be included in indexing.

Default value:

"**/*.{js,jsx,ts,tsx}"

• searchEverywhere.excludeMode

Ability to choose which exclude option should be applied. If gitignore file is not found or is empty, the extension option is used as a fallback. Available options: search everywhere, files and search, gitignore. To see the changes from the updated gitignore file after indexing, the reload must be done. Default value: search everywhere.

• searchEverywhere.shouldWorkspaceDataBeCached

Ability to decide if the workspace should be indexed only once. Each next startup of Visual Studio Code will collect data from cache. Default value: true

• searchEverywhere.shouldSearchSelection

Ability to decide whether selection in the active editor is put in the search. Default value: true

• searchEverywhere.excludeProperties

Ability to exclude object properties (symbol kind 6) from indexing to drastically reduce memory usage and speed up search in large projects. Default value: true

• searchEverywhere.excludeVariables

Ability to exclude variables and constants (symbol kind 12) from indexing. Keeping this false ensures variables and React functional components remain searchable. Default value: false

• searchEverywhere.shareCacheAcrossWorktrees

Ability to share the indexed database cache across git worktrees and local clones of the same repository. Default value: true

• searchEverywhere.showRecentItemsOnEmpty

Ability to show recently visited items and active editor tabs when the search query is empty. Default value: true

• searchEverywhere.recentItemsLimit

Maximum number of recent items to show when the search query is empty. Default value: 10

Release Notes

Please check changelog for release details.

How to run it locally

If you would like to run the extension locally, go through the following steps:

1. clone the repository
2. run npm install to install all dependencies
3. open run and debug view
4. run run extension
5. enjoy development!

Author

Kamil Bysiec

Acknowledgment

If you found it useful somehow, I would be grateful if you could leave a "Rating & Review" in Marketplace or/and leave a star in the project's GitHub repository.

Thank you.