🔍 URI Grep: Trigger Global Search via URI

URI Grep is a lightweight VS Code extension that allows you to trigger the built-in "Search in Files" feature (Global Search) using a custom URI scheme. It's designed for seamless integration with external scripts, batch files, or automation tools.

📦 Install

✨ Key Features

• 🚀 External Integration: Launch complex searches directly from your terminal, scripts, or other applications.
• ⚙️ Deep Customization: Control every aspect of the search, including regex, case sensitivity, file inclusion/exclusion, and context lines.
• 🔄 Smart Fallbacks: Intelligent priority system: URI Parameter > VS Code Setting > left untouched.
• 📋 Context-Aware: Support for showing surrounding lines (context) in search results.

🚀 Usage

URI Format

vscode://mfujita47.uri-grep/search?query=<search_term>&[parameters]

Supported Parameters

Boolean parameters accept true/1/yes/on and false/0/no/off (case-insensitive). A parameter written without a value — &isRegex — means true. Anything else is reported in the URI Grep output channel and ignored.

The URI path must be /search; any other path is rejected with an error message.

🧩 Note: VS Code forks use a different scheme

Forks register their own URL protocol, so vscode:// only reaches VS Code itself. Replace the scheme with the fork's urlProtocol (found in its resources/app/product.json):

Forks usually pull extensions from Open VSX rather than the VS Code Marketplace, so install from Open VSX — e.g. antigravity-ide --install-extension mfujita47.uri-grep — or from a downloaded .vsix.

🧭 Note: Unspecified parameters are left untouched

A parameter is only sent to VS Code when the URI specifies it, or when the corresponding urigrep.default* setting has been set explicitly. Anything else is not sent at all, so the Search panel keeps whatever it currently holds — a URI can change just the query without wiping the "files to include" box you typed by hand.

The exception is triggerSearch, which is always sent (defaulting to true); without it VS Code would only fill in the Search panel without running the search.

If you want a search to be fully reproducible regardless of the panel's current state, spell out every relevant parameter in the URI, or pin them via the urigrep.default* settings.

📐 Note: contextLines opens the Search Editor

VS Code's search panel command (workbench.action.findInFiles) does not accept a contextLines argument — only the Search Editor supports context lines. Therefore:

• If contextLines is present in the URI, the search is opened in a Search Editor (search.action.openEditor, reusing an existing Search Editor if there is one).
• Otherwise, the search is opened in the usual search panel.

The urigrep.defaultContextLines setting on its own does not switch to the Search Editor; it only supplies a value when the URI specifies contextLines without a valid number.

🔤 Note: URI encoding

The query string is taken literally except for percent-encoding, so + is kept as + (unlike application/x-www-form-urlencoded, where + means a space). This means regular expressions such as \d+ and searches such as C++ work as typed.

Consequences:

• Use %20 for a space. A literal + is not a space.
• & and # cannot appear directly in a value — VS Code decodes the URI before the extension sees it, so they would split the query. Encode them twice (%2526 for &, %2523 for #).
• On some shells, &, ^ and % also need shell-level quoting or escaping.

Examples

Search for console.log in TypeScript files:

vscode://mfujita47.uri-grep/search?query=console\.log&filesToInclude=src/**/*.ts&isRegex=true

Launch from Command Line:

• Command Prompt (cmd.exe):

  start "" "vscode://mfujita47.uri-grep/search?query=TODO&isCaseSensitive=true"
  

• PowerShell:

  Start-Process "vscode://mfujita47.uri-grep/search?query=FIXME&contextLines=3"
  

⚙️ Configuration

Values used when the URI does not specify a parameter. Settings you never touch have no effect: the parameter is simply not sent, and the Search panel keeps its current value.

• urigrep.defaultQuery: Search term.
• urigrep.defaultFilesToInclude: Inclusion pattern.
• urigrep.defaultFilesToExclude: Exclusion pattern.
• urigrep.defaultIsRegex: Regex.
• urigrep.defaultIsCaseSensitive: Case sensitivity.
• urigrep.defaultMatchWholeWord: Whole word.
• urigrep.defaultUseExcludeSettingsAndIgnoreFiles: Respect .gitignore and exclude settings.
• urigrep.defaultContextLines: Fallback used when the URI specifies contextLines without a valid number. Does not by itself switch to the Search Editor.
• urigrep.defaultTriggerSearch: Whether to run the search immediately (Default: true). Unlike the others, this one always applies.

📜 Changelog

Every version is published as a GitHub Release with its notes and a downloadable .vsix. The full history lives in CHANGELOG.md.

📄 License

MIT License