IntelliJ Styled Search

Search your workspace in a movable IntelliJ IDEA-style panel for VS Code. Narrow the results, read and edit the matching code in place, and follow symbol usages without losing your working context.

Open IntelliJ Search: Search, enter a query, and press Enter or Run. See keyboard shortcuts.

See it in use

Watch the short demos below, download an MP4 to pause and replay, or open a still image for a motion-free view.

1. Find a match and read its context

Search for scheduleTask, then select a result to see the surrounding file in the embedded editor. Drag the title bar to move the panel, resize it from the corner, or adjust the results/preview split.

8-second demo · Download MP4 · View still

2. Focus on the files that matter

Set Files scope to src/**, !**/*.test.ts to search source files while excluding tests. Combine scope with case-sensitive, whole-word, regex, or multiline search. Each workspace remembers its last scope, including an empty scope.

3. Bring back a previous search

Open History or press Alt+H to filter executed queries and recall one with the keyboard. Files scope has its own workspace history. Selecting a history entry restores it; press Enter or Run when ready.

4. Make a small edit right in the preview

Edit the selected file in the preview, then click Save or press Cmd/Ctrl+S. The modified indicator and enabled Save button show pending changes. Language features such as hover, completion, and navigation use the providers available in your VS Code installation.

7-second demo · Download MP4 · View still

5. Follow a symbol's usages

After building the graph index, click an inline usages link beside a symbol to open its references in a usage-results panel. Select a result to preview its calling code. Results show confidence labels. When candidate references are available, Cand toggles their visibility; More loads the next page when needed.

7-second demo · Download MP4 · View still

These captures show the running extension in a small TypeScript example project, with idle pauses shortened. Result counts and available language features vary with your workspace.

Get started

Open a project folder, then run IntelliJ Search: Search from the Command Palette or IntelliJ Search → Search in the editor context menu. Selected text, or the word at the cursor, prefills the query. Opening the panel does not run the prefilled query by default; press Enter or Run when ready.

• macOS: Cmd+Shift+Alt+F searches from the editor; Cmd+Shift+Alt+P opens search anywhere.
• Windows / Linux: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+F searches from the editor; Ctrl+Shift+Alt+P opens search anywhere.

Features

• Movable, resizable search panel with streamed results and an editable Monaco preview.
• Literal, case-sensitive, whole-word, regex, and multiline search; Shift+Enter adds a query line. ML enables regex dotAll when regex is on.
• Ant-style include/exclude patterns and workspace-specific Files scope persistence.
• Filterable query and scope histories, with ↑/↓ recall and draft restoration. Alt+↑/↓ navigates results.
• Local Rust search index (zoekt), with a codesearch/ripgrep fallback while the native runtime or index is unavailable. Saved file changes update the index incrementally.
• Graph-backed usage navigation and optional local Codeidx MCP access for coding agents.

Index setup

Run IntelliJ Search: Force Rebuild Search + Graph Index to prepare or refresh both indexes. Initial searches can use fallback while the native index is unavailable; startup does not build it automatically with the default settings. Use IntelliJ Search: Show Index Health to inspect readiness and pending updates.

This extension targets desktop VS Code. The universal release bundles Windows x64 and Apple Silicon macOS native runtimes. Other platforms need a matching runtime or Cargo for a local build; text search can fall back to codesearch. Preview language features depend on installed language extensions.

Commands

The Command Palette exposes these commands under IntelliJ Search:

Common settings

All names below start with intellijStyledSearch..

See the search controls and settings guide for history shortcuts, scope persistence, and preview configuration.

Codeidx MCP for coding agents

The extension can expose local text search, symbols, references, and snippets to MCP clients. In trusted workspaces the endpoint starts automatically by default and publishes workspace-local discovery and launcher files under .codeidx/. Each VS Code window uses its own port and workspace identity.

See the MCP setup and tool guide for client configuration, health checks, and query examples.

Development

See the runtime and development guide, release instructions, and Marketplace capture guide.

npm install
npm run compile
npm test