Needle

What

Needle is a VSCode/Cursor extension for fast in-file text search. Type a pattern, see all matching lines, jump to the one you want.

Powered by a native Rust engine for instant results, even on large files.

Installation

VSCode

Install from the VSCode Marketplace

Cursor

Install from Open VSX

Or search for "Needle" directly in the Cursor extensions panel.

Note: This extension works on both VSCode and Cursor.

Usage

Set a keyboard shortcut

1. Open Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P)
2. Choose "Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts"
3. Search for "needle.find"
4. Set a keybinding

Or, just try it

1. Open Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P)
2. Choose "Needle: Find in file"

How it works

• Smart case: case-insensitive by default, case-sensitive if your query contains uppercase
• Substring matching: finds exact contiguous matches in each line
• Rust-powered: native search engine via napi-rs for sub-millisecond performance
• Results in line order: matches appear top-to-bottom as they occur in the file

FAQ

Does this work on Cursor?

Yes! The extension works on both VSCode and Cursor.

How are search results ordered?

Results are displayed in line order (top to bottom). The first match in the file appears first.