JetBrains Finder for VS Code

Search a workspace in a JetBrains-inspired view with live results and a preview of the selected match. On recent versions of VS Code, the view can open as a floating modal editor over your code.

Enable the modal

VS Code controls modal placement. Open Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON) and set:

"workbench.editor.useModal": "all"

This is a VS Code-wide preference: other editors may also open as modals. The extension does not change this setting for you. With "some" or "off", Find in Files opens as an editor tab. The modal editor was introduced experimentally in VS Code 1.110; this integration should be used with a recent VS Code release.

Use

Open a folder or workspace, then press Cmd+Shift+F on macOS or Ctrl+Shift+F on Windows/Linux. You can also run JetBrains Finder: Find in Files from the Command Palette. A single-line editor selection is used as the initial query.

• Toggle case sensitivity, whole-word matching, and regular expressions beside the search field.
• Search the whole workspace, a workspace folder, or a directory relative to each workspace folder.
• Use the arrow keys to select a result, Enter to open it, and Escape to close the view. Clicking previews; double-clicking opens.
• Open in Search View transfers the query and search options to VS Code's built-in search.

Install and develop

Run npm install, then npm run package and install the generated .vsix using Extensions: Install from VSIX... in VS Code. Alternatively open the project in VS Code and press F5 to run an Extension Development Host. Run npm test for the search tests.

The default shortcut replaces VS Code's built-in Find in Files shortcut while this extension is enabled. You can change it in Keyboard Shortcuts; the built-in search remains available from the Search view and Command Palette.

Current limitations

The extension uses ripgrep to search files on disk, respects ignore files and boolean search.exclude entries, and limits results to the first 1,000 matches. Unsaved edits are shown in the preview but are not included in search results until saved. Search supports file-based workspaces on the local or remote extension host; virtual workspaces are not supported. Directory scopes are approximations of JetBrains scopes; JetBrains modules and named scopes are not available. Open in Search View transfers the query and options, but not the selected workspace folder or directory.