ripgrep

ripgrep

Prefer rg over grep for text search, and prefer rg --files over find | grep when the real task is path discovery.

Verified locally against ripgrep 15.1.0 on April 10, 2026. The skill is repo-agnostic, but the examples assume a Unix-like shell and an rg binary in PATH.

Decision Tree

What kind of search do you need?

• Search file contents for text, symbols, regexes, or literals
• Start with rg
• Read references/commands.md

• Find filenames or paths without reading file contents
• Start with rg --files [path]
• Then filter that list with a second rg if needed
• Read references/patterns.md

• Search only specific languages, globs, hidden files, ignored files, compressed data, or multiline blocks
• Read references/commands.md
• If results seem wrong or missing, read references/gotchas.md

• Make ripgrep behavior repeatable with config files, aliases, or custom file types
• Read references/configuration.md

• Feed results into automation, scripts, editors, or other tools
• Prefer --json, -0, -l, --count-matches, or --sort path as appropriate
• Read references/patterns.md

• The user wants full-file reading, structured JSON queries, or filesystem metadata
• Do not force rg into a role it is bad at
• Read the file directly, or use jq, find, or fd

Default Operating Rules

1. Use rg first for text search. Only fall back to grep when rg is unavailable or exact POSIX grep behavior is the real requirement.
2. Use -F for user-provided literals unless the user clearly asked for regex semantics.
3. Narrow the search early with an explicit path plus -t or -g instead of searching the entire tree and cleaning up later.
4. Use rg --files for path discovery, then pipe into another rg for filename filtering instead of composing find ... | grep ....
5. Escalate ignore overrides gradually: normal search, then --hidden, then -u or --no-ignore, then -uu or -uuu only if the missing-result hypothesis justifies it.
6. Use --debug when results are missing and you need to know what ripgrep skipped.
7. Use --json or -n --color never --no-heading for machine consumption. Prefer --sort path when deterministic output matters more than maximum speed.

Quick Reference

Reading Guide

Verified Behaviors

1. rg --files respects ignore rules by default and excluded an ignored logs/app.log in local probes.
2. .rgignore overrode .ignore, and --no-ignore restored access to the same ignored file.
3. --hidden surfaced hidden content without turning off ignore handling.
4. The order of -g flags changed the result set exactly as upstream documents: later globs overrode earlier ones.
5. RIPGREP_CONFIG_PATH successfully loaded --smart-case and a custom web type from a config file.
6. --json emitted begin, match, end, and summary messages in JSON Lines format.
7. -U '(?s)...' matched across lines, and -P lookaround worked on this machine because the local build includes PCRE2.

Gotchas

1. rg is not a byte-for-byte drop-in replacement for POSIX grep; it is the default search tool when speed, recursion, ignore handling, or Unicode-aware regex matter.
2. Missing results are usually an ignore, hidden-file, glob-order, or quoting problem before they are a ripgrep bug. Run --debug before switching tools.
3. --replace changes printed output only. It never edits files.
4. --json is for search results, not every output mode. It does not combine with --files, -l, or -c.
5. -P and -U are powerful but costlier than the default engine and normal line-oriented search. Use them deliberately.

Helper Scripts

• scripts/probe_ripgrep.py builds a temporary corpus and verifies real rg behavior such as ignore precedence, JSON output, multiline matching, and PCRE2 support.
• scripts/validate.py checks structure, frontmatter, references, required files, and Python syntax.
• scripts/test_skill.py runs validation, checks eval coverage, verifies cross-references, and executes the ripgrep probe suite.