🔍 cli-file-search

A fast and colorful CLI file search tool written in TypeScript.

Search by name · Search by content · Colorful output · .gitignore aware

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Installation

# Clone the repo
git clone <repo-url>
cd nodejs-cli-file-search

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Install globally (optional)
npm link

Quick Start

# Search by file name
cli-file-search name "*.ts"
cli-file-search name "README" -d ./docs

# Search by file content
cli-file-search content "TODO" -i
cli-file-search content "import.*from" -r --include "*.ts"

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Commands

cli-file-search name <pattern>

Search files by name pattern. Supports glob syntax.

cli-file-search name "*.ts"                # Find all TypeScript files
cli-file-search name "test-*" -d ./src     # Find files starting with test- under src
cli-file-search name "config" -i           # Case-insensitive search
cli-file-search name "*.json" --type dir   # Search directories only
cli-file-search name ".env" --hidden       # Include hidden files

Option	Short	Default	Description
--dir <directory>	-d	.	Directory to search
--ignore-case	-i	false	Case-insensitive matching
--type <type>	-t	file	Filter by type: file / dir / all
--max-depth <depth>		20	Maximum search depth
--hidden		false	Include hidden files
--no-ignore			Don't respect .gitignore

cli-file-search content <keyword>

Search file contents by keyword. Like grep, with regex support.

cli-file-search content "console.log"                    # Find files containing console.log
cli-file-search content "TODO|FIXME" -r                  # Use regular expressions
cli-file-search content "import" --include "*.ts,*.tsx"  # Search only in ts/tsx files
cli-file-search content "error" --exclude "*.log"        # Exclude .log files
cli-file-search content "function" -n 2                  # Show 2 lines of context
cli-file-search content "config" --hidden                # Include hidden files

Option	Short	Default	Description
--dir <directory>	-d	.	Directory to search
--ignore-case	-i	false	Case-insensitive matching
--regex	-r	false	Treat keyword as regular expression
--include <globs>		*	File patterns to include (comma-separated)
--exclude <globs>			File patterns to exclude (comma-separated)
--max-depth <depth>		20	Maximum search depth
--hidden		false	Include hidden files
--context <lines>	-n	0	Lines of context around each match
--no-ignore			Don't respect .gitignore

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Output Examples

Name Search

  🔍 Search results for: "*.ts"
  Found 5 results

  📄 src\index.ts (3.1 KB)
  📄 src\search\contentSearch.ts (3.0 KB)
  📄 src\search\nameSearch.ts (1.9 KB)
  📄 src\ui\formatter.ts (4.3 KB)
  📄 src\utils\walker.ts (3.7 KB)

Content Search

  🔍 Content search for: "interface"
  Found 9 matches in 4 files

  src\search\contentSearch.ts
     4 ┊
     5 │ export interface ContentSearchOptions {
     6 ┊   directory: string;

  src\search\nameSearch.ts
     6 │ export interface NameSearchOptions {

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Project Structure

src/
├── index.ts                  # CLI entry point & command definitions
├── search/
│   ├── nameSearch.ts         # File name search logic
│   └── contentSearch.ts      # File content search logic
├── ui/
│   └── formatter.ts          # Colorful output formatting
└── utils/
    └── walker.ts             # Directory traversal & .gitignore parsing

Tech Stack

Library	Purpose
commander	CLI command definitions & argument parsing
chalk	Terminal colored output
minimatch	Glob pattern matching
TypeScript	Type safety

Development

npm run dev -- name "*.ts"      # Run in dev mode
npm run build                    # Compile TypeScript
npm run start -- content "test"  # Run after build

Features

• ✅ Glob file name search
• ✅ Content search with regex support
• ✅ Case-insensitive matching
• ✅ Automatic .gitignore respect
• ✅ Hidden file support
• ✅ Search depth limiting
• ✅ Include/exclude file patterns
• ✅ Context line display
• ✅ Automatic binary file skipping
• ✅ Color-highlighted output
• ✅ File size display

License

MIT