Search syntax

github-code-search automatically injects an org:<org> qualifier from --org and otherwise passes the rest of your query unchanged to the GitHub Code Search API. Any syntax that works in the GitHub search bar also works here.

Basic query

github-code-search "useFeatureFlag" --org fulll

Searches for the literal string useFeatureFlag across all repositories in the fulll organisation.

Qualifiers

GitHub code search supports a set of qualifiers you can combine with your keyword:

Qualifier	Description	Example
language:<lang>	Filter by programming language	useFeatureFlag language:TypeScript
path:<pattern>	Restrict to files whose path matches the glob or substring	config path:src/config
filename:<name>	Match files by name (supports wildcards)	SECRET filename:.env
extension:<ext>	Match files by extension	connect extension:ts
repo:<owner>/<repo>	Restrict to a single repository (less useful here — use --org)	connect repo:fulll/billing-api
NOT <term>	Exclude a keyword	connect NOT deprecated
"exact phrase"	Exact multi-word match	"feature flag"

TIP

Qualifiers can be combined freely:
"feature flag" language:TypeScript path:src/

Practical examples

Find all usages of a function

github-code-search "useFeatureFlag" --org fulll

Restrict to TypeScript files

github-code-search "useFeatureFlag language:TypeScript" --org fulll

Search in a specific directory

github-code-search "SENTRY_DSN path:config" --org fulll

Search for a file by name

github-code-search "filename:docker-compose.yml" --org fulll

Exclude test files

github-code-search "useFeatureFlag NOT filename:test NOT filename:spec" --org fulll

Restrict to specific repositories

Although --org already limits the search to your organisation, you can further narrow results to one or more specific repositories using repo: qualifiers in the query string:

github-code-search "useFeatureFlag repo:fulll/billing-api repo:fulll/auth-service" --org fulll

--org is still required for the API call even when repo: qualifiers are present. The org:<org> qualifier is injected automatically alongside your query.

Find hardcoded secrets (audit use case)

github-code-search "password= language:TypeScript NOT filename:test" --org fulll

Regex queries

github-code-search supports regex syntax using the /pattern/flags notation, just like the GitHub web UI.

Because the GitHub Code Search API does not natively support regex, the CLI automatically extracts a representative literal term from the regex to send to the API, then filters the returned results locally with the full pattern. In most cases this is fully transparent.

# Imports using the axios module (any quote style)
github-code-search "/from.*['\"\`]axios/" --org fulll

# Axios dependency in package.json (any semver prefix)
github-code-search '/"axios": "[~^]?[0-9]"/ filename:package.json' --org fulll

# Old library require() calls
github-code-search "/require\\(['\"](old-lib)['\"]\\)/" --org fulll

# Any of TODO, FIXME or HACK comments
github-code-search "/TODO|FIXME|HACK/" --org fulll

Top-level alternation

When the regex contains a top-level | (e.g. TODO|FIXME|HACK), the CLI sends an A OR B OR C query to the GitHub API so that all branches are covered — no results are missed.

When auto-extraction is not precise enough

If the extracted term is very short (fewer than 3 characters), the CLI will exit with a warning and ask you to provide a manual hint:

⚠  Regex mode — No meaningful search term could be extracted from the regex pattern. Use --regex-hint <term> to specify the term to send to the GitHub API.

Use --regex-hint to override the API search term while still applying the full regex filter locally:

github-code-search '/"axios":\s*"[~^]?[0-9]/ filename:package.json' \
  --org fulll \
  --regex-hint '"axios"'

API coverage

The GitHub Code Search API returns at most 1,000 results per query. The regex filter is applied to those results; results beyond the API cap can never be seen. Refine the query with qualifiers (language:, path:, filename:) to keep the result set small.

API limits

The GitHub Code Search API returns at most 1,000 results per query. If your query returns more, refine it with qualifiers (especially language: or path:) to stay below the limit.

See the GitHub API limits reference for details on rate limits and pagination.

What's next?

Once you have results, use the interactive mode to browse and select them, or the non-interactive mode to pipe them into a script.