Howdy!

The Web UI is great for exploration, but when you need automation, you want a CLI. The Code Search CLI is a standalone binary that connects to the Code Search API server and brings the full power of the platform to your terminal.

Installation

Grab the latest binary from GitHub releases:

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -L https://github.com/techquestsdev/code-search/releases/latest/download/code-search-darwin-arm64 -o code-search
chmod +x code-search && sudo mv code-search /usr/local/bin/

# Linux (amd64)
curl -L https://github.com/techquestsdev/code-search/releases/latest/download/code-search-linux-amd64 -o code-search
chmod +x code-search && sudo mv code-search /usr/local/bin/

Configure the API endpoint:

code-search config set api-url https://search.yourcompany.com
code-search config set api-token YOUR_TOKEN

Built for Power Users

I designed the CLI for scenarios where you need to script, automate, or integrate code search into larger workflows:

Terminal Search: Query from your shell and get results in JSON, table, or CSV format.

code-search search "deprecated" --repo "myorg/*" --lang go --format json

Bulk Operations: Find and replace across dozens of repos with automatic MR creation.

code-search replace "v1.0.0" "v2.0.0" 
  --repo "myorg/*" 
  --file "go.mod" 
  --create-mr 
  --title "Upgrade to v2.0.0" 
  --branch "chore/upgrade-v2"

CI/CD Integration: Fail builds if forbidden patterns are found (hardcoded secrets, deprecated APIs, etc.).

# In your CI pipeline - exits non-zero if matches found
code-search search "(?i)password\s*=\s*['"][^'"]+['"]" 
  --repo "$REPO" 
  --exit-code 
  --quiet

# Count TODOs and fail if over threshold
TODO_COUNT=$(code-search search "TODO|FIXME" --repo "$REPO" --format json | jq '.total')
if [ "$TODO_COUNT" -gt 10 ]; then
  echo "Too many TODOs: $TODO_COUNT (max: 10)"
  exit 1
fi

Repository Management: Sync repos, trigger re-indexing, and check index status.

# List all indexed repositories
code-search repos list --format table

# Trigger re-index for specific repos
code-search repos reindex "myorg/api-gateway" "myorg/auth-service"

# Check indexer status
code-search status

Why This Matters

The CLI enables workflows that are tedious or impossible through a UI:

• Scripting: Chain search results into other tools (xargs, jq, custom scripts).
• Automation: Schedule nightly scans for deprecated patterns.
• Consistency: Enforce coding standards across all repositories.
• Speed: No UI loading, just direct terminal-to-API communication.

Design Philosophy

I followed Unix principles:

• Do one thing well: Each command has a single, clear purpose.
• Composable: Output formats (JSON, CSV, table) work with standard tools.
• Scriptable: Exit codes reflect success/failure for reliable automation.
• Fast: Single binary, no dependencies, instant startup.

Tech Stack

• Go: Single static binary - no runtime dependencies, cross-compiled for macOS, Linux, and Windows.
• Cobra: Standard command-line library for Go with automatic help generation and shell completions.
• OpenAPI Client: Auto-generated bindings to the REST API using oapi-codegen.
• Viper: Configuration management supporting env vars, config files, and flags.

Works seamlessly with jq, grep, xargs, and Unix pipelines. Output is designed to be machine-readable when you need it, human-readable when you don’t.

Shell Completions

Enable tab completion for faster workflows:

# Bash
code-search completion bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/code-search

# Zsh
code-search completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_code-search"

# Fish
code-search completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/code-search.fish

Part of the Code Search platform.