ctx.search stable

Cross-file content search over the workspace — the core primitive under the Search panel (and future quick-open / find-references). Runs a native search engine in the host (off the UI thread), honoring .gitignore, and resolves with matches grouped by file.

ctx.search: SearchService

Example

const { files, totalMatches, truncated } = await ctx.search.search("tokyo", {
  caseSensitive: false,
  wholeWord: false,
  regex: false,
  includeGlobs: ["*.ts", "*.tsx"],
  excludeGlobs: ["**/dist/**"],
});

for (const file of files) {
  console.log(file.path, file.matches.length);
  for (const m of file.matches) {
    // m.line is 1-indexed; m.ranges are [start, end) offsets into m.preview
    console.log(m.line, m.preview);
  }
}

A clicked result opens at its match by pairing search with ctx.editors.open's selection:

const range = match.ranges[0];
ctx.editors.open(`${workspaceFolder}/${file.path}`, {
  preview: true,
  selection: {
    line: match.line,
    column: range ? range[0] + 1 : 1, // ranges are 0-indexed; columns are 1-indexed
    endLine: match.line,
    endColumn: range ? range[1] + 1 : undefined,
  },
});

Behavior

• An empty query resolves to an empty result (no files, totalMatches: 0).
• The search respects .gitignore (and .ignore/global git excludes), like ripgrep — node_modules, dist, etc. are skipped unless you un-ignore them.
• includeGlobs whitelists; excludeGlobs blacklists on top of .gitignore.
• It stops at maxResults and sets truncated when the cap is hit — the results are then a prefix, not the full set.
• The promise rejects only if the search can't be started (e.g. a denied cwd); a search that simply finds nothing resolves with no files.

Methods

SearchService (ctx.search):

Method	What it does
search(query, options?)	Search file contents under cwd; resolves to a SearchResponse (matches grouped by file).

Types

SearchService · SearchOptions · SearchResponse · SearchFileResult · SearchMatch.

Workspace scoping

Like ctx.process, a third-party extension's search is scoped to the open workspace: cwd defaults to the workspace folder, and a cwd outside it throws PathDeniedError unless the extension declared the process Permission. (First-party bundled extensions are unscoped.)

Replace

Search-replace is planned: it will be added to SearchService as an additional method without breaking search. The result shape already carries what a replace needs — SearchMatch.ranges plus SearchFileResult.path — so a future replace can target precise ranges without re-searching.