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Two search tools cover the most common discovery tasks: GlobTool finds files by name pattern, and GrepTool searches file contents using regular expressions powered by ripgrep.

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GrepTool

Searches file contents using ripgrep and returns results sorted by the modification time of matching files (most recently modified first). Supports full regex syntax, context lines, file type filters, and multiple output modes.

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Parameters

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pattern
string
required
The regular expression to search for in file contents. Supports full regex syntax (e.g. "log.*Error", "function\s+\w+").
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path
string
File or directory to search. Defaults to the current working directory.
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glob
string
Glob pattern to filter which files are searched (e.g. "*.ts", "*.{ts,tsx}").
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output_mode
string
Controls the format of results:
  • "files_with_matches" (default) — return the paths of files that contain at least one match
  • "content" — return the matching lines with optional context
  • "count" — return match counts per file
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context
number
Number of lines to show before and after each match (equivalent to rg -C). Only used when output_mode is "content".
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-B
number
Lines of context before each match (equivalent to rg -B). Only used when output_mode is "content".
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-A
number
Lines of context after each match (equivalent to rg -A). Only used when output_mode is "content".
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-i
boolean
Case-insensitive search. Defaults to false.
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-n
boolean
Include line numbers in "content" mode output. Defaults to true.
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type
string
Restrict search to a ripgrep file type (e.g. "ts", "py", "go"). More efficient than glob for standard language types.
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head_limit
number
Maximum number of results to return (equivalent to | head -N). Defaults to 250. Pass 0 for unlimited results.
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offset
number
Skip the first N results before applying head_limit (equivalent to | tail -n +N). Defaults to 0.
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multiline
boolean
Enable multiline mode so . matches newlines and patterns can span lines. Defaults to false.

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Returns

Depends on output_mode:
  • "files_with_matches": list of relative file paths with at least one match
  • "content": matching lines (and context lines if requested) as a string
  • "count": per-file match counts

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Examples

Find all TypeScript files that export a function named useAuth: 
{
  "pattern": "export function useAuth",
  "glob": "*.ts",
  "output_mode": "files_with_matches"
}
Show matching lines with 2 lines of context around each match: 
{
  "pattern": "throw new Error",
  "path": "/home/user/project/src",
  "output_mode": "content",
  "context": 2
}

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GlobTool

Finds files by name using glob patterns. Results are sorted by modification time (most recently modified first).

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Parameters

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pattern
string
required
The glob pattern to match file paths against (e.g. "**/*.ts", "src/**/*.test.tsx", "*.config.{js,ts}").
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path
string
The directory to search in. Defaults to the current working directory. Must be a valid directory path if provided—do not pass "undefined" or "null".

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Returns

An array of matching file paths (relative to the working directory), the total count, whether results were truncated (limited to 100 files by default), and the duration of the search in milliseconds.

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Examples

Find all test files in a project: 
{
  "pattern": "**/*.test.ts"
}
Find all configuration files under a specific directory: 
{
  "pattern": "*.config.{js,ts,mjs}",
  "path": "/home/user/project"
}
Use GlobTool when you know the file name or extension you are looking for. Use GrepTool when you need to find files based on their content. For large projects, GlobTool with a specific pattern is faster than a broad GrepTool search.

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