gh-search-code

Instructions for searching source code across GitHub repositories with the GitHub command-line tool, including filters for files, languages, owners, repositories, and sizes.

In plain words
What is it for?
Finding code patterns, filenames, or file types across repositories or organisations, including searches limited to a language, owner, or repository.
Why use it?
It provides the required search syntax for narrowing results and explains when browser-based searching is needed for regular expressions.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/aaddrick/gh-cli-search/gh-search-code
Any agent
npx skills add aaddrick/gh-cli-search --skill gh-search-code
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/aaddrick/gh-cli-search

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 38 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,038 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00038 $0.03038
Opus 5 $0.00019 $0.01519
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00608
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00304

Measured 2d ago against content hash 99f3fb97f53f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

gh-search-code scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/gh-search-code/SKILL.md · 354 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 354 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

GitHub CLI: Search Code

Overview

Search for code across GitHub repositories using gh search code. Important: CLI API uses legacy search engine. For regex and advanced features, use -w flag to open in web browser.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when searching code across GitHub:

  • Searching for code patterns across multiple repositories
  • Finding specific file types or filenames in repos/orgs
  • Locating code by language or file size across GitHub
  • Searching in specific repositories or organizations
  • Need to exclude certain results (requires -- flag)
  • Need regex search (use -w to open in browser)

Syntax

gh search code <query> [flags]

Key Flags Reference

Flag Purpose Example
--extension <string> Filter by file extension --extension js
--filename <string> Target specific filenames --filename package.json
--language <string> Filter by programming language --language python
--owner <strings> Limit to specific owners --owner microsoft
-R, --repo <strings> Search within repository --repo cli/cli
--size <string> Filter by file size (KB) --size ">100"
--match <strings> Search in file or path --match file or --match path
-L, --limit <int> Max results (default: 30) --limit 100
-w, --web Open in browser -w
--json <fields> JSON output --json path,repository

JSON Output Fields

Available fields: path, repository, sha, textMatches, url

Exclusion Syntax (Critical!)

When using inline query exclusions (negations with -), you MUST use the -- separator:

✅ Correct: gh search code -- "search-terms -qualifier:value" ❌ Wrong: gh search code "search-terms" --flag=-value ❌ Wrong: gh search code "search-terms" --flag=!value ❌ Wrong: gh search code "search-terms" --filename="!test"

Examples:

  • gh search code -- "function -filename:test" (exclude files named "test")
  • gh search code -- "import -language:javascript" (exclude language)
  • gh search code -- "config -path:vendor" (exclude vendor directories)
  • gh search code -- "TODO -extension:md" (exclude extension)

Read the full file on GitHub · 354 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 354 lines · 38 tokens per session scan A 99f3fb97f53f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

gh-search-code is a skill published in the GitHub repository aaddrick/gh-cli-search (8 stars, last pushed 9mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 38 tokens to every session and 3,038 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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