private-repo-search

Private Repo Search

gh search code — GitHub's code search API through the CLI you already have authenticated, scoped to exactly the repos/orgs you need instead of a raw gh api call.

Prerequisites

Requires the gh CLI installed.

gh auth status  # confirm authenticated; code search needs no extra scope beyond default

Core usage

gh search code <query> [flags]

Flag	Use for
--owner <org-or-user>	Scope to everything an org/user owns
--repo <owner/name> (repeatable)	Scope to specific repo(s)
--language <lang>	Filter by language
--filename <name>	Filter by filename (e.g. package.json)
--extension <ext>	Filter by file extension
--match file|path	Restrict the match to file contents or the path itself
--json path,repository,sha,textMatches,url + -q <jq-expr>	Structured output for scripting
-L, --limit <n>	Result cap (default 30)

# Find where a symbol is used across every repo in an org
gh search code "someFunctionName" --owner patrickserrano

# Narrow to specific repos and a language
gh search code "RLSPolicy" --repo patrickserrano/harness --language go

# Find a config file by name across everything you can see
gh search code --filename .lacquer.toml

# Machine-readable output for a downstream step
gh search code "TODO(migration)" --owner patrickserrano --json path,repository,url -q '.[] | "\(.repository.nameWithOwner): \(.path)"'

After finding a hit

gh search code returns matched paths, not full file content. Fetch the actual content once you know the repo and path:

gh api repos/<owner>/<repo>/contents/<path> --jq '.content' | base64 -d
# or, simpler for a quick look:
gh api repos/<owner>/<repo>/contents/<path> -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.raw" 

Caveats

• Results lag behind pushes. The index isn't real-time — a just-pushed commit may not show up for a few minutes.
• Legacy search engine. gh search code uses GitHub's older code-search API, not the newer engine github.com's web UI uses — results and available qualifiers (no regex) can differ from what you'd see in the browser.
• Scope is "everywhere gh can see." A search with no --owner/--repo filter that returns nothing from a private repo you expect usually means an auth/visibility gap, not that the content isn't there — check gh auth status and repo access before concluding a miss is real.