grepai-search-tips

GrepAI Search Tips

This skill provides tips and best practices for writing effective semantic search queries.

When to Use This Skill

• Improving search result quality
• Learning semantic search techniques
• Understanding how to phrase queries
• Troubleshooting poor search results

Semantic Search Mindset

Think differently from text search:

Text Search (grep)	Semantic Search (GrepAI)
Search for exact text	Search for meaning/intent
"getUserById"	"retrieve user from database by ID"
Literal match	Conceptual match

Query Writing Principles

1. Describe Intent, Not Implementation

❌ Bad: getUserById ✅ Good: fetch user record from database using ID

❌ Bad: handleError ✅ Good: error handling and response to client

❌ Bad: validateInput ✅ Good: check if user input is valid and safe

2. Use Descriptive Language

❌ Bad: auth ✅ Good: user authentication and authorization

❌ Bad: db ✅ Good: database connection and queries

❌ Bad: config ✅ Good: application configuration loading

3. Be Specific About Context

❌ Bad: validation ✅ Good: validate email address format

❌ Bad: parse ✅ Good: parse JSON request body

❌ Bad: send ✅ Good: send email notification to user

4. Use 3-7 Words

Length	Example	Quality
Too short	"auth"	⚠️ Vague
Good	"user authentication middleware"	✅ Specific
Too long	"the code that handles user authentication and validates JWT tokens in the middleware layer"	⚠️ Verbose

5. Use English

Embedding models are trained primarily on English:

❌ authentification utilisateur (French) ✅ user authentication

Even if your code comments are in another language, English queries work best.

Query Patterns

Finding Code by Behavior

grepai search "validate user credentials before login"
grepai search "send notification when order is placed"
grepai search "calculate total price with discounts"
grepai search "retry failed HTTP requests"