What's new in github-code-search v1.10.0

Full release notes: https://github.com/fulll/github-code-search/releases/tag/v1.10.0

Highlights

Regex query syntax

github-code-search now supports full regex queries using the /pattern/flags notation — the same syntax accepted by the GitHub web search UI.

# Any import of axios, regardless of quote style
github-code-search "/from.*['\"\`]axios/" --org my-org

# Axios pinned to any semver-prefix in package.json
github-code-search '/"axios": "[~^]?[0-9]"/ filename:package.json' --org my-org

# Legacy require() calls for a specific module
github-code-search "/require\\(['\"](old-lib)['\"]\\)/" --org my-org

# TODO, FIXME or HACK comments in one query
github-code-search "/TODO|FIXME|HACK/" --org my-org

Because the GitHub Code Search API does not support regex natively, the CLI automatically extracts a representative literal term from the pattern to send to the API, then filters the returned results locally with the full regex. In the vast majority of cases this is entirely transparent.

Automatic API term extraction

The extraction algorithm picks the longest unambiguous literal sequence from the regex:

• /require\(['"]axios['"]\)/ → sends require to the API
• /"version": "\d+\.\d+/ → sends "version": " to the API
• /TODO|FIXME|HACK/ → sends TODO OR FIXME OR HACK (see below)

If no term of 3+ characters can be extracted, the CLI exits with a clear error and instructs you to use --regex-hint.

Top-level alternation — no results missed

When the regex pattern contains a top-level | (not nested inside (...) or [...]), the CLI automatically builds an A OR B OR C GitHub query so that every branch is covered by the API fetch — not just the first one.

# Sends: "TODO OR FIXME OR HACK" to the GitHub API
github-code-search "/TODO|FIXME|HACK/" --org my-org

--regex-hint — manual API term override

For patterns where the auto-extracted term is too short or too broad, use --regex-hint to specify exactly what the API should search for, while the full regex is still applied locally to filter results:

github-code-search '/"axios":\s*"[~^]?[0-9]/ filename:package.json' \
  --org my-org \
  --regex-hint '"axios"'

--regex-hint is also recorded in the replay command included in the markdown output, so the exact same result set can be reproduced without re-triggering the warning.

Accurate match highlighting

In regex mode the TUI highlights the actual regex match positions inside each code fragment — not the approximate positions returned by the GitHub API for the literal search term. Match locations in the output (:line:col suffixes and #L GitHub anchors) reflect the true match boundaries.

Invalid regex is always a hard error

Malformed patterns (e.g. unclosed groups, bad escape sequences) are detected at startup and produce a clear fatal error before any API call is made:

⚠  Regex mode — Invalid regex /foo(/: Unterminated group

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Upgrade

github-code-search upgrade

Or grab the latest binary directly from the GitHub Releases page.