Search syntax

github-code-search automatically injects an org:<org> qualifier from --org and otherwise passes the rest of your query unchanged to the GitHub Code Search API. Any syntax that works in the GitHub search bar also works here.

Basic query

github-code-search "useFeatureFlag" --org fulll

Searches for the literal string useFeatureFlag across all repositories in the fulll organisation.

Qualifiers

GitHub code search supports a set of qualifiers you can combine with your keyword:

Qualifier	Description	Example
language:<lang>	Filter by programming language	useFeatureFlag language:TypeScript
path:<pattern>	Restrict to files whose path matches the glob or substring	config path:src/config
filename:<name>	Match files by name (supports wildcards)	SECRET filename:.env
extension:<ext>	Match files by extension	connect extension:ts
repo:<owner>/<repo>	Restrict to a single repository (less useful here — use --org)	connect repo:fulll/billing-api
NOT <term>	Exclude a keyword	connect NOT deprecated
"exact phrase"	Exact multi-word match	"feature flag"

TIP

Qualifiers can be combined freely:
"feature flag" language:TypeScript path:src/

Practical examples

Find all usages of a function

github-code-search "useFeatureFlag" --org fulll

Restrict to TypeScript files

github-code-search "useFeatureFlag language:TypeScript" --org fulll

Search in a specific directory

github-code-search "SENTRY_DSN path:config" --org fulll

Search for a file by name

github-code-search "filename:docker-compose.yml" --org fulll

Exclude test files

github-code-search "useFeatureFlag NOT filename:test NOT filename:spec" --org fulll

Restrict to specific repositories

Although --org already limits the search to your organisation, you can further narrow results to one or more specific repositories using repo: qualifiers in the query string:

github-code-search "useFeatureFlag repo:fulll/billing-api repo:fulll/auth-service" --org fulll

--org is still required for the API call even when repo: qualifiers are present. The org:<org> qualifier is injected automatically alongside your query.

Find hardcoded secrets (audit use case)

github-code-search "password= language:TypeScript NOT filename:test" --org fulll

API limits

The GitHub Code Search API returns at most 1,000 results per query. If your query returns more, refine it with qualifiers (especially language: or path:) to stay below the limit.

See the GitHub API limits reference for details on rate limits and pagination.

What's next?

Once you have results, use the interactive mode to browse and select them, or the non-interactive mode to pipe them into a script.