droid_rules/.factory/skills/colgrep/SKILL.md

name, description, user-invokable, disable-model-invocation

name	description	user-invokable	disable-model-invocation
colgrep	Semantic code search using ColGREP - combines regex filtering with semantic ranking. Use when the user wants to search code by meaning, find relevant code snippets, or explore a codebase semantically. All local - code never leaves the machine.	false	false

ColGREP Semantic Code Search

ColGREP is a semantic code search tool that combines regex filtering with semantic ranking. It uses multi-vector search (via NextPlaid) to find code by meaning, not just keywords.

When to use this skill

• Searching for code by semantic meaning ("database connection pooling")
• Finding relevant code snippets when exploring a new codebase
• Combining pattern matching with semantic understanding
• Setting up code search for a new project
• When grep returns too many irrelevant results
• When you don't know the exact naming conventions used in a codebase

Prerequisites

ColGREP must be installed. It's a single Rust binary with no external dependencies.

Quick Reference

Check if ColGREP is installed

which colgrep || echo "ColGREP not installed"

Install ColGREP

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/lightonai/next-plaid/releases/latest/download/colgrep-installer.sh | sh

Initialize index for a project

# Current directory
colgrep init

# Specific path
colgrep init /path/to/project

Basic semantic search

colgrep "database connection pooling"

Combine regex with semantic search

colgrep -e "async.*await" "error handling"

Essential Flags

Flag	Description	Example
-c, --content	Show full function/class content with syntax highlighting	colgrep -c "authentication"
-e <pattern>	Pre-filter with regex, then rank semantically	colgrep -e "def.*auth" "login"
--include "*.py"	Filter by file type	colgrep --include "*.rs" "error handling"
--code-only	Skip text/config files (md, yaml, json)	colgrep --code-only "parser"
-k <n>	Number of results (default: 15)	colgrep -k 5 "database"
-n <lines>	Context lines around match	colgrep -n 10 "config"
-l, --files-only	List only filenames	colgrep -l "test helpers"
--json	Output as JSON for scripting	colgrep --json "api" | jq '.[].unit.file'
-y	Auto-confirm indexing for large codebases	colgrep -y "search term"

How it works

1. Tree-sitter parsing - Extracts functions, methods, classes from code
2. Structured representation - Creates rich text with signature, params, docstring, calls, variables
3. LateOn-Code-edge model - 17M parameter model creates multi-vector embeddings (runs on CPU)
4. NextPlaid indexing - Quantized, memory-mapped, incremental index
5. Search - SQLite filtering + semantic ranking with grep-compatible flags

Recommended Workflow

For exploring a new codebase:

# 1. Initialize (one-time)
colgrep init

# 2. Search with content display to see actual code
colgrep -c -k 5 "function that handles user authentication"

# 3. Refine with regex if needed
colgrep -c -e "def.*auth" "login validation"

# 4. Filter by language
colgrep -c --include "*.py" "database connection pooling"

For finding specific patterns:

# Hybrid search: regex filter + semantic ranking
colgrep -e "class.*View" "API endpoint handling"

# Skip config files, focus on code
colgrep --code-only "error handling middleware"

# Just get filenames for further processing
colgrep -l "unit test helpers"

For scripting/automation:

# JSON output for piping to other tools
colgrep --json "configuration parser" | jq '.[] | {file: .unit.file, score: .score}'

Pro Tips

1. Always use -c for initial exploration - Shows full function content, no need to read files separately
2. Use -e to narrow results - Regex pre-filter is much faster than semantic ranking everything
3. Index auto-updates - Each search detects file changes; no need to re-run init manually
4. Large codebases - Use -y to skip confirmation prompts for indexing >10K files

Example workflow

1. First time setup for a project:

   cd /path/to/project
   colgrep init
   

2. Search with content display (recommended):

   colgrep -c -k 5 "authentication middleware"
   

3. Refine with regex:

   colgrep -c -e "def.*auth" "login validation"
   

4. The index auto-updates - each search detects file changes and updates automatically