<h1 align="center"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/garroter/spyglass/main/images/icon.png" width="64" alt="Spyglass icon" /> Spyglass </h1> Fast, keyboard-driven search popup for VS Code Inspired by <a href="https://github.com/nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim">Neovim Telescope</a> and JetBrains Search Everywhere Results stream in as you type — no waiting for large projects <a href="https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=garroter.spyglass"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/visual-studio-marketplace/v/garroter.spyglass?style=flat-square&label=VS%20Marketplace&color=7c3aed" alt="VS Marketplace"/> </a> <a href="https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=garroter.spyglass"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/visual-studio-marketplace/d/garroter.spyglass?style=flat-square&color=4f86f7" alt="Downloads"/> </a> <a href="https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=garroter.spyglass"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/visual-studio-marketplace/r/garroter.spyglass?style=flat-square&color=f5a623" alt="Rating"/> </a> <a href="LICENSE"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-22c55e?style=flat-square" alt="License: MIT"/> </a> Open with <kbd>Ctrl+Alt+F</kbd> — Type — Navigate — Done.

📸 Screenshots

Full-text search with live preview

Full-text search with live preview

File search and recent files

File search and recent files

Split editor

Split editor

✨ Features

🔍 Search

Full-text search across the whole project powered by ripgrep (blazing fast)
Streaming results — matches appear instantly as ripgrep finds them, no waiting
Fuzzy file search — search by filename with character-level match highlighting
Symbol search — workspace symbols via LSP with color-coded kind badges (class, function, method…)
Regex mode toggle for power users
Case sensitive and whole word toggles
Inline glob filter — append a glob to any query to narrow results: myFunc *.ts or test !*.test.ts
Multi-root workspace — searches and file listings span all workspace folders simultaneously

🗂️ Navigation

6 search scopes — Project, Open Files, Files, Recent, Dir, Symbols
Recent files on open — opens to recent files immediately, no empty screen
Scope memory — last used scope is restored when you reopen
Dir scope — search only within the directory of the active file
Search history — navigate previous queries with Ctrl+↑ / Ctrl+↓
Multi-select — pick multiple results and open them all at once

👁️ Preview

Live preview — file content as you navigate, with syntax highlighting
Git change indicators — modified lines highlighted in the gutter
Theme adaptive — native look in any VS Code theme: dark, light, high contrast

⚡ Actions

Find & Replace — replace across all matched files instantly (with undo)
Copy path — copy the absolute path of the selected result
Reveal in Explorer — click the preview header to locate the file
Open in split — open any result beside the current editor
Pre-fill from selection — select text, open Spyglass → query is pre-filled
Zero dependencies — ripgrep is bundled, nothing to install

🚀 Usage

Opening Spyglass

| Action | Shortcut | |--------|----------| | Open Spyglass | Ctrl+Alt+F |

VSCode Vim users — bind <Space>f as your leader shortcut. See Vim setup below.

⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts

| Action | Shortcut | |--------|----------| | Navigate results | ↑ / ↓ | | Open selected file | Enter | | Open in split editor | Ctrl+Enter | | Switch scope | Tab | | Close | Escape | | Toggle regex | Shift+Alt+R | | Toggle case sensitive | Alt+C | | Toggle whole word | Alt+W | | Toggle preview panel | Shift+Alt+P | | Toggle replace mode | Alt+R | | History — previous query | Ctrl+↑ | | History — next query | Ctrl+↓ | | Copy path | Alt+Y | | Multi-select toggle | Ctrl+Space / Ctrl+Click | | Select all results | Ctrl+A | | Open all selected | Shift+Enter | | Reveal in Explorer | click the preview header |

🗺️ Search Scopes

| Scope | Description | |-------|-------------| | Project | Full-text search across all files in the workspace | | Open Files | Full-text search only within currently open editor tabs | | Files | Fuzzy search by filename across the whole project | | Recent | Recently opened files, ordered by most recent | | Dir | Full-text search within the directory of the active file | | Symbols | Workspace symbol search via LSP (requires a language extension) |

Switch between scopes with Tab while Spyglass is open.

🔄 Find & Replace

Open Spyglass and type your search query
Press Alt+R (or click ⇄) to enable replace mode
Type the replacement text in the second field
Optionally tune case-sensitive / whole-word / glob filter
Click Replace all — all matches replaced instantly via VS Code's edit API (supports undo)

👁️ Preview Panel

The right-side preview shows the file around the matched line with syntax highlighting. Lines modified since the last git commit are marked with a blue indicator in the gutter.

Toggle with Shift+Alt+P or the ⊡ button
Click the preview header to Reveal in Explorer

⚙️ Settings

| Setting | Default | Description | |---------|---------|-------------| | spyglass.defaultScope | project | Scope on open: project openFiles files recent here symbols | | spyglass.maxResults | 200 | Maximum number of results to display | | spyglass.exclude | [".git","node_modules","out","dist","*.lock"] | Glob patterns excluded from search and file listing | | spyglass.keybindings.navigateDown | ArrowDown | Navigate down in results | | spyglass.keybindings.navigateUp | ArrowUp | Navigate up in results | | spyglass.keybindings.open | Enter | Open selected result | | spyglass.keybindings.close | Escape | Close Spyglass | | spyglass.keybindings.toggleRegex | shift+alt+r | Toggle regex mode | | spyglass.keybindings.togglePreview | shift+alt+p | Toggle preview panel |

🎹 Customizing Keybindings

Change the open shortcut

Open Keyboard Shortcuts (Ctrl+K Ctrl+S), search for Spyglass: Open Search and assign your preferred key.

Or edit keybindings.json directly (Ctrl+Shift+P → Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON)):

[
  {
    "key": "ctrl+alt+f",
    "command": "spyglass.open",
    "when": "!inputFocus || editorTextFocus"
  }
]

Change shortcuts inside the panel

Add to your settings.json:

{
  "spyglass.keybindings.navigateDown": "j",
  "spyglass.keybindings.navigateUp": "k",
  "spyglass.keybindings.toggleRegex": "ctrl+r",
  "spyglass.keybindings.togglePreview": "ctrl+p"
}

🟢 Vim Setup

vscodevim (VSCode Vim extension)

VSCode Vim intercepts Space before VS Code sees it, so the built-in Space f shortcut won't work. Configure it through VSCode Vim instead — add to your settings.json:

{
  "vim.normalModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive": [
    {
      "before": ["<Space>", "f"],
      "commands": ["spyglass.open"]
    }
  ]
}

vscode-neovim

The built-in Space f binding works out of the box in normal mode — no extra configuration needed.

To disable the default Ctrl+Alt+F binding for either setup:

[
  {
    "key": "ctrl+alt+f",
    "command": "-spyglass.open"
  }
]

🌐 Multi-root Workspaces

Spyglass works across all workspace folders simultaneously. Results from multiple folders are prefixed with the folder name so you always know where a match comes from:

backend/src/server.ts
frontend/src/App.tsx

All scopes — text search, file listing, replace, and git status badges — cover every folder in the workspace.

🔍 Inline Glob Filter

Append a glob pattern to any query to narrow the search without leaving the input field:

| Query | Effect | |-------|--------| | useState *.tsx | Search for useState only in .tsx files | | TODO !*.test.ts | Search for TODO, excluding test files | | error *.ts !*.d.ts | Multiple globs combined |

Patterns starting with * are treated as include globs, patterns starting with ! as excludes. Everything else is the search query.

📋 Requirements

VS Code ^1.85.0
No additional dependencies — ripgrep is bundled automatically
Git (optional) — required for change indicators in the preview panel
A language server extension (optional) — required for the Symbols scope

Privacy

Spyglass collects no data. All processing happens locally on your machine:

No network requests are made (webview CSP is default-src 'none')
No telemetry, analytics, or crash reporting
Search history is stored locally in VS Code's workspaceState and never leaves your machine
Dependencies (@vscode/ripgrep, highlight.js) are fully local with no network activity

🛠️ Development

git clone https://github.com/garroter/spyglass
cd spyglass
npm install

npm run compile   # compile TypeScript
npm run watch     # watch mode
npm test          # run unit tests (vitest)

Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host.

Project structure

src/
  extension.ts       — activation, command registration
  FinderPanel.ts     — webview panel lifecycle, message handler
  ripgrep.ts         — ripgrep search backend
  gitUtils.ts        — git status and diff parsing
  symbolSearch.ts    — LSP workspace sy

Spyglass

Install / Use

README