search - Search and Discover Prompts

The search command provides powerful functionality to find prompts in your collection using various search strategies and filters.

Synopsis

swissarmyhammer search [OPTIONS] [QUERY]

Description

Search through your prompt collection using fuzzy matching, regular expressions, or exact text matching. The search can target specific fields and provides relevance-ranked results.

Arguments

QUERY - Search term or pattern (optional if using filters)

Options

Search Strategy

--case-sensitive, -c - Enable case-sensitive matching
--regex, -r - Use regular expressions instead of fuzzy matching
--fuzzy - Use fuzzy string matching (default for simple queries)
--semantic - Use AI-powered semantic search with embeddings
--hybrid - Combine fuzzy, full-text, and semantic search results
--full, -f - Show full prompt content in results

Field Targeting

--in FIELD - Search in specific field (title, description, content, all)
- title - Search only in prompt titles
- description - Search only in prompt descriptions
- content - Search only in prompt content/body
- all - Search in all fields (default)

Filtering

--source SOURCE - Filter by prompt source (builtin, user, local)
--has-arg ARG - Show prompts that have a specific argument
--no-args - Show prompts with no arguments
--language LANG - Filter by programming language (for semantic search)

Semantic Search Options

--threshold FLOAT - Similarity threshold for semantic search (0.0-1.0)
--model MODEL - Embedding model to use for semantic search
--include-structure - Include code structure in semantic analysis
--include-docs - Include documentation and comments in search
--code-only - Search only code content, exclude comments

Output Control

--limit, -l N - Limit results to N prompts (default: 20)
--json - Output results in JSON format

Examples

Basic Search

# Find prompts containing "code"
swissarmyhammer search code

# Case-sensitive search
swissarmyhammer search --case-sensitive "Code Review"

Field-Specific Search

# Search only in titles
swissarmyhammer search --in title "review"

# Search only in descriptions
swissarmyhammer search --in description "debugging"

# Search in content/body
swissarmyhammer search --in content "TODO"

Regular Expression Search

# Find prompts with "test" followed by any word
swissarmyhammer search --regex "test\s+\w+"

# Find prompts starting with specific pattern
swissarmyhammer search --regex "^(debug|fix|analyze)"

Advanced Filtering

# Find built-in prompts only
swissarmyhammer search --source builtin

# Find prompts with "code" argument
swissarmyhammer search --has-arg code

# Find prompts without any arguments
swissarmyhammer search --no-args

# Combine filters
swissarmyhammer search review --source user --has-arg language

Output Options

# Show full content of matching prompts
swissarmyhammer search code --full

# Limit to 5 results
swissarmyhammer search --limit 5 test

# Get JSON output for scripting
swissarmyhammer search --json "data analysis"

Semantic Search Examples

# Basic semantic search
swissarmyhammer search --semantic "error handling patterns"

# Language-specific semantic search
swissarmyhammer search --semantic "async functions" --language rust

# High-precision semantic search
swissarmyhammer search --semantic "database connection" --threshold 0.8

# Hybrid search combining all strategies
swissarmyhammer search --hybrid "authentication middleware"

# Semantic search with specific model
swissarmyhammer search --semantic "testing patterns" --model all-mpnet-base-v2

# Code-only semantic search
swissarmyhammer search --semantic "sorting algorithm" --code-only

Output Format

Default Output

Found 3 prompts matching "code":

📝 code-review (builtin)
   Review code for best practices and potential issues
   Arguments: code, language (optional)

🔧 debug-code (user)
   Help debug programming issues and errors
   Arguments: error, context (optional)

📊 analyze-performance (local)
   Analyze code performance and suggest optimizations
   Arguments: code, language, metrics (optional)

JSON Output

{
  "query": "code",
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "code-review",
      "title": "Code Review Helper",
      "description": "Review code for best practices and potential issues",
      "source": "builtin",
      "path": "/builtin/review/code.md",
      "arguments": [
        {"name": "code", "required": true},
        {"name": "language", "required": false, "default": "auto-detect"}
      ],
      "score": 0.95
    }
  ],
  "total_found": 3
}

Search Scoring

Results are ranked by relevance using these factors:

Exact matches score higher than partial matches
Title matches score higher than description or content matches
Multiple field matches increase the overall score
Argument name matches are considered for relevance

Performance

Search is optimized with an in-memory index
Fuzzy matching uses efficient algorithms
Results are cached for repeated queries
Large prompt collections are handled efficiently

Integration with Other Commands

Search integrates well with other SwissArmyHammer commands:

# Find and test a prompt
PROMPT=$(swissarmyhammer search --json code | jq -r '.results[0].id')
swissarmyhammer test "$PROMPT"

# Export search results
swissarmyhammer search debug --limit 5 | \
  grep -o '\w\+-\w\+' | \
  xargs swissarmyhammer export

SwissArmyHammer Documentation