Offload code search to deterministic tools instead of hand-grepping or reading whole files (P1). Climb the ladder lexical → structural → semantic, stopping at the first rung that answers. Use whenever locating symbols, call sites, definitions, or concepts in a repo.
Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.
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---
name: search-ladder
description: Offload code search to deterministic tools instead of hand-grepping or reading whole files (P1). Climb the ladder lexical → structural → semantic, stopping at the first rung that answers. Use whenever locating symbols, call sites, definitions, or concepts in a repo.
---
# Search Ladder Skill (P1)
## Purpose
Never hand-grep, never read a whole file to "look around." Each search is one offloaded call whose result is `file:line` + ~2 lines (P0/P8). Climb only as far as needed.
## The ladder (stop at first rung that answers)
1. **Lexical — `ripgrep`** (default). Exact strings, identifiers, regex.
```bash
rg -n "createSession" --type ts | head -50
rg -n "TODO|FIXME" -g '!*.test.*' | head -50
```
2. **Structural — Probe** (when code structure matters more than exact text).
```bash
probe search "auth middleware" ./src
```
3. **Semantic — `mgrep`** — concept queries only, **last resort** (cost + noise).
```bash
mgrep "where is rate limiting enforced" src/
```
## Rules
- Pipe high-frequency searches to `| head` — bounded output (P0).
- Prefer structural search over regex when text is too brittle.
- Drop to semantic only when you cannot name the token — never as rung 1.
- Optional tools may be absent; fall back down the ladder (`probe` missing → `rg`).
Need concrete recipes for a rung (regex flags, Probe queries, mgrep phrasing)? Read `references/ladder.md`.
