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search

The search command finds stored commands based on a query and can also use AI to generate new ones on the fly.

By default, this command performs a non-interactive search and prints matching commands to standard output. To open the interactive search TUI (the behavior of the Ctrl+Space hotkey), you must use the -i or --interactive flag.

💡 Tip: Can't find what you're looking for? While in the interactive TUI, you can press Ctrl+I or Ctrl+X with a natural language query to prompt AI for commands.

Usage

intelli-shell search [OPTIONS] [QUERY]

Arguments

  • QUERY The search query used to filter commands.

    • When used with the --ai flag, this string is treated as a natural language prompt for the AI to generate a command.

Options

  • -m, --mode <MODE>

    Specifies the search algorithm to use. See the "Advanced Search Syntax" section below for details on auto and fuzzy modes.

    • auto: Uses an internal algorithm to best match common search patterns
    • fuzzy: Finds commands that are similar to the query using special syntax
    • regex: Treats the query as a regular expression for complex pattern matching
    • exact: Returns only commands that precisely match the entire query
    • relaxed: Broadens the search to find the maximum number of potentially relevant commands

  • -u, --user-only

    Excludes commands imported from tldr pages from the search results.

  • --ai

    Uses AI to generate commands based on the QUERY prompt instead of searching your local library. This is most effective in interactive mode (-i).

  • -i, --interactive

    Opens the interactive TUI to search and select a command.

  • -l, --inline

    When used with --interactive, forces the TUI to render inline, below the prompt.

  • -f, --full-screen

    When used with --interactive, forces the TUI to render in full-screen mode.

Advanced Search Syntax

The auto and fuzzy search modes support special characters to give you more control over the results.

Auto Mode Syntax

In auto mode, you can exclude results containing a specific word by prefixing it with !.

  • Negated Term: !word

    Excludes commands that contain word. For example, docker !test will find commands matching "docker" but not "test".

Fuzzy Mode Syntax

fuzzy mode provides a powerful syntax for fine-grained matching. All terms in a query are space-separated and treated as a logical AND, unless grouped by the | (OR) operator.

SyntaxMatch TypeDescription
textFuzzyCharacters must appear in order, but not necessarily consecutively
'textExactMust contain the exact substring text
'text'WordMust contain text as a whole word
^textPrefixMust begin with the exact string text
text$SuffixMust end with the exact string text
!textInverseMust not contain the exact substring text
!^textInverse prefixMust not start with the exact string text
!text$Inverse suffixMust not end with the exact string text
|OR operatorA space-separated | character creates a logical OR group for the terms it connects

Examples

To launch the TUI, you must use the --interactive flag.

intelli-shell search --interactive

To search for commands matching "docker" and print them to the console:

intelli-shell search docker

Non-Interactive Search with Options

To find only your custom commands that exactly match "docker":

intelli-shell search -m exact --user-only docker

Open the Interface in Full-Screen Mode

To launch the interactive TUI and force it into full-screen mode:

intelli-shell search -i --full-screen

Use AI to Suggest Commands

To use AI to suggest commands based on a natural language prompt:

intelli-shell search -i --ai 'undo last n commits'

This will open the interactive interface with AI-suggested commands, which you can then review and select.

💡 Tip: Saving AI-Generated Commands

Commands generated using --ai in the search interface are for one-time use and are not saved to your library automatically.

To save a generated command for future use, you can place it on your terminal line from the search results and then use either the Ctrl+B hotkey or the new command to bookmark it.