Search Tools

This is a decision tree for choosing the right search tool when working with code. It breaks down four options: LEANN for semantic queries like "how does authentication work", AST-grep for structural patterns like finding all function calls, Morph for fast text search across the codebase, and the built-in Grep for literal patterns. The skill includes a PreToolUse hook that auto-redirects semantic Grep queries to LEANN, which is smart since developers often grep for concepts when they really want semantic search. Think of this as a cheat sheet that saves you from using grep when you should be using embeddings, or vice versa.

skills.sh installs: 491
GitHub stars: 3.9K
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add parcadei/continuous-claude-v3 --skill search-tools --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Search Tool Hierarchy

When searching code, use this decision tree:

Decision Tree

Need CONCEPTUAL/SEMANTIC search?
  (how does X work, find patterns, understand architecture)
  → Use LEANN (/leann-search) - embedding-based semantic search
  → PreToolUse hook auto-redirects semantic Grep queries

Need to understand code STRUCTURE?
  (find function calls, class usages, refactor patterns)
  → Use AST-grep (/ast-grep-find)

Need to find TEXT in code?
  → Use Morph (/morph-search) - 20x faster
  → If no Morph API key: fall back to Grep tool

Simple one-off search?
  → Use built-in Grep tool directly

Tool Comparison

Tool	Best For	Requires
LEANN	Semantic search: "how does caching work", "error handling patterns", conceptual queries	Index built
AST-grep	Structural patterns: "find all calls to `foo()`", refactoring, find usages by type	MCP server
Morph	Fast text search: "find files mentioning error", grep across codebase	API key
Grep	Literal patterns, class/function names, regex	Nothing (built-in)