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Migrating from grep / ripgrep

Mental-model shift​

grep and ripgrep are enumeration tools: give them a pattern, they return every file where it matches, in whatever order the filesystem surfaces them. You then triage the list yourself.

Shaktiman's search is a ranking tool: give it a concept, it returns the top-N most relevant matches ordered by a blend of semantic, structural, keyword, change, and session signals. You skip the triage step for conceptual queries.

Neither is "better" — they solve different problems.

Feature parity table​

CapabilityripgrepShaktiman equivalentNotes
Exact-string searchrg "pattern"—Keep ripgrep.
Regex searchrg -e "regex"—Keep ripgrep.
Case-insensitiverg -i—Keep ripgrep.
Concept / natural-language—shaktiman search "concept"Shaktiman's strength.
Filename filterrg "x" path/shaktiman search "x" --path path/Prefix match on path.
File-type filterrg -t go "x"Indirect via --pathNo language filter today; the index already excludes binary / non-source.
Ranked top-N—shaktiman search "x" --max 10ripgrep can't rank.
Compact output—shaktiman search "x" --mode locate~12 tokens/result; great for LLM prompts.
Exclude test files--glob '!*_test.go'--scope impl (default)Language-aware test pattern.

Side-by-side workflow​

"Where is authentication handled in this codebase?"

ripgrep:

rg -l "auth" | head -20                 # 47 files; eyeball the list
rg "middleware.*auth"                    # narrow to middleware
rg -l "validateToken|authenticate"       # look for verbs
# Now read ~5 files and reconstruct the picture

Shaktiman:

shaktiman search "authentication middleware" --root . --format text
# Top 10 files, ranked. Read the top 3.

Same goal, ~3 invocations → 1, and the output is aligned with what you actually want.

Gaps​

  • Shaktiman has no regex search. For deadline\.Exceeded\b or similar, always rg.
  • Shaktiman has no live grep-over-pipes. rg can filter any stdin; Shaktiman queries its own index.
  • Shaktiman's path filter is a prefix, not a glob. --path "internal/" works; --path "**/auth*.go" doesn't — use rg for globs.
  • Shaktiman requires an initial index. First run costs 1–2 minutes on a mid-size repo; ripgrep starts instantly.

When to keep ripgrep​

  • Every time you're looking for an exact string or regex.
  • When grep-over-pipes or grep-over-not-a-git-repo is the right tool.
  • When you want to scan a directory Shaktiman hasn't indexed.

Most Shaktiman users keep rg on their PATH and reach for whichever fits the question. Conceptual → Shaktiman; literal → ripgrep.

See also​