# jhawthorn/fzy

:mag: A simple, fast fuzzy finder for the terminal

Repository: https://github.com/jhawthorn/fzy
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/fzy
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: fuzzyfinder, c, fzy, vim, cli, unix, fuzzy-search, fuzzy, fuzzy-finders
Last push: 2025-07-29T23:14:14+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 38/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 34, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4435, "days_push": 400, "days_rel": 417, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3297, forks 143 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:55.626731+00:00)

## What it is
fzy is a fast, simple fuzzy text selector for the terminal written in C, with an advanced scoring algorithm that favors consecutive-letter and word-start matches. It works both as a standalone command-line tool and as an editor plugin, notably for Vim.

## Use cases
- fuzzy find files from the terminal
- pipe a list into an interactive fuzzy selector
- pick a file to open in vim
- replace selecta or ctrlp with a faster fuzzy finder
- filter command output interactively in a shell script
- search paths using acronyms or partial path segments

## When to choose
- you need a fast, lightweight fuzzy finder with low resource usage
- you want better match ranking than length-based sorters like selecta
- you integrate fuzzy selection into vim or shell pipelines
- you want a tool packaged across many Unix systems

## When to avoid
- you need a GUI fuzzy finder
- you want built-in preview panes or rich TUI features like fzf offers
- you need Windows-native support without MSYS2

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: search-engine, cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: windows, bsd, cli, cross-platform
- tags: fuzzy-finder, fuzzy-search, terminal-ui, vim-plugin, unix, command-line, search, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- jhawthorn/fzy (main) score 38

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:55.626731+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T07:22:42.108506+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/jhawthorn/fzy (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:55.626731+00:00, sha 5a6550d499b1)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.