svent/sift

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

1651 stars · 109 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

sift is a fast, single-binary command-line text search tool written in Go, designed as a powerful alternative to grep. It combines grep-like speed with modern features such as .gitignore support, multiline matching, conditions, and configurable defaults via global or local config files.

Use cases

• search codebases for a pattern like grep but faster
• search logs for security incidents and digital forensics
• find php files calling mysql_query near user input for code audits
• search large files over 50GB quickly
• respect .gitignore when searching a repository
• search gzip files and multiline patterns
• configure default search behavior per project or system-wide

When to choose

• you want a fast grep replacement with safe, searchable-everywhere defaults
• you need .gitignore-aware code search or multiline matching
• you do code audits or log/forensics searches with contextual conditions
• you need a dependency-free single binary that runs on any platform or remote server

When to avoid

• you need a widely adopted tool with a large community and plugin ecosystem
• you require drop-in compatibility with every grep flag in existing scripts
• you prefer actively maintained tools with frequent updates and pull-request contributions

Facets

cli-tool · maturity stable

search-engine cli developer-tools developer-tools windows bsd cli cross-platform grep-alternative text-search code-search log-search digital-forensics gitignore-support multiline-matching single-binary command-line search linux macos

Member repositories

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markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="svent/sift")