ggreer/the_silver_searcher
A code-searching tool similar to ack, but faster. observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
32/100
- Activity 0
- Release rhythm 35
- Longevity 100
Flags: no_releases
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-03. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: n/a
- age_days: 5401
- days_rel: n/a
- days_push: 808
- n_releases_24m: 0
Adoption not part of the score
27108 stars · 1438 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded
The Silver Searcher (ag) is a fast command-line code search tool similar to ack, written in C. It respects .gitignore/.hgignore files and uses multithreading, mmap, and PCRE JIT to search codebases an order of magnitude faster than ack.
Use cases
- search text across a codebase from the terminal
- grep alternative that respects gitignore
- fast regex search over large source trees
- find where a function is used in a repo
- replace ack with a faster code searcher
When to choose
- you want very fast text/code search from the command line
- you want automatic respect of VCS ignore files
- you prefer a small, stable C tool over heavier alternatives
When to avoid
- you need Unicode-aware search or active development - ripgrep is more actively maintained
- you need IDE-integrated search rather than a CLI tool
- you need content indexing or a search engine service
Facets
cli-tool · maturity maintenance
search-engine cli developer-tools developer-tools cli windows bsd cross-platform code-search grep-alternative ack pcre text-search ripgrep-alternative command-line search macos linux
4 sources
- readme: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher · fetched 2026-08-28 · 4d7a814c22b3
- homepage: http://geoff.greer.fm/ag/ · fetched 2026-08-29 · bdacedb1fb93
- site_page: https://geoff.greer.fm/about · fetched 2026-08-29 · d8c351a7d599
- site_page: https://geoff.greer.fm/ag/speed · fetched 2026-08-29 · 1ce26b5da1e6
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| ggreer/the_silver_searcher | main | 32 |
For agents
markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="ggreer/the_silver_searcher")
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem