Sourcegraph Query Language Guide

Sourcegraph Query Language Guide | Generated by AI

Home 2025.09

Sourcegraph search has its own query language that’s flexible and powerful. Here’s a breakdown of the common syntax you can use:

1. Basic Keyword Search

Just type terms:
```
http client
```
Finds files or code containing both words.

2. Logical Operators

AND, OR, NOT (must be uppercase):

React AND useEffect
React OR Vue
logger NOT debug

3. Filters

repo: → limit by repository
```
repo:github.com/myorg/myrepo
```
file: → match file path (regex supported)
```
file:\.java$
```
lang: → restrict to a programming language
```
lang:python requests
```
content: → force a text search (ignores structural matches)
```
content:"SELECT * FROM"
```
case:yes → make search case-sensitive

4. Regex Matching

By default, Sourcegraph supports regex.
```
foo(bar|baz)
^class\s+\w+
```

5. Structural Search

Use pattern holes like :[var] to match code structures:

if (:[cond]) { :[body] }

6. Revision / Branch Search

Append @branch, @commit, or @tag:
```
repo:myrepo@main lang:go fmt.Println
```

7. Symbols and Definitions

type:symbol → search for symbol names
type:commit → search commit messages
type:diff → search code diffs

8. Examples

Find all TODO comments in Go files:
```
TODO lang:go
```
Search only in src/ folder for Java methods:
```
file:^src/ lang:java "public static"
```

Search across multiple repos:

repo:github.com/org/.* file:\.ts$ "useState"

👉 Do you want me to prepare a quick cheat sheet of the most used Sourcegraph queries (like one-liners you can reuse daily), or a deep-dive with advanced patterns?

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