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gh-search-code(1)

gh-search-code - Search within code

GH-SEARCH-CODE(1) GitHub CLI manual GH-SEARCH-CODE(1)

gh-search-code - Search within code

gh search code <query> [flags]

Search within code in GitHub repositories.

The search syntax is documented at:

⟨https://docs.github.com/search-github/searching-on-github/searching-code⟩

Note that these search results are powered by what is now a legacy GitHub code search engine. The results might not match what is seen on github.com, and new features like regex search are not yet available via the GitHub API.

For more information on handling search queries containing a hyphen, run gh search --help.

Filter on file extension

Filter on filename

Filter JSON output using a jq expression

Output JSON with the specified fields

Filter results by language

Maximum number of code results to fetch

Restrict search to file contents or file path: {file|path}

Filter on owner

Filter on repository, in OWNER/REPO format

Filter on size range, in kilobytes

Format JSON output using a Go template; see "gh help formatting"

Open the search query in the web browser

path, repository, sha, textMatches, url

0: Successful execution

1: Error

2: Command canceled

4: Authentication required

NOTE: Specific commands may have additional exit codes. Refer to the command's help for more information.

# Search code matching "react" and "lifecycle"
$ gh search code react lifecycle
# Search code matching "error handling"
$ gh search code "error handling"
# Search code using raw search qualifiers as separate arguments
$ gh search code panic path:pkg language:go
# Search code matching "deque" in Python files
$ gh search code deque --language=python
# Search code matching "cli" in repositories owned by microsoft organization
$ gh search code cli --owner=microsoft
# Search code matching "panic" in the GitHub CLI repository
$ gh search code panic --repo cli/cli
# Search code matching keyword "lint" in package.json files
$ gh search code lint --filename package.json

gh-search(1)

Oct 2026

gh 2.102.1-r0 · os · ingested 2026-10-21