name: dev-research-codebase-exploration description: Efficient codebase search using Glob and Grep category: research

Codebase Exploration

Efficiently explore the codebase using Glob and Grep tools.

Glob Tool

Find files by pattern:

# Find all TypeScript files
Glob("**/*.ts")

# Find all TSX files
Glob("**/*.tsx")

# Find specific folders
Glob("src/components/**/*.tsx")
Glob("src/hooks/**/*.ts")

# Find files with keyword
Glob("**/*player*")
Glob("**/*physics*")

Grep Tool

Search file contents:

# Search for specific text
Grep("useFrame", "src/")
Grep("useState", "src/")

# Case-insensitive search
Grep("COLYSEUS", "src/", { ignoreCase: true })

# Search with context
Grep("function.*movement", "src/", { context: 2 })

Search Patterns

Find Component Definitions

Grep("function.*Component|const.*=.*=>", "src/components/")

Find State Stores

Glob("src/stores/**/*.ts")
Grep("create.*Store|zustand", "src/stores/")

Find Type Definitions

Glob("src/types/**/*.ts")
Grep("interface.*|type.*=", "src/types/")

Find Exports

Grep("export.*function|export.*const", "src/")

Tips

1. Start broad, then narrow - Use Glob first, then Grep
2. Use specific patterns - More specific = faster results
3. Check multiple locations - Code may be in unexpected places
4. Read related files - Found patterns often have related code nearby

Anti-Patterns

❌ DON'T:

• Use overly broad globs - Glob("**/*") is useless
• Search from root every time - Narrow to relevant directories
• Ignore file extensions - Searching .md files for code patterns wastes time
• Skip context - Reading just the matched line misses important context
• Search for common words - Grep("const") returns everything

✅ DO:

• Combine Glob + Grep - Glob("src/**/*.ts") then Grep("pattern", "src/")
• Use specific globs - Glob("src/components/**/*.tsx") instead of Glob("**/*.tsx")
• Search with context - Grep("pattern", "src/", { context: 3 })
• Filter by file type - Search .ts files for code, .md for docs
• Start from known locations - Check similar features first