find-replace_skill

Overview

This skill provides a modern find-and-replace workflow using sd for safe, global, and readable text substitution across files. It simplifies common sed patterns, supports regex captures, and integrates a safe batch workflow with ripgrep (rg) for preview and verification. The skill focuses on predictable, in-place edits and easy rollback with git.

How this skill works

The tool runs sd to perform global replacements by default, so patterns do not require delimiters and are less error-prone than sed. It pairs rg for listing and previewing matches, then applies sd to files returned by rg for batched, targeted edits. It supports regex escapes, word boundaries, and capture groups to handle complex renames and import updates.

When to use it

• Rename variables or functions across a codebase
• Update import paths or module references in many files
• Refactor logging calls or API endpoints with capture-group rewrites
• Batch-fix typos, licensing headers, or configuration keys
• Preview and apply large-scale changes safely before committing

Best practices

• Always preview matches with rg -r or rg -l before applying replacements
• Run rg -l to generate a file list and pass it to sd for focused changes
• Quote patterns and escape special characters like ., *, [, ], $, and \
• Use \b for word boundaries to avoid partial matches
• Commit or create a branch before large replacements so you can review diffs and rollback

Example use cases

• Rename a function: sd 'oldName' 'newName' src/**/*.ts and verify with rg 'oldName'
• Update import paths: sd "from '../utils'" "from '@/utils'" src/**/*.ts
• Replace console logs with logger calls using captures: sd 'console.log((.*))' 'logger.info($1)' src/**/*.js
• Batch apply a change found with ripgrep: sd 'oldPattern' 'newPattern' $(rg -l 'oldPattern' src/) and then git diff to review