semfind

Semantic grep for the terminal. Searches files by meaning using local embeddings (BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5 + FAISS). No API keys needed.

When to reach for semfind

1. grep or ripgrep returned no results or irrelevant results
2. You don't know the exact wording of what you're looking for
3. You want to search by concept/meaning rather than exact text

Do NOT use semfind when grep works — grep is instant and has zero overhead.

Install

pip install semfind

First run downloads a ~65MB model (~10-30s). Subsequent runs use the cached model.