ReFind

AI-powered regex generation for VS Code Find & Replace.

ReFind lets you describe what you want to find (or find & replace) in plain language. It calls a language model to generate the regex, then applies it directly to VS Code's built-in Find widget — no copy-paste needed.

Features

• Natural-language → Regex — Describe your intent; get a working regex.
• Find & Replace — Describe both what to find and how to replace in one step.
• One-click apply — Generated regex is applied directly to VS Code's Find/Replace widget via editor.actions.findWithArgs.
• Review before apply — Confirm, edit, or cancel the result before it hits your editor.
• Selection as context — Automatically uses the current editor selection as additional context for the model.
• Mock mode — Develop and test the full flow without a real model backend.

Commands

Command	Description
ReFind: Generate Find Regex	Collect intent → generate regex → apply to Find widget
ReFind: Generate Find & Replace Regex	Same, but also generates a replacement string

Access via Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P).

Configuration

Setting	Type	Default	Description
refind.useMock	boolean	false	Use the mock generator instead of the Language Model API
refind.autoApply	boolean	false	Skip confirmation and apply regex directly to Find widget
refind.defaultUseSelection	boolean	true	Automatically offer to include editor selection as context

Requirements

• VS Code ≥ 1.109.0
• GitHub Copilot extension (for Language Model API access)
• An active Copilot subscription / authorization

Privacy

When you use ReFind, the following data is sent to the language model:

• Your intent description (what you typed in the input box)
• Editor selection (if you confirmed its inclusion)
• The mode (find or findReplace)

No file contents beyond the explicit selection are sent. No data is stored or transmitted outside the VS Code Language Model API flow.

Known Limitations

• The model may occasionally produce invalid or suboptimal regex patterns.
• Very complex regex requirements may need manual editing after generation.
• Only JavaScript-flavour regex is supported (VS Code's native engine).
• The preserveCase flag depends on VS Code's Find widget support.

Roadmap

• Multi-turn refinement ("make it also match X")
• Regex preview with live match highlighting
• History of recently generated patterns
• Support for multi-file search (workbench.action.findInFiles)
• Configuration for preferred model family

Local Development

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Compile
pnpm run compile

# Watch mode
pnpm run watch

# Lint
pnpm run lint

# Run tests
pnpm run test

Packaging & Installation

# Install vsce if needed
npm install -g @vscode/vsce

# Package as VSIX
vsce package

# Install locally
code --install-extension refind-0.1.0.vsix

License

MIT