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Universal Finder

Use Universal Finder to find files, commits, Zide Assist sessions, shortcuts, projects, and items from connected services.

To open the Universal Finder, click Tools > Universal Finder.

The Universal Finder starts searching after you type a single character into the Search files, issues, commits, shortcuts field. Files, Shortcuts, and Projects show only results that contain the text that you type. Uppercase and lowercase letters are the same.

Files searches file names and paths. To search text inside files, use Find in Files. Commits searches the repository’s local history. Zide Sessions searches the titles and messages of the project’s saved and open Zide Assist sessions, with the same rules as Session List. This includes messages that are not saved yet. Issues, Pull Requests, Releases, and Actions search the connected services. Projects lists open projects, saved folders, and discovered sibling folders. Choosing a folder opens it as a project. This category does not list GitHub Projects. Shortcuts lists the Zide shortcuts that can run now, and runs the one you choose. A shortcut that belongs to a tab or a panel is listed only while you work in that tab or panel, and it acts on it. Shortcuts that need a repository are listed only for a project that has one. A shortcut for a connected service is listed until Zide identifies the service, and after that only if the service has that feature. To see every shortcut, including the ones that cannot run now, close Universal Finder and press F1.

To open a file at a line, type the file name, a colon, and the line number, for example main.js:42. Zide Sessions searches the text as you type it, including the colon and the number.

Filter the results

Click the filter button beside the search field to show the filters. The Universal Finder keeps the filter panel open or closed, and the items that you select in Search, for the next time you use it. Ctrl+P opens the Universal Finder on Files only, and does not change the items that it keeps. Each filter that is set shows as a chip above the results. Click a chip to change the filter, or click its x to remove it. With two or more chips, click Clear filters to remove them all.

Search is a list of what the Universal Finder can search:

  • Everything is the default. It searches all of the items below it.
  • App navigation contains Open projects, Other projects, Sibling projects, and Shortcuts. Other projects are the saved folders that are not open.
  • Project contains Files, Commits, Zide Sessions, and DevOps. These items search the contents of projects.
  • DevOps contains one item for each connected service in the projects that you search, such as GitHub or GitLab. Each service shows only its own features, with its own names. For example, GitLab shows Merge Requests and Pipelines. A service is shown after Zide identifies it.

App navigation and Project are collapsed until you click the arrow before them. The Universal Finder keeps them expanded or collapsed for the next time. When an item inside is selected, the box of a collapsed group shows a dash.

Select an item to search it and all of the items below it. Select more items to search that combination. When some of the items below an item are selected, its box shows a dash. Clear an item to stop searching it. Select Everything, or clear the last item, to search everything again.

You can also start the query with @ to search commits, or with > to search shortcuts. The prefix for issues and pull requests depends on the connected service. It is the symbol that the service shows before the number: for example, ! for GitLab merge requests and # for GitLab issues and GitHub issues and pull requests. A prefix can search more than one section. The filter panel lists the prefixes that the open projects accept.

While the query starts with a prefix, Search shows the items that the prefix searches. When you remove the prefix or clear the search field, Search shows your previous selection again. If you select an item while the query starts with a prefix, the Universal Finder removes the prefix and keeps the items selected.

The Project items search the contents of open projects only. Select where to search on the Project row:

  • This project searches the project that was active when you opened the Universal Finder.
  • All open projects searches every open project, including worktree Project Tabs.

The Universal Finder keeps this setting for the next time you use it. If no project is active, This project is unavailable.

With All open projects, Zide Sessions searches the saved and open sessions of each open project. You do not have to select a project’s tab first.

The setting also changes the DevOps items: each service is shown only if a project that you search uses it. A selected item stays selected when you change the setting. If this project does not have it, the item shows not in this project, and the Universal Finder does not search it. Select All open projects to search it again.

App navigation items do not search the contents of projects, so this setting does not change them.

Results

Each category has a section. Everything shows only the sections that have results. Projects and Shortcuts are under App navigation, after the other results. With All open projects, results are grouped by project. The current project is first. Each group shows the project name and folder path.

To open a result, click it, or use the arrow keys to highlight it and press Enter. The result opens in its own Project Tab, and the Universal Finder closes. A session result with a message match opens at the first highlighted match, as in Session List. A result from an open session opens that session’s tab. If you closed the tab, or it now shows a different session, the result does not open.

Each section shows a limited number of results. To see more results of one kind, click its section heading, for example Files. The Universal Finder then searches only that kind, as if you selected it in Search. A section appears when its search finds results. While you type, the results stay until new results are available. If no results are available yet, the Universal Finder shows Searching…. If a search fails, its section shows Search failed. The other sections are not affected.

When the search field is empty, the Universal Finder shows the results that you opened recently. With All open projects, recent results from all open projects are grouped by project. A recent shortcut that cannot run now is not shown.

The Commits section searches all of the available history in the repository. The filters of an open Commits tab do not change this search.

To continue, click Show matches in Commits below the commit results. The button shows only when Commits can find more: more matches than the Universal Finder lists, or history that the search did not reach yet. Zide opens Commits for the repository of those results and applies the same search text. Zide searches all branches and removes the author, date, and comparison filters, so that the results agree with the Universal Finder. Results come in pages. Click Load more to search further. For more information, see Search commits.