# ag (The Silver Searcher)

6 Hacker News commenters recommended ag (The Silver Searcher) and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Fast command-line code search tool that people prefer over grep and IDE search for its ergonomic defaults, such as flexible casing and simpler file filtering. No criticisms recorded.

## Why people recommend it

- Ergonomic defaults and simpler file filtering (2 comments): "its file filtering using -g is so much more cumbersome than -G in ag" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49729710)) "ag is also a little more ergonomic with its default flex casing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49731296))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [ripgrep](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ripgrep.md): 122 recommend
- [ast-grep](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ast-grep.md): 21 recommend
- [Semble](https://hackerapproved.com/p/semble.md): 20 recommend
- [Graft (Claude Code hooks)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/graft.md): 13 recommend
- [Lat.md](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lat-md.md): 11 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "ag (The Silver Searcher)", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ag/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).