fff.nvim

What hackers pick instead

• ripgrepA much faster grep replacement for searching codebases, also widely used by AI coding agents; the main caveat is its default skipping of gitignored and hidden files.122recommend
• ast-grepA syntax-aware command-line tool for searching and refactoring code without regex headaches, which people also expose to AI agents as a skill. Some report mixed results.21recommend
• SembleDevelopers recommend Semble for fast local code search that needs fewer tokens and queries than grep. Critics question how the token savings are measured.20recommend
• Graft (Claude Code hooks)People recommend it for giving coding agents a map of the code that searches inside files rather than by names, cutting tokens and latency. Critics say the benchmarks are thin and the README reads as generated.13recommend
• Lat.mdRecommended as a Markdown knowledge graph that helps AI agents search code faster than grep. Main caveat: critics want proof of better performance.11recommend

Every quote

The 12 most detailed of 14 comments. Each links to the original.

1. Crazy fast and the vast majority of the time I get the result I want in one shot.

   Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Fff.nvim – the first ever typo resistant code search”

2. if you would search in the chromium repo you would see the correct match

   Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “The future of code search is not regex – 100x faster than ripgrep”

3. Finally, someone is fixing a problem that’s tailored to me.

   Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Fff.nvim – the first ever typo resistant code search”

4. typo resistant and usable code search for real codebases

   Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Fff.nvim – the first ever typo resistant code search”

5. For the performance improvements when reading files.

   Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Ask HN: Who is using MCP in production?”

6. this tickles me right where I itch

   Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Fff.nvim – the first ever typo resistant code search”

7. provides better and faster search

   Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “FFF MCP – file search tool for AI that is faster and cheaper [video]”

8. i used it and I really like it

   Mixed · Feb 2026 · in “Fff.nvim – the first ever typo resistant code search”

9. with fff it is 20milliseconds

   Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “The future of code search is not regex – 100x faster than ripgrep”

10. results in better results to me, but even that is debatable

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Stop Using OpenCode”

11. They have prebuilt binaries now for fff

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Fff.nvim – the first ever typo resistant code search”

12. But not a plain binary, which is the main way ripgrep is directly used (...at least by humans), and compared with.

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “The future of code search is not regex – 100x faster than ripgrep”