jfind — find files by describing them

jfind is a command-line file search tool that understands plain English. It works like the Unix find command, with one extra predicate — --like "…" — that matches files by what they are rather than by name pattern. Instead of guessing a glob or a regex, describe the file:

jfind . --like "unit tests for the payment module"
jfind src -type f -name '*.py' --like "handles user authentication" --content
jfind . --like "image or binary asset" -print0 | xargs -0 ls -l

The semantic matching is done by TypeSafe.ai's jev model, which answers typed yes/no questions with a calibrated probability. Everything else — walking the tree, -name, -type, -maxdepth, .gitignore — runs locally, so only the files that pass your ordinary filters are ever sent for a semantic check.

Table of contents

• Why jfind
• Installation
• Usage
• How it works
• What gets sent to the API
• Cost
• Compared to find, fd and ripgrep
• FAQ
• Development

Why jfind

Classic file search tools match names (find -name, fd) or contents (grep, ripgrep). Neither helps when you know what a file is for but not what it's called: "the config that sets up logging", "anything to do with refunds", "the script that seeds the database". jfind answers those questions in one command, ranks results by confidence, and composes with xargs, fzf and shell pipelines like any other find-alternative.

Installation

uv tool install jfind-cli        # recommended: isolated, on PATH as `jfind`
pipx install jfind-cli           # alternative
pip install jfind-cli            # into the current environment

The PyPI package is jfind-cli; the command and the Python module are jfind. Requires Python 3.13+ and a TypeSafe.ai API key from console.typesafe.ai/keys:

export TYPESAFE_API_KEY=...      # or put it in a .env file in the current or a parent directory

Usage

jfind [PATH ...] -l TEXT [options]          # PATH may be a directory or a file

  -l, --like TEXT   natural-language description to match (also -like)

  -name GLOB        match basename against a shell glob (case-sensitive)
  -type f|d         restrict to files or directories
  -maxdepth N       descend at most N levels
  -newer FILE       only entries modified after FILE
  --hidden          include dotfiles and dotdirs
  --no-ignore       do not honour .gitignore (repo-root, root and nested files all apply)
  --content         also send the first 8 KiB of each text file (binaries are skipped)
  --threshold P     minimum match probability (default 0.7)
  --kind            also classify each match: source/test/config/docs/data/binary/other
  --explain         print the probability (and kind) next to each path
  --dry-run         show candidate count and cost estimate; makes no API calls
  -print0           NUL-separate output for xargs -0
  --concurrency N   parallel requests (default 20)
  --model ID        jev model id (default: jev-latest)

Examples

# Where is the code that talks to Stripe?
jfind src --like "integration with the Stripe payment API" --content

# Find test files for a feature, then run them
jfind tests --like "tests for user login and sessions" -print0 | xargs -0 pytest

# Which of the files changed since the last pull are documentation?
jfind . -newer .git/ORIG_HEAD --like "documentation or prose" --kind --explain

# Interactive: pick one of the semantic matches with fzf (-l is short for --like)
jfind . -l "database migration" | fzf

# Estimate before you spend anything
jfind . --like "anything" --content --dry-run

A run with --explain shows the probability jev assigned to each match and the token count:

$ jfind . --like "anything about payments" --content --kind --threshold 0.5 --explain
0.99  ./docs/payments.md  [docs]
0.99  ./src/payments/charge.py  [source]
0.98  ./tests/test_payments.py  [test]
jfind: 3/14 matched, 7,661 input tokens (~$0.0003)

Exit codes and platform notes

Exit codes follow grep: 0 = at least one match, 1 = none, 2 = error (matches are still printed; a single failed request never discards the others), 130 = interrupted.

Symlinks are never followed (like find -P): they are neither files nor directories, and --content never reads outside the tree through one. Works the same on macOS, Linux and Windows: paths are printed exactly as the filesystem stores them, "hidden" always means dot-prefixed, and .gitignore matching does not depend on the path separator. On Windows, run it from PowerShell or cmd and quote --like the same way.

How it works

1. Walk locally. jfind walks the directory tree and applies every classic predicate (-name, -type, -maxdepth, -newer, hidden files, .gitignore) before touching the network.
2. Ask one question per candidate. Each surviving entry is described to jev as structured JSON — path, name, extension, size, modification time and, with --content, the first 8 KiB of text — together with a single yes/no question: does this match "…"?
3. Keep the confident ones. jev returns a probability between 0 and 1. Entries at or above --threshold are printed, highest probability first.

jev is not a chat model. It is a purpose-built model for typed questions (yes/no, multiple choice, scored), which is exactly the shape of a find predicate: cheap, parallel and calibrated. Requests run concurrently (--concurrency), so a few thousand files take seconds.

What gets sent to the API

Only the entries that pass your local filters, and for each of them only:

• the path relative to the root you gave, the file name and extension
• size and modification time
• with --content: the first 8 KiB of the file, if it is text (binaries are detected and skipped)

Nothing else leaves your machine. --dry-run shows how many entries would be sent and what it would cost, without sending anything.

Cost

jev charges $0.042 per million input tokens; output is free. A metadata-only query costs roughly 400 tokens per file, --content a few thousand — so scanning a 1,000-file project is well under a cent. --dry-run prints an estimate first.

Compared to find, fd and ripgrep

Tool	Matches on	Example
find / fd	file name, type, size, time	fd -e py test_
grep / ripgrep	literal text or regex inside files	rg "def charge"
jfind	a natural-language description of the file	jfind --like "charges a customer's card"

jfind is not a replacement for any of them: it takes the same predicates as find, prints the same kind of output, and is meant to sit in the same pipelines. Use it when the thing you know about a file is what it does, not what it's called.

FAQ

Does it work offline? No — the semantic matching runs on TypeSafe.ai's API. Everything else (walking, filtering, --dry-run) is local.

Does it read my whole codebase? Only metadata by default. --content adds the first 8 KiB of each text file that passed your local filters. See What gets sent.

How accurate is it? jev returns a probability, not a verdict, so you choose the trade-off: raise --threshold for precision, lower it for recall, and use --explain to see the scores. Descriptions in English work best.

Can I use it in scripts? Yes. Output is one path per line (or -print0), exit codes follow grep, and errors go to stderr.

Why is the package called jfind-cli? The name jfind was already taken on PyPI. The command you run and the module you import are still jfind.

Development

git clone https://github.com/religa/jfind && cd jfind
uv sync --group dev
uv run pytest            # unit tests; the API client is stubbed, no key needed
uv run ruff check . && uv run ruff format --check .
uv run jfind . --like "the CLI entry point" --explain   # live, needs TYPESAFE_API_KEY
uv build                 # sdist + wheel into dist/

Layout: src/jfind/walk.py (local filtering), matcher.py (jev questions, async fan-out), cli.py (argparse + output).

Releases: bump version in pyproject.toml and CHANGELOG.md, tag vX.Y.Z, publish a GitHub release — .github/workflows/publish.yml uploads to PyPI via Trusted Publishing.

License

MIT