In-Terminal Search
Find text in the terminal you're working in — with a live match counter, case / whole-word / regex toggles, and keyboard-only navigation.
TermFlow's search is a lightweight overlay that lives inside each terminal pane. Press a shortcut, type, and jump between matches without ever leaving the keyboard.
Open and close
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open the search bar | Ctrl+F (Windows / Linux) · Cmd+F (macOS) |
| Next match | Enter |
| Previous match | Shift+Enter |
| Close the search bar | Esc |
The overlay is scoped to the focused pane — it searches the scrollback of the terminal you're currently in, not other panes, tabs, or windows. If you've split a tab into panes, each pane has its own independent search.
Pressing Ctrl/Cmd+F again while the bar is already open pulls focus back to the query box and re-selects your text, so you can retype without reaching for the mouse.
The search bar
When you open search, a compact bar appears with the query input, a live match counter, three option toggles, and navigation buttons.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ──┐
│ Find 3 of 12 [Aa] [ab] [.*] ↑ ↓ ✕ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ └─ Close (Esc)
│ │ │ │ │ │ └───── Next match (Enter)
│ │ │ │ │ └───────── Previous match (Shift+Enter)
│ │ │ │ └────────────────── Regex (.*)
│ │ │ └────────────────────── Whole word (ab)
│ │ └────────────────────────── Match case (Aa)
│ └───────────────────────────────────── N-of-M counter
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Query input (placeholder: "Find")
Incremental (as-you-type) matching
Search runs incrementally: every keystroke — and every toggle change — re-runs the query immediately and moves the viewport to the first match. There is no separate "search" button to press. Clearing the input clears the highlights.
The N-of-M counter
The counter next to the input shows your position in the results, for example 3 of 12 — the highlighted match is the third of twelve. When nothing matches, it reads 0 of 0.
Toggles
Three toggle buttons refine how the query is matched. Each is off by default; click to turn it on (the active state is visually highlighted). Changing any toggle re-runs the search instantly.
| Button | Meaning | What it does |
|---|---|---|
Aa | Match Case | Makes the search case-sensitive. Off = error also matches Error, ERROR. |
ab | Match Whole Word | Matches only complete words, so log won't match inside login or catalog. |
.* | Use Regular Expression | Treats the query as a regular expression instead of literal text. |
With the .* toggle on, the query is compiled as a regular expression. If the pattern is invalid (for example, an unbalanced bracket), the input is flagged instead of searching — fix the pattern and matching resumes automatically.
Navigating matches
Once you have matches, move between them without leaving the keyboard:
Enter— jump to the next match (wraps around at the end).Shift+Enter— jump to the previous match.- The
↓and↑buttons in the bar do the same thing if you prefer the mouse.
Press Esc to dismiss the bar and clear the highlights when you're done.
An honest note: Search looks through the terminal's scrollback buffer — the lines currently retained in memory for that terminal. Output that has scrolled past the retained history (the scrollback defaults to 1000 lines) is no longer in the buffer and won't be found. Search is also a live, in-pane find; it is not a saved history search across sessions.
Next steps
- Split panes — each pane you split off gets its own independent search overlay.
- Keyboard shortcuts — the full list of verified TermFlow shortcuts.