sd: Fast Find & Replace

Always invoke sd skill for find & replace operations - do not execute bash commands directly.

Use sd for intuitive text replacement that's 2-12x faster than sed.

When to Use sd vs ripgrep

Use sd when:

• Performing replacements on known patterns

• Batch text transformations across files

• Need JavaScript-style regex syntax

• Direct file modifications without search first

Use ripgrep when:

• Finding unknown patterns or locations

• Need search results without immediate changes

• Complex file filtering and type matching

• Want to preview before modifying

Common workflow: ripgrep skill → sd skill (search first, then replace)

Default Strategy

Invoke sd skill for fast find & replace operations. Use when performing replacements on known patterns, batch text transformations across files, or need JavaScript-style regex syntax.

Common workflow: ripgrep skill → sd skill (search first, then replace) or fd skill → sd skill for batch operations.

Key Options

• -F for string-literal mode (no regex)

• $1, $2 or ${var} for capture groups

• --preview to preview changes

before patterns starting with -

• $$ for literal $ in replacement

When to Use

• Quick file edits

• Pipeline replacements: cat file | sd "old" "new"

• Batch operations across multiple files

• Complex regex with capture groups

Common Workflows

• fd → sd : Find files and perform batch replacements

• ripgrep | sd : Search patterns and replace across matches

• jq | sd : Extract JSON data and transform to other formats

• cat file | sd | bat : Transform content and preview with highlighting

Core Principle

Replace text with familiar JavaScript/Python regex syntax - no sed escape hell.

Detailed Reference

For comprehensive find & replace patterns, regex syntax examples, and workflow tips, load sd guide when needing:

• Advanced regex patterns with capture groups

• Pipeline operations and batch processing

• Escape sequence handling

• Common text transformation recipes

• Integration with other command-line tools

The guide includes:

• String-literal vs regex mode usage

• Capture group patterns and replacements

• Pipeline operations and batch processing

• Advanced regex patterns and edge cases

• Integration with other command-line tools

Skill Combinations

For Discovery Phase

• ripgrep → sd: Search patterns first, then replace across matches

• fd → sd: Find files and perform batch replacements

• jq/yq → sd: Extract data and transform to other formats

For Analysis Phase

• sd --preview → bat: Preview changes with syntax highlighting

• sd → fzf: Interactive selection of changes to apply

• sd → jq/yq: Transform data back to structured formats

For Refactoring Phase

• sd → searching-text: Verify replacements didn't introduce issues

• sd → analyzing-code-structure: Follow up with structural changes if needed

• sd → analyzing-code: Measure impact of text-based changes

Integration Examples

Find and replace across project

fd -e js -x sd "oldPattern" "newPattern" --preview

Chain transformations

cat config.json | jq '.version' | sd '"v' '' | sd '"' '' | xargs git tag

Interactive replacement with preview

rg "deprecated" -l | fzf --multi | xargs sd "deprecated" "legacy" --preview | bat