Query assist
Search your code using natural language with query assist.
Query assist enables you to describe what you're looking for in plain natural language, and Sourcegraph automatically translates your input into a precise search query. It is powered by a custom-trained LLM that understands Sourcegraph's search query syntax, so you can focus on what you want to find rather than how to express it.
- Press
# in the search bar to activate query assist mode
- Type a natural language description of what you're looking for — for example, "find all usages of the authToken field in Go files"
- As you type, query assist suggests translated search queries in a dropdown below the search bar
- Select a suggestion and press
Enter to execute the query
You can mix and match precise and natural language input. For example, you can type repo:foo/bar manually, then enter query assist mode and type "jane's work in january 2026", then finish by manually typing refactor auth check. The full query should then look like repo:foo/bar type:commit author:jane after:"2026-01-01" before:"2026-01-31" refactor auth check.
| Natural language input | Generated query |
|---|
| "TODO comments in python files" | lang:python TODO |
| "find all uses of @Deprecated in java" | lang:java @Deprecated |
| "find function definitions for parseJSON" | type:symbol select:symbol.function parseJSON |
| Natural language input | Generated query |
|---|
| "find numpy in requirements.txt" | file:requirements.txt numpy |
| "javascript files excluding test directories" | lang:javascript -file:test |
| "find auth middleware in repo django/django" | repo:django/django auth middleware |
| Natural language input | Generated query |
|---|
| "what did alice work on in the acme/backend repo?" | repo:acme/backend type:commit author:alice |
| "show me diffs with console.log added last month" | type:diff select:commit.diff.added after:"1 month ago" console.log |
| "commits mentioning deploy but not rollback" | type:commit deploy NOT rollback |
| Natural language input | Generated query |
|---|
| "repos that have a package.json containing express" | repo:has.file(path:package.json content:express) |
| "which repositories contain a Dockerfile?" | repo:has.path(Dockerfile) select:repo |
| "show me repos that haven't been updated in 6 months" | -repo:has.commit.after(6 months ago) select:repo |
| Natural language input | Generated query |
|---|
| "useState or useEffect in typescript but not in tests" | lang:typescript -file:test useState OR useEffect |
| "deprecated code removed in the last 2 weeks in java or kotlin" | (lang:java OR lang:kotlin) type:diff select:commit.diff.removed after:"2 weeks ago" deprecated |
| "commits by alice or bob mentioning refactor in backend repos after june 2023" | repo:backend type:commit (author:alice OR author:bob) after:2023-06-01 refactor |
| "FIXME on all branches except main in linker repo" | repo:linker rev:*refs/heads/*:*!refs/heads/main FIXME |
Query assist is available for customers using Sourcegraph Model Provider. No additional configuration is required — it is enabled by default in the search bar.
