Everything Search (Dual-Mode: HTTP REST API & CLI)

Ultra-fast, index-powered local file search using Voidtools Everything. Supports both HTTP REST API mode (essential for sandboxed/containerized agents like Docker, WSL, DevContainers) and native CLI mode (es.exe Win32 IPC) with automatic fallback.

Why Dual-Mode? (Solving Sandboxed Agent IPC Issues)

When an AI agent runs inside a sandbox, Docker container, WSL2, or a Session 0 background service, calling es.exe directly often fails with: Error 8: Everything IPC window not found. Please make sure Everything is running.

Root Cause: Windows enforces User Interface Privilege Isolation (UIPI) and Session Isolation. Sandboxed processes and non-interactive sessions cannot send Win32 WM_COPYDATA window messages to the host desktop session.

The Solution: Everything provides a high-performance built-in HTTP REST API. Network calls (TCP) bypass Win32 UIPI/session isolation entirely:

• Sandboxed Agent / Container ➡️ HTTP Request (http://host.docker.internal:8080) ➡️ Host Everything Index (Instant Results!)
• Native Desktop Session ➡️ Automatic fallback to es.exe CLI if HTTP is disabled.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill whenever you need to:

• Locate files or directories instantly across local drives or inside a project directory
• Search files in sandboxed environments (Docker, WSL, restricted agents) without IPC errors
• Filter by name pattern, extension (ext:ts;tsx), size (size:>100MB), or date modified (dm:today)
• Output structured JSON for automated pipelines without token-costly directory walks

Quick Start: Python Dual-Mode Helper (Recommended)

The skill includes scripts/everything_search.py, which uses only Python standard libraries (zero external dependencies like requests).

# Auto mode: Attempts HTTP on port 8080 first; falls back to es.exe CLI automatically
python scripts/everything_search.py "package.json" -n 20

# Structured JSON output
python scripts/everything_search.py "ext:py model" -n 10 --json

# Restrict search to a specific directory
python scripts/everything_search.py "main.go" -p "C:\MyProject" -n 5

# Explicitly force HTTP REST mode
python scripts/everything_search.py "exact:Dockerfile" --mode http

# Specify custom host/port (e.g. from Docker container to host)
python scripts/everything_search.py "*.json" --url "http://host.docker.internal:8080" -n 10

Sandboxed & Container Environment Configuration

1. Enable HTTP Server on Windows Host (One-time Setup)

In Everything on the host machine:

1. Open Everything -> Tools (工具) -> Options (选项).
2. Click HTTP Server (HTTP 服务器) in the left menu.
3. Check Enable HTTP Server (启用 HTTP 服务器), set Port to 8080, and click OK. (Optional: run scripts/enable_http.ps1 to configure automatically).

2. Connect from Docker Container

Run your Docker container with host access:

docker run -e EVERYTHING_HTTP_URL=http://host.docker.internal:8080 --add-host host.docker.internal:host-gateway ...

Inside the container:

python scripts/everything_search.py "ext:rs" -n 10 --json

3. Connect from WSL2

Inside WSL, resolve the Windows host IP:

export EVERYTHING_HTTP_URL="http://$(ip route show | awk '/default/ {print $3}'):8080"
python3 scripts/everything_search.py "ext:md" -n 10

Direct CLI Usage (es.exe for Native Desktop Sessions)

When running directly in a native Windows user desktop session:

# Basic search (ALWAYS specify -n to prevent flooding LLM context)
es.exe -n 20 "settings.json"

# Search inside project folder
es.exe -path "C:\my-repo" -n 20 "index.ts"

# Files only (/a-d) or Folders only (/ad)
es.exe /a-d -n 15 "ext:tsx component"
es.exe /ad -n 10 "node_modules"

# Sort by date modified (newest first)
es.exe -sort-date-modified-descending -n 10 "ext:log dm:today"

Everything Search Syntax Cheatsheet

Environment Variables