Advanced CLI: Speed, Token Limits, and Large Repos ​

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This page collects advanced patterns for large codebases and automation. Basic usage lives in the CLI Reference.

Token and size controls ​

bash
probe search "auth" --max-tokens 12000
probe search "auth" --max-bytes 200000
probe search "auth" --max-results 25

Faster searches on large repos ​

bash
# Narrow scope by folder
probe search "auth" ./services/api

# Exclude generated or vendor code
probe search "auth" --ignore "node_modules" --ignore "dist" --ignore "vendor"

Two-phase retrieval (fast) ​

bash
# Phase 1: find candidate files
probe search "payment" --files-only > files.txt

# Phase 2: search only within those files
cat files.txt | xargs -I{} probe search "payment" {}

Session-based caching ​

bash
probe search "login" --session ""   # returns a session id
probe search "oauth" --session "a1b2" # avoids duplicates

Batch reporting ​

bash
# JSON report for automation
probe search "TODO" --format json > report.json

# Markdown report for humans
probe search "security" --format markdown > report.md

See also ​