greply

greply

Small Node.js wrapper around the greply CLI for programmatic use (e.g. MCP servers).

Install CLI

Install latest from main branch

wget

wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AnthonyRuffino/greply/main/install.sh | bash

curl

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AnthonyRuffino/greply/main/install.sh | bash

Install

npm i greply
# or
pnpm add greply

Requires Node 18+. By default the wrapper prefers its bundled greply.sh (shipped in this package). If not present, it falls back to greply on PATH. You can override with greply_CMD=/path/to/greply or the greplyCmd option.

Usage

import { greplyRun, greplyHelp } from "greply";

const { stdout } = await greplyRun({
  query: "TODO",
  target: ".",
  before: 1,
  after: 1,
  recursive: true,
  fixedStrings: true
});
console.log(stdout);

// Usage text
const help = await greplyHelp();
console.log(help.stdout || help.stderr);

Quick local test against the bundled README

Relative Path Handling:

Uses relative path 'node_modules/greply/README.md' directly.

Command:

node -e '
  import("greply")
    .then(m => 
      m.greplyRun({ query: "m.greplyRun", target: "README.md", fixedStrings: true })
        .then(r => console.log(r.stdout))
    )
'

Output:

README.md:46:      m.greplyRun({ query: "greplyRun", target: "README.md", fixedStrings: true })
README.md:53:...

Absolute Path Handling:

Uses path.resolve(process.cwd(), 'node_modules/greply/README.md') to create an absolute path

Command:

node -e '
  import("greply")
    .then(g => 
      import("node:path")
        .then(p => p.resolve(process.cwd(), "README.md"))
        .then(f => 
          g.greplyRun({ query: "g.greplyRun", target: f, fixedStrings: true })
        )
        .then(r => console.log(r.stdout))
    )
'

Output:

README.md:68:          g.greplyRun({ query: "PATH", target: f, fixedStrings: true })
README.md:77:...

Environment setup from source

rm -rf /tmp/greply-test && mkdir -p /tmp/greply-test && cd /tmp/greply-test
git clone [e-mail]:AnthonyRuffino/greply.git
cd greply
npm pack
cd ..
cp greply/greply-{release}.tgz .
npm i greply-{release}.tgz

Installing the cli (optional)

• Install using the bundled script from node_modules (no network). The programmatic install() copies the included greply.sh to a destination and marks it executable. By default, it writes to ~/.local/bin/greply and prompts before overwrite.

If you do not want to install greply directly, you can use the bash script bundled with the npm packacge with the following usage:

/node_modules/greply/greply.sh -c PATH  node_modules/greply/README.md

To install as executable bash script ~/.local/bin/greply

node -e "import('greply').then(m => m.install())"

When you need control:

node -e "(async()=>{ const m=await import('greply'); await m.install(); })()"

Quick Install Script

Download and run the install script in one command:

Install Script Parameters:

• First parameter: wget (direct download) or npm (clone + build)
• Second parameter: version tag (optional, e.g., "0.1.0", "1.0.0")
• Defaults: wget method, latest from main branch if no version specified

Install latest from main branch

wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AnthonyRuffino/greply/main/install.sh | bash

Install specific version

wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AnthonyRuffino/greply/main/install.sh | bash -s wget 0.1.5

Install via npm method with version

wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AnthonyRuffino/greply/main/install.sh | bash -s npm 0.1.5

Options → greply flags

Usage: ./node_modules/greply/greply.sh [options] <search_string> <file_or_directory>

• before → -B
• after → -A
• recursive → -R
• wholeWord → -w
• matchCase → -c
• fixedStrings → -F
• greplyCmd → custom path/command for greply
• suppressErrors → return stdout/stderr even if exit code ≠ 0

Usage once installed: greply [options] <search_string> <file_or_directory> e.g.

greply -c PATH  node_modules/greply/README.md