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Search every cell of a tabular file for a query string and return the matching cells with their location and a context snippet.

When to use

  • Locating a value when you don't know which column holds it.
  • Regex / wildcard sweeps across a whole file.
  • "Does this file mention … anywhere?" probes.

Input schema

Parameter Type Required? Default Description
path string yes (no default) Path to the file
query string yes (no default) Text or pattern to search for
mode string no plain plain, wildcard, or regex
table string no (no default) Specific table for multi-table sources
limit integer no server default Max hits to return in the response. 0 = unlimited.
unlimited bool no false Lift the 5,000,000-row file-loader cap so the search scans every row in the file

Modes

Mode Behaviour
plain Case-insensitive substring match (default).
wildcard * matches any run of characters, ? matches one.
regex Full regular expression (regex-crate syntax).

Response shape

{
  "hit_count": 37,
  "returned": 37,
  "truncated": false,
  "hits": [
    { "row": 14, "col": 3, "column_name": "email", "snippet": "ada@example.com" }
  ]
}

hit_count is the total number of matches; returned is how many hits are in this response; truncated is true when hit_count exceeded the limit.

Example calls

{
  "name": "search",
  "arguments": { "path": "/tmp/users.csv", "query": "gmail.com" }
}

{
  "name": "search",
  "arguments": {
    "path": "/tmp/logs.parquet",
    "query": "^ERROR",
    "mode": "regex"
  }
}

See also