File Type Filters

ag has a built-in map of file types to extensions. Use --[type] flags to restrict searches to specific languages.

Listing Available Types

ag --list-file-types

Output (excerpt):

  --actionscript     .as .mxml
  --python           .py .pyw
  --javascript       .js .jsx
  --typescript       .ts .tsx
  --go               .go
  --rust             .rs
  --yaml             .yaml .yml
  --sql              .sql

Using Type Flags

# Only Python files
ag --python "def process"

# Only JavaScript and TypeScript
ag --js --ts "export default"

# Only config files (YAML + TOML)
ag --yaml --toml "database_url"

Excluding a Type (--ignore-dir, not a type flag)

ag does not have a --no-[type] flag like rg -T. Instead, exclude directories:

# Skip test directories
ag "api_key" --ignore-dir=tests --ignore-dir=spec

Path Pattern Filter (-G)

-G (--file-search-regex) filters by matching a regex against the full file path. This is more flexible than type flags:

# Only files containing "config" in their path
ag -G "config" "database_host"

# Only files in the "controllers" directory
ag -G "controllers/" "def index"

# Only files ending in _test.py
ag -G "_test\.py$" "assertEqual"

Depth Limiting (--depth)

# Only search 1 level deep (no recursion into subdirs)
ag --depth 1 "pattern"

# Search up to 3 levels deep
ag --depth 3 "pattern"