Definition
Plain language
A standard command for searching through files and text for lines that match a pattern.
As stated in the literature
A Unix command-line utility that scans input for lines matching a pattern; agents 'grep' a codebase to locate relevant code, a static-search alternative to runtime inspection.
Also called: grepping, greps
Why it matters: It is a fast, universal way to locate the relevant pieces of a large codebase without running anything.
For example, a developer can use grep to instantly find every line in a project that mentions a particular function name.
Heard on the show
“… It opens the codebase, starts grepping around, makes a guess, runs the tests, hits an error, tries something else, installs a missing dependency, …”Episode 003 — How to Pick the Best of Sixteen Coding Agent Rollouts