abstract_search

Standalone string search across files and directories with allow/exclude filtering. Stdlib-only at import time — pdf, office, and spreadsheet readers load lazily and are optional extras.

from abstract_search import findContent

# search every readable file under a directory
hits = findContent("/path/to/project", strings=["needle"], get_lines=True)

# narrow by extension, merge extra excludes with the defaults
hits = findContent("/path/to/project", strings=["needle"],
                   allowed_exts="py", exclude_dirs="tests", add=True)

# exact multi-line match locations
locs = findContent("/path/to/project", strings=["def main(", "return"],
                   structured=True)

Filter semantics: passing a filter kwarg replaces its default set; add=True merges with the defaults instead. Defaults skip node_modules, __pycache__, backups, media/binary extensions, and __init__* files (see constants.py).

from abstract_search import make_allowed_predicate, filter_allowed_items, search_files

allowed = make_allowed_predicate(exclude_exts=".log", add=True)
kept = filter_allowed_items(paths, allowed_exts=[".py", ".md"])
hits = search_files("needle", "/path/to/project")   # line-level SearchHit records

Optional readers: pip install abstract_search[pdf] (pdfplumber), [ocr], [xls], [xlsb], [dbf], [parquet], or [all].