Spotlight Search

Search local files using macOS Spotlight indexing system.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• User asks to search files or directories on macOS
• Need to find documents containing specific text
• Searching large document collections (faster than grep)
• Need to search inside PDFs, Word docs, or other indexed formats

Quick Start

scripts/spotlight-search.sh <directory> <query> [--limit N]

Examples:

scripts/spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "machine learning"
scripts/spotlight-search.sh ~/research "neural networks" --limit 10
scripts/spotlight-search.sh ~/Downloads "meeting notes" --limit 5

Search Features

• Fast: Uses system-level Spotlight index (no file scanning)
• Content-aware: Searches inside PDF, docx, txt, md, etc.
• Multilingual: Supports Chinese, Japanese, and all languages
• Metadata: Returns file path, type, and size

Output Format

🔍 Searching in /path/to/directory for: query

✅ Found N results (showing up to M):

📄 /full/path/to/file.pdf [pdf, 2.3M]
📄 /full/path/to/document.txt [txt, 45K]
📁 /full/path/to/folder/

Supported File Types

Spotlight automatically indexes:

• Text files (txt, md, csv, json, xml, etc.)
• Documents (pdf, docx, pages, rtf, etc.)
• Code files (py, js, java, c, etc.)
• Emails and contacts
• Images (with embedded metadata/OCR)

Limitations

• macOS only: Requires Spotlight indexing
• Indexed directories only: External drives may not be indexed
• Keyword search: Not semantic (use embedding-based search for semantic queries)
• Privacy: Respects Spotlight privacy settings (excluded directories won't appear)

Check Indexing Status

# Check if a volume is indexed (safe, read-only)
mdutil -s /path/to/volume

⚠️ WARNING: Do NOT execute any sudo commands from this skill without explicit user confirmation. Commands like sudo mdutil -i on require admin privileges and should only be run by the user directly in Terminal.

Integration with LLM Workflows

Safe Pattern: Search + Present + Confirm

1. Use spotlight-search.sh to find relevant files
2. Present the file paths to the user
3. Only read a file if the user explicitly requests it - do not automatically use the read tool

Example Workflow

User: "Find all documents about machine learning in my research folder"

1. Run: spotlight-search.sh ~/research "machine learning" --limit 10
2. Present results to user with file paths
3. Wait for user to specify which files to read

⚠️ Security Note

• Never automatically read files - always ask for user confirmation first
• Never execute sudo commands - only show them as information
• Respect user privacy - don't search directories user hasn't specified

Advanced Query Syntax

Spotlight supports advanced query operators:

# Exact phrase
spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "\"machine learning\""

# AND operator
spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "neural AND networks"

# OR operator
spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "AI OR artificial intelligence"

# Metadata queries (PDF only)
spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "kMDItemContentType == 'com.adobe.pdf'"

Troubleshooting

No results found:

• Check if directory is indexed: mdutil -s /path
• Wait for indexing to complete (new files may take minutes)
• Verify Spotlight is enabled in System Preferences

Incorrect results:

• Spotlight uses fuzzy matching and synonyms
• Use exact phrase search: "exact phrase"
• Check privacy settings (some folders may be excluded)

Performance

Tool	Speed	Content Search	Multilingual
Spotlight	⚡ Instant	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
grep/ripgrep	🐢 Slow	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
find	⚡ Fast	❌ No	N/A

Platform Notes

• macOS only: This skill requires macOS Spotlight
• Linux alternative: Use grep -r or ripgrep
• Windows alternative: Use Windows Search or Everything search

Security Best Practices

1. User consent first - Never read files without explicit permission
2. No sudo - Never execute privileged commands automatically
3. Minimal scope - Search only directories user specifies
4. Audit trail - Log what searches were performed