Everything CLI#

This skill gives the agent a stable CLI on top of voidtools Everything and should replace recursive local scans whenever the Everything index is suitable.

First Use#

If ev is already on PATH, use it immediately.

If ev is missing, bootstrap it first:

powershell

py -3 skills/everything-cli/scripts/everything-cli.py ensure --install-shim

If py is unavailable, use python instead.

After bootstrap, treat ev as the default local indexed search command for the rest of the task and future local-search tasks in the same environment.

Commands#

• ev ensure verifies Everything.exe, downloads es.exe when needed, and can install shims with --install-shim.
• ev search --query "foo" returns indexed search results as JSON by default.
• ev recent --days 3 --path "C:\Users\izayo\Downloads" finds recently modified items.
• ev count --query "ext:pdf invoice" returns a count.
• ev raw -sort path -n 10 foo passes advanced arguments directly to es.exe.

Output#

search and recent return JSON by default with query, count, offset, limit, scope, sort, descending, path, and results.

Rules#

• Use ev first for indexed local file lookup, path lookup, recent-file discovery, and count-only checks.
• Prefer ev search, ev recent, or ev count over recursive Get-ChildItem scans.
• Fall back to recursive filesystem scans only when the Everything index is unsuitable or the user explicitly needs non-indexed files.
• --path is recursive because the wrapper uses Everything path matching.
• Empty global queries are blocked unless --allow-empty is supplied.
• raw is the escape hatch when a native es.exe flag is needed.