rg Compatibility

vendor/bin/rg is a ripgrep-style compatibility wrapper. It accepts the most commonly used ripgrep flags, walks the file tree the same way ripgrep does, and emits matching output. The verified surface is reproduced from probe runs against the upstream rg binary and lives in Advanced / Feature Matrix.

The wrapper is a thin CLI translator; the actual search work is done by the same Greph\Text\TextSearcher engine that vendor/bin/greph uses.

When to use it

Use the wrapper when:

• You have an existing tool, agent, or script that already invokes rg.
• You want a drop-in replacement that works in environments where you cannot install ripgrep itself (shared hosting, hardened containers, restricted PaaS).
• You want ripgrep ergonomics on PHP-only infrastructure.

Use native vendor/bin/greph when:

• You are writing new code and do not need the ripgrep CLI shape.
• You want access to native flags that the wrapper does not expose (for example AST mode).

Usage

rg [options] pattern [path...]
rg --files [options] [path...]

A bare invocation searches . recursively:

./vendor/bin/rg -F "function"

--files lists candidate files instead of searching:

./vendor/bin/rg --files
./vendor/bin/rg --files --type php
./vendor/bin/rg --files --hidden

JSON output

--json emits the same event-shaped payload that ripgrep produces:

./vendor/bin/rg --json -F "function" src

{"type":"begin","data":{"path":{"text":"src/Greph.php"}}}
{"type":"match","data":{"path":{"text":"src/Greph.php"},"lines":{"text":"final class Greph"},"line_number":31,"absolute_offset":1234,"submatches":[{"match":{"text":"function"},"start":0,"end":8}]}}
{"type":"end","data":{"path":{"text":"src/Greph.php"}}}

This is the schema that downstream tools expect when they enable ripgrep's structured output. If you want a simpler shape, use vendor/bin/greph --json instead.

Verified surface

The following flags are verified against rg itself in the feature matrix. Both the upstream binary and the wrapper produce equivalent output for each probe.

Search flags

• -F, --fixed-strings
• -i, --ignore-case
• -w, --word-regexp
• -v, --invert-match
• -c, --count
• -l, --files-with-matches
• --files-without-match
• -I, --no-filename
• -H, --with-filename
• -n, --line-number
• -A N, --after-context N
• -B N, --before-context N
• -C N, --context N
• -m N, --max-count N
• -e P, --regexp P

Walker flags

• -L, --follow
• --glob GLOB
• --type NAME
• --type-not NAME
• --no-ignore
• --hidden
• --files
• --files --hidden
• --files --type NAME

Output flags

• --json

Worker flags

• -j N, --threads N

Limitations

Greph's rg wrapper covers the search and walker surface that most tools and agents use. It does not currently expose the following ripgrep features:

• Multiline regex (-U, --multiline)
• Replacement (-r, --replace) for text mode (use vendor/bin/greph AST rewrite instead)
• Custom type definitions (--type-add, --type-clear)
• Encoding flags (-E, --encoding)
• --pre filter scripts
• --sort, --sortr

If you hit a missing flag, file an issue with the probe you ran against upstream rg and the expected output. New features land alongside their oracle probes so the verified surface only grows.

Behavior parity

The wrapper aims for behavior parity, not byte parity. Output is line-equivalent but may differ in cosmetic details (color codes, terminal-width truncation). The probes used by the feature matrix check semantic equivalence, not byte-exact diffs.

For agents and tools that parse output, the parser-relevant fields (file path, line number, content, match position) are byte-identical to upstream rg for every verified probe.