FindInFilesWalker 🔍

Find in Files finally gets the preview it deserved.

VS Code has Peek View, IntelliJ has Find Usages popup, and Vim has quickfix-plus-preview setups. There you iterate over find-in-files results, see the match highlighted live in the actual editable file, hop to the next one, keep moving. Sublime Text has been missing it and this plugin emulates this behavior.

What it does

Run a search, then walk your results one match at a time. Each match opens live and editable in a pane right next to your results list - not a read-only peek, an actual view into the real file, so you can fix a typo or tweak a line without ever leaving the flow. Step forward, step backward, and when you're done, close everything you opened in one shot, or keep just the file you landed on.

• Walk matches ⬆️⬇️ - jump to the next or previous result with arrows and see it highlighted in context immediately
• Live, not locked ✏️ - the preview is the real file, fully editable, not a frozen readout
• Clean up in one move 🧹 - close every file you opened while walking, or keep just the one you're still working in
• Drop-in on any Find Results view ⚡ - works whether you opened your search the usual way or through the convenient dedicated window flow

Similar plugins

There is the terrific FindInFiles-addon by kaste. It doesn't support the new_window movement though, which I use primarily.

Getting started 🚀

Install via Package Control, run a Find in Files search as usual, and hit Enter to walk the results right there, or ctrl+enter to run the same search in a fresh window - no extra setup required.

Once you're walking, step through matches with the arrow keys (or ctrl+enter / shift+ctrl+enter).

When you're done, alt+shift+w closes everything the walk opened - or, focused on the file you want to keep, it closes everything else instead.

Shortcuts ⌨️

Shortcut	Focus on	Does	Command	Args
enter	Find in Files panel	Run search in this window	walker_open	{"new_window": false}
ctrl+enter	Find in Files panel	Run search in a new window	walker_open	{"new_window": true}
ctrl+enter	Results view	Next match	walker_walk	{"action": "next"}
shift+ctrl+enter	Results view	Previous match	walker_walk	{"action": "prev"}
down	Results view	Next match	walker_walk	{"action": "next"}
up	Results view	Previous match	walker_walk	{"action": "prev"}
alt+shift+w	A walked file	Close other walked files and the results view	walker_close_files_keep_one	-
alt+shift+w	Results view	Close all walked files and keep the results view	walker_close_files	-

Primary is Cmd on macOS, Ctrl on Windows/Linux. Both seemingly unconstrained bindings in fact run commands with restrictive is_enabled methods for reliability.

Manual installation 📦

1. Open Preferences > Browse Packages
2. In the Packages folder, either:
   • Clone this repo: git clone https://github.com/aletez/find_in_files_walker.git or download the ZIP and unpack it
   • Rename the folder to FindInFilesWalker

Keybindings work immediately.

Command names 🔌

The command names for your own binding:

• walker_open opens the dedicated window. Arrows work immediately.
• walker_walk selects the next ("args": {"action": "next"}) or the previous ("args": {"action": "prev"}) outlined region in the Find Results and opens the same location in the original file in the right panel.
• walker_close_files closes the target files and leaves Find Results open.
• walker_close_files_keep_one closes the Find Results and the target files beside the one with focus (on top) in the right panel.

The last two are natively bound to the same alt+shift+w and the plugin recognizes the case by view's settings.

Platform support 💻

Tested on macOS, Windows; ST ver. 4200. Linux is WIP.