Enterprise Organization - Code Search

[JaredLenos]

Select Topic Area

Product Feedback

Body

Background and Problem Statement

I'm administrating an Enterprise migration of code from Azure DevOps to GitHub as part of a modernization effort over the past 5-6 months. As the volume of org-owned code grows (~1000 repositories), the code search functionality and reliability has proven to be sub-optimal, or downright incorrect in situations that the on-prem Azure DevOps "code search" was handling flawlessly.

Recommended Product Enhancements

See below for specific examples of our ideal outcomes:

---

Code Search in the UI

• Current: "Results for any search with code search are restricted to 100 results (5 pages). Sorting is not supported for code search results at this time.". This is in the GitHub UI.
  • Ideal: Users should be able to page all relevant search results, beyond a 100 result cap. Forcing users to specify additional filters to drive down the search context does not allow them to perform broad searches for a hard-to-find result within a well-scoped domain (ex. within a specific organization).

Code Search Rate Limits

• Current: Using the Gitub Code Search imposes rate limits which are far below user rate limits. Hitting https://api.github.com/rate_limit with an Enterprise Managed User account indicates a rate limit for search of 30 and code_search of 10.
  • Ideal: Code search should be included in the user limit of 5000 requests per hour, rather than independently limited to such a small value that it could be exceeded either in the UI or CLI while experimenting with a search string (or applying filters to find results).

Expanding Default Branch Search - at least one more. "Organization" scope at minimum.

• Current: When performing a code search, only the default branch is searchable.
  • Ideal: A limited subset of additional branches can be included in the code search on a per-repository basis within an organization search. In Azure DevOps this was up to five (5) additional branches per repository. This will enable a code-search for impact across LTS AND STS branches from the same source code, where today the default (STS) is well maintained, but a fix or CVE which has not yet been ported to the LTS tagged branch requires secondary tooling in order to investigate risk appropriately, and does not scale well across multiple components.

Improving visibility of code matches within an "Organization".

• Current: When performing a code search, there is no effective visual to indicate the list of repositories that a code search has met. Only five (5) repositories with a match are shown, with (+) more repositories shown.
  • Ideal: In Azure DevOps, a comprehensive list of repositories meeting the search criteria are shown sorted by name and visually showing the number of string hits within that repository as a reference.

GitHub Support Solution (per portal) - not my writing

---

GitHub’s current code search has several documented limitations that explain the behavior you’re seeing:

• Result cap – Code search results are limited to 100 matches (5 pages), and sorting is not supported. This is a hard limit in the current implementation and cannot be increased.
  • About GitHub Code Search limitations
• Rate limits – Code search API requests have their own lower limits separate from the general REST API rate limit. These are enforced to protect search infrastructure and cannot be changed.
• Default branch only – Code search indexes only the default branch of each repository. Other branches are not searchable at this time.
• Repository list in results – The UI shows only a subset of repositories with matches, with an option to expand. There is no current feature to list all matching repositories with hit counts.

[github-actions[bot]]

💬 Your Product Feedback Has Been Submitted 🎉

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights with us! Your feedback is invaluable as we build a better GitHub experience for all our users.

Here's what you can expect moving forward ⏩

• Your input will be carefully reviewed and cataloged by members of our product teams. 
  • Due to the high volume of submissions, we may not always be able to provide individual responses.
  • Rest assured, your feedback will help chart our course for product improvements.
• Other users may engage with your post, sharing their own perspectives or experiences. 
• GitHub staff may reach out for further clarification or insight. 
  • We may 'Answer' your discussion if there is a current solution, workaround, or roadmap/changelog post related to the feedback.

Where to look to see what's shipping 👀

• Read the Changelog for real-time updates on the latest GitHub features, enhancements, and calls for feedback.
• Explore our Product Roadmap, which details upcoming major releases and initiatives.

What you can do in the meantime 💻

• Upvote and comment on other user feedback Discussions that resonate with you.
• Add more information at any point! Useful details include: use cases, relevant labels, desired outcomes, and any accompanying screenshots.

As a member of the GitHub community, your participation is essential. While we can't promise that every suggestion will be implemented, we want to emphasize that your feedback is instrumental in guiding our decisions and priorities.

Thank you once again for your contribution to making GitHub even better! We're grateful for your ongoing support and collaboration in shaping the future of our platform. ⭐