Search Key Actions

Key assignments for searching terminal content and navigating search results in WezTerm

Overview

WezTerm provides powerful search capabilities for finding text in your terminal output and scrollback history. You can search using plain text, case-sensitive matching, or regular expressions.

Basic Search

Search

Open the search overlay with an optional pre-filled pattern:

local wezterm = require 'wezterm'
local act = wezterm.action
local config = {}

config.keys = {
  -- Open empty search
  {
    key = 'F',
    mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
    action = act.Search 'CurrentSelectionOrEmptyString',
  },
  -- Search for git hashes
  {
    key = 'H',
    mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
    action = act.Search { Regex = '[a-f0-9]{6,}' },
  },
}

return config

pattern · Pattern · required

The search pattern to use. Can be one of:

• 'CurrentSelectionOrEmptyString' - Use selected text or empty (default)
• { CaseSensitiveString = 'text' } - Exact case-sensitive match
• { CaseInSensitiveString = 'text' } - Case-insensitive match
• { Regex = 'pattern' } - Regular expression pattern

Search Pattern Types

CurrentSelectionOrEmptyString

Use the currently selected text as the search term:

config.keys = {
  {
    key = 'f',
    mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
    action = act.Search 'CurrentSelectionOrEmptyString',
  },
}

If there’s no selection, the search overlay opens empty, ready for input.

CaseSensitiveString

Search for an exact string match:

config.keys = {
  {
    key = 'e',
    mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
    action = act.Search { CaseSensitiveString = 'ERROR' },
  },
}

This will only match “ERROR” exactly, not “error” or “Error”.

CaseInSensitiveString

Search for a string ignoring case:

config.keys = {
  {
    key = 'w',
    mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
    action = act.Search { CaseInSensitiveString = 'warning' },
  },
}

This will match “warning”, “WARNING”, “Warning”, etc.

Regex

Search using regular expressions:

config.keys = {
  -- Find git hashes
  {
    key = 'h',
    mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
    action = act.Search { Regex = '[a-f0-9]{7,40}' },
  },
  -- Find URLs
  {
    key = 'u',
    mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
    action = act.Search { Regex = 'https?://\\S+' },
  },
  -- Find email addresses
  {
    key = 'm',
    mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
    action = act.Search { Regex = '[\\w._%+-]+@[\\w.-]+\\.[\\w]{2,}' },
  },
  -- Find IP addresses
  {
    key = 'i',
    mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
    action = act.Search { Regex = '\\b(?:[0-9]{1,3}\\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}\\b' },
  },
}

WezTerm uses Rust’s regex syntax. View the full syntax documentation

Copy Mode Search

When in copy mode, you can use search-specific navigation actions:

Copy Mode Search Actions

config.key_tables = {
  copy_mode = {
    -- Open search
    { key = '/', action = act.CopyMode 'EditPattern' },
    
    -- Navigate search results
    { key = 'n', action = act.CopyMode 'NextMatch' },
    { key = 'N', mods = 'SHIFT', action = act.CopyMode 'PriorMatch' },
    
    -- Navigate by pages of matches
    { key = 'PageUp', action = act.CopyMode 'PriorMatchPage' },
    { key = 'PageDown', action = act.CopyMode 'NextMatchPage' },
    
    -- Cycle match type (case sensitive, case insensitive, regex)
    { key = 'r', mods = 'CTRL', action = act.CopyMode 'CycleMatchType' },
    
    -- Clear search pattern
    { key = 'Escape', action = act.CopyMode 'ClearPattern' },
    
    -- Accept and close search
    { key = 'Enter', action = act.CopyMode 'AcceptPattern' },
  },
}

EditPattern · CopyModeAssignment

Open or edit the search pattern

NextMatch · CopyModeAssignment

Jump to the next match

PriorMatch · CopyModeAssignment

Jump to the previous match

NextMatchPage · CopyModeAssignment

Jump forward by a page of matches

PriorMatchPage · CopyModeAssignment

Jump backward by a page of matches

CycleMatchType · CopyModeAssignment

Toggle between case-sensitive, case-insensitive, and regex matching

ClearPattern · CopyModeAssignment

Clear the current search pattern

AcceptPattern · CopyModeAssignment

Accept the current pattern and close the search input

ActivateCopyMode

Enter copy mode, which provides keyboard-driven navigation and search:

config.keys = {
  {
    key = '[',
    mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
    action = act.ActivateCopyMode,
  },
}

Copy mode allows you to:

• Navigate with keyboard (vim-style bindings)
• Search and navigate results
• Select and copy text without using the mouse

Complete Example

Basic Search

local wezterm = require 'wezterm'
local act = wezterm.action
local config = {}

config.keys = {
  -- Open search with current selection or empty
  {
    key = 'f',
    mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
    action = act.Search 'CurrentSelectionOrEmptyString',
  },
  
  -- Enter copy mode for keyboard navigation
  {
    key = '[',
    mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
    action = act.ActivateCopyMode,
  },
}

return config

Search Overlay Controls

When the search overlay is active:

• Enter - Navigate to next match
• Shift+Enter - Navigate to previous match
• Ctrl+R - Cycle match type (case-sensitive → case-insensitive → regex)
• Ctrl+U - Clear the search input
• Escape - Close search overlay
• Up/Down arrows - Navigate match history

Regular Expression Examples

Common regex patterns for searching:

local common_patterns = {
  -- Git commit hashes (7-40 hex chars)
  git_hash = '[a-f0-9]{7,40}',
  
  -- URLs
  url = 'https?://\\S+',
  
  -- Email addresses
  email = '[\\w._%+-]+@[\\w.-]+\\.[\\w]{2,}',
  
  -- IPv4 addresses
  ipv4 = '\\b(?:[0-9]{1,3}\\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}\\b',
  
  -- File paths (Unix)
  unix_path = '(?:/[^/\\s]+)+/?',
  
  -- File paths (Windows)
  windows_path = '[A-Za-z]:\\\\[^\\s]+',
  
  -- UUIDs
  uuid = '[0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{12}',
  
  -- Semantic version numbers
  semver = '\\b\\d+\\.\\d+\\.\\d+\\b',
  
  -- Time stamps (HH:MM:SS)
  time = '\\b\\d{2}:\\d{2}:\\d{2}\\b',
}

Use the CycleMatchType action (Ctrl+R) in the search overlay to quickly switch between case-sensitive, case-insensitive, and regex matching without retyping your pattern

Related Actions

• Copy/Paste Actions - Copy search results
• Scrolling Actions - Navigate to search matches
• QuickSelect - Alternative pattern-based selection