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By default, only the default branch of a repository is indexed and can be searched. Sourcebot can be configured to index additional branches (or tags) enabling multi-branch search. This is useful for scenarios such as:
  • Searching across different releases
  • Searching through feature branches during development
  • Tracking changes across multiple maintenance branches simultaneously

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Configuration

Multi-branch indexing is currently limited to 64 branches and tags. Please see this issue for more details.
Multi-branch indexing is configured in the connection using the revisions.branches and revisions.tags arrays. Glob patterns are supported. For example: 
{
    "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/main/schemas/v3/index.json",
    "connections": {
        "my-connection": {
            "type": "github",
            // For each of the repositories defined in this connection...
            "repos": [
                "org/repo1",
                "org/repo2"
            ],
            // ... index the default branch, as well as...
            "revisions": {
                // These branches (if they exist):
                "branches": [
                    // Exact matches
                    "dev",
                    "staging",

                    // Glob patterns
                    "feature/*" // Matches: feature/auth, feature/ui, etc.
                ],
                
                // These tags (if they exist):
                "tags": [
                    // Exact matches
                    "v4.0.0-dev",
                    
                    // Glob patterns
                    "v3.*.*", // Matches: v3.0.0, v3.0.1, etc.
                    "rc-*"    // Matches: rc-1, rc-2, etc.
                ]
            }
        }
    }
}
For each repo defined in the connection, any branches or tags matching the patterns in branches and tags array will be indexed.

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Search syntax

To search branches other than the default, the rev: prefix can be used followed by the branch (or tag) name:
ExampleExplanation
rev:feature/foo repo:A useEffectSearch for /useEffect/ on branch feature/foo in repo A
rev:feature/foo useEffect Search for /useEffect/ on branch feature/foo across all repos
rev:feature/ useEffectSearch for /useEffect/ on branches that contain feature/ across all repos
rev:feature/a rev:feature/b fooSearch for /foo/ on branches feature/a and feature/b
rev:feature/ -rev:feature/a fooSearch for /foo/ on branches that contain feature/ except for feature/a across all repos
To search across all branches, rev:*:
ExampleExplanation
rev:* repo:A "error message"Search for /error message/ across all branches in repo A
rev:* "error message"Search for /error message/ across all branches and all repos
Additional info:
  • refs/heads/ or refs/tags/ can be included to fully qualify a branch or a tag, respectively. E.g., rev:refs/heads/foo will search the branch foo, while rev:refs/tags/foo will search the tag foo.
  • rev: does not support regular expressions or glob patterns. It uses a simple contains call between the branch name and the pattern. See here.

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Platform support

PlatformMulti-branch indexing support
GitHub✅
GitLab✅
Bitbucket Cloud✅
Bitbucket Data Center✅
Gitea✅
Gerrit✅
Generic git host✅
⌘I