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Spotlight

Search files and content using macOS Spotlight indexing (mdfind)

Rating: 3.8 (25 reviews)
Downloads: 20,844 downloads
Version: 1.0.0

Overview

Search files and content using macOS Spotlight indexing (mdfind)

Complete Documentation

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Spotlight Search

Search local files using macOS Spotlight indexing system.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

User asks to search files or directories on macOS
Need to find documents containing specific text
Searching large document collections (faster than grep)
Need to search inside PDFs, Word docs, or other indexed formats

Quick Start

bash

scripts/spotlight-search.sh <directory> <query> [--limit N]

Examples:

bash

scripts/spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "machine learning"
scripts/spotlight-search.sh ~/research "neural networks" --limit 10
scripts/spotlight-search.sh ~/Downloads "meeting notes" --limit 5

Search Features

Fast: Uses system-level Spotlight index (no file scanning)
Content-aware: Searches inside PDF, docx, txt, md, etc.
Multilingual: Supports Chinese, Japanese, and all languages
Metadata: Returns file path, type, and size

Output Format

text

🔍 Searching in /path/to/directory for: query

✅ Found N results (showing up to M):

📄 /full/path/to/file.pdf [pdf, 2.3M]
📄 /full/path/to/document.txt [txt, 45K]
📁 /full/path/to/folder/

Supported File Types

Spotlight automatically indexes:

Text files (txt, md, csv, json, xml, etc.)
Documents (pdf, docx, pages, rtf, etc.)
Code files (py, js, java, c, etc.)
Emails and contacts
Images (with embedded metadata/OCR)

Limitations

macOS only: Requires Spotlight indexing
Indexed directories only: External drives may not be indexed
Keyword search: Not semantic (use embedding-based search for semantic queries)
Privacy: Respects Spotlight privacy settings (excluded directories won't appear)

Check Indexing Status

bash

# Check if a volume is indexed
mdutil -s /path/to/volume

# Enable indexing (requires admin)
sudo mdutil -i on /path/to/volume

Integration with LLM Workflows

Pattern: Search + Extract + Summarize

Use spotlight-search.sh to find relevant files
Use read tool to extract content from top results
Summarize or answer user's question based on extracted content

Example workflow:

text

User: "Find all documents about machine learning in my research folder"

1. Run: spotlight-search.sh ~/research "machine learning" --limit 10
2. Read top 3-5 results with read tool
3. Summarize findings for user

Advanced Query Syntax

Spotlight supports advanced query operators:

bash

# Exact phrase
spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "\"machine learning\""

# AND operator
spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "neural AND networks"

# OR operator
spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "AI OR artificial intelligence"

# Metadata queries
spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "kMDItemContentType == 'com.adobe.pdf'"

Troubleshooting

No results found:

Check if directory is indexed: mdutil -s /path
Wait for indexing to complete (new files may take minutes)
Verify Spotlight is enabled in System Preferences

Incorrect results:

Spotlight uses fuzzy matching and synonyms
Use exact phrase search: "exact phrase"
Check privacy settings (some folders may be excluded)

Performance

Instant: Pre-indexed, no file scanning needed
Scales well: Handles millions of files
Low CPU: No processing overhead (vs grep/ripgrep)

Comparison:

Tool	Speed	Content Search	Multilingual
Spotlight	⚡ Instant	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
grep/ripgrep	🐢 Slow	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
find	⚡ Fast	❌ No	N/A

Platform Notes

macOS only: This skill requires macOS Spotlight
Linux alternative: Use grep -r or ripgrep
Windows alternative: Use Windows Search or Everything search

Installation

Terminal bash


openclaw install spotlight

Copied!

💻Code Examples

scripts/spotlight-search.sh ~/Downloads "meeting notes" --limit 5

scriptsspotlight-searchsh-downloads-meeting-notes---limit-5.txt

## Search Features

- **Fast**: Uses system-level Spotlight index (no file scanning)
- **Content-aware**: Searches inside PDF, docx, txt, md, etc.
- **Multilingual**: Supports Chinese, Japanese, and all languages
- **Metadata**: Returns file path, type, and size

## Output Format

📁 /full/path/to/folder/

-fullpathtofolder.txt

## Supported File Types

Spotlight automatically indexes:
- Text files (txt, md, csv, json, xml, etc.)
- Documents (pdf, docx, pages, rtf, etc.)
- Code files (py, js, java, c, etc.)
- Emails and contacts
- Images (with embedded metadata/OCR)

## Limitations

- **macOS only**: Requires Spotlight indexing
- **Indexed directories only**: External drives may not be indexed
- **Keyword search**: Not semantic (use embedding-based search for semantic queries)
- **Privacy**: Respects Spotlight privacy settings (excluded directories won't appear)

## Check Indexing Status

sudo mdutil -i on /path/to/volume

sudo-mdutil--i-on-pathtovolume.txt

## Integration with LLM Workflows

**Pattern: Search + Extract + Summarize**

1. Use `spotlight-search.sh` to find relevant files
2. Use `read` tool to extract content from top results
3. Summarize or answer user's question based on extracted content

**Example workflow:**

3. Summarize findings for user

3-summarize-findings-for-user.txt

## Advanced Query Syntax

Spotlight supports advanced query operators:

example.sh

scripts/spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "machine learning"
scripts/spotlight-search.sh ~/research "neural networks" --limit 10
scripts/spotlight-search.sh ~/Downloads "meeting notes" --limit 5

example.txt

🔍 Searching in /path/to/directory for: query

✅ Found N results (showing up to M):

📄 /full/path/to/file.pdf [pdf, 2.3M]
📄 /full/path/to/document.txt [txt, 45K]
📁 /full/path/to/folder/

example.sh

# Check if a volume is indexed
mdutil -s /path/to/volume

# Enable indexing (requires admin)
sudo mdutil -i on /path/to/volume

example.txt

User: "Find all documents about machine learning in my research folder"

1. Run: spotlight-search.sh ~/research "machine learning" --limit 10
2. Read top 3-5 results with read tool
3. Summarize findings for user

example.sh

# Exact phrase
spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "\"machine learning\""

# AND operator
spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "neural AND networks"

# OR operator
spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "AI OR artificial intelligence"

# Metadata queries
spotlight-search.sh ~/Documents "kMDItemContentType == 'com.adobe.pdf'"