Our take
Activeregular commits and releases- Activity
- 56
- Community
- 33
- Issues
- 39
- Pull requests
- 43
+2 stars in the last 8 days
- Slower to close issues than 83% of the projects we track
scooter is a capable, actively maintained terminal find-and-replace tool, though its development is concentrated among a small number of contributors.
Good fit if
- You want an interactive review step before replacing matches across files.
- You work in a terminal and value regex search, stdin processing, or editor integration.
- You are comfortable adopting a Rust tool with an MIT license and a recent record of commits and releases.
Look elsewhere if
- Your workflow requires advanced regex features by default, since scooter uses a faster, limited regex engine unless advanced mode is enabled.
- You need development to be broadly distributed across contributors, as most contributions come from one person.
- Your team needs fast issue resolution, since the median time to close issues is measured in weeks rather than days.
All health signals
| Last commit | 2026-10-10 (today) |
|---|---|
| Commits, last 90 days | 18 |
| Releases, last 12 months | 6 (latest v0.9.1, 2026-04-23) |
| Contributors | 10 (top contributor: 84% of commits) |
| Issues closed, last 90 days | 4 (typically closed in 75 days) |
| Pull requests merged, last 90 days | 17 (typically merged in 2 days) |
| Project age | 2 years |
Checked on 2026-10-11 with the GitHub API.
Overview
scooter lets you search files or piped text, review matches in a terminal UI, and choose which instances to replace. It addresses the risk of applying a broad find-and-replace blindly by making changes inspectable and individually selectable.
It is aimed at developers who work in the terminal and want a focused tool for code or text edits across a directory. Searches can use fixed strings or regular expressions, and the tool also supports non-interactive use for scripted input.
Key Features
- Recursively searches files in a directory, respecting
.gitignoreand.ignorerules. - Reviews matches in a terminal interface, with controls to include or skip individual replacements.
- Searches with fixed strings or regular expressions, including capture groups in replacement text.
- Supports multiline searches, hidden files, and include or exclude glob patterns.
- Accepts content from stdin and offers a no-TUI mode for piping transformed output.
- Opens a selected match in the configured editor at its line.
- Provides configurable keybindings, syntax-highlighting themes, and replacement escape-sequence handling.
- Skips a replacement if its matched instance has changed since the search, and reports such cases afterward.
Use Cases
- A developer renaming an identifier across a repository who wants to inspect matches before changing files.
- A maintainer applying a regex-based edit with capture groups and selectively excluding exceptional matches.
- A terminal user transforming piped text, such as a selected buffer or file, without searching a directory.
- A developer using Helix or Neovim who wants to launch a find-and-replace UI from their editor workflow.
What you need
Detected in the repository
- Rust (from Cargo.toml)
- A test suite and automated checks on GitHub Actions
License in plain words
MITpermissive
- Commercial use: yes
- Modify and redistribute: yes
- You must keep: the copyright and license notice
- Share your changes: no
A summary, not legal advice: the LICENSE file is what applies.
Getting Started
Install with Homebrew and launch it in the directory to search:
brew install scooter
scooter
See the README for other installation options, command-line flags, and configuration.
Considerations
The project is active, with regular commits and releases, and has merged pull requests recently. However, work is concentrated: one contributor accounts for most of the code, so teams should consider that dependency when assessing long-term maintenance. Issue closure is slower than pull request merging, which may affect how quickly reported problems are addressed.
The default regex engine supports a subset of regex features; advanced mode is available for features such as negative lookahead. Search is line-by-line unless multiline mode is enabled. The interface is terminal-based, and teams that need a graphical workflow may prefer another tool. Check the repository for current details and configuration guidance.
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