Search Can Silently Miss Binary-Detected Files
SkillSearchripgrep/search_files silently skips binary-detected files — verify empty search results with grep -a / file / xxd before concluding 'not found'.
Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.
No other account needed.
Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.
Then ask your AI: use the Search Can Silently Miss Binary-Detected Files skill
What this skill tells your AI
The instructions your AI receives, as published by ashutoshsinghpr7/wikiskill in skills/search-miss-binary/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.
Problem
search_files (ripgrep) returned 0 matches for SECRET- even though
data.log contains SECRET-1722. Trusting the empty result would fail the
task ("which file contains the secret?").
Root cause
Ripgrep skips files it heuristically classifies as binary. The empty result means "no match in text-classified files", not "string absent".
Fix
- When a content search returns nothing but files exist, do NOT trust the empty result blindly.
- Force text mode:
grep -a -l PATTERN <files>and/orfile+xxd/hexdump to confirm where the string lives. - Confirm the actual match content before writing the answer.
Evidence
- Hit in a real graded task:
SECRET-1722lived in a binary-detected file; the agent correctly suspected "encoding or binary detection issues" and verified directly instead of concluding "not found".
Signals
- GitHub stars
- 181
- Forks
- 17
- Last commit
- Sep 2026
Advanced
- Catalog kind
- skill
- Gateway key
search-miss-binary- Source
- github.com/ashutoshsinghpr7/wikiskill