charmbracelet/crush · error

ripgrep not found in $PATH

Error message

ripgrep not found in $PATH

What it means

The grep tool's ripgrep-based search path could not locate the rg executable, so getRipgrepSearchCmd returned nil. The tool requires ripgrep as an external dependency and cannot perform the search without it.

Source

Thrown at internal/agent/tools/grep.go:221

	// Use a stable sort so that the multiple matches a single file can
	// contribute (all sharing the same modTime) keep their original
	// line order and stay grouped together in the rendered output.
	sort.SliceStable(matches, func(i, j int) bool {
		return matches[i].modTime.After(matches[j].modTime)
	})

	truncated := len(matches) > limit
	if truncated {
		matches = matches[:limit]
	}

	return matches, truncated, nil
}

func searchWithRipgrep(ctx context.Context, pattern, path, include string) ([]grepMatch, error) {
	cmd := getRgSearchCmd(ctx, pattern, path, include)
	if cmd == nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("ripgrep not found in $PATH")
	}

	// Only add ignore files if they exist
	for _, ignoreFile := range []string{".gitignore", ".crushignore"} {
		ignorePath := filepath.Join(path, ignoreFile)
		if _, err := os.Stat(ignorePath); err == nil {
			cmd.Args = append(cmd.Args, "--ignore-file", ignorePath)
		}
	}

	output, err := cmd.Output()
	if err != nil {
		if exitErr, ok := err.(*exec.ExitError); ok && exitErr.ExitCode() == 1 {
			return []grepMatch{}, nil
		}
		return nil, err
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 7944b8e522)

Solutions

1. Install ripgrep: `brew install ripgrep`, `apt install ripgrep`, `dnf install ripgrep`, or `cargo install ripgrep`
2. Confirm `rg --version` runs in the same shell/environment crush uses
3. Fix PATH so it includes rg's directory (e.g. export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH")
4. Restart crush after installing so the PATH lookup succeeds

Example fix

// before
cmd := getRgSearchCmd(ctx, pattern, path, include)
if cmd == nil {
    return nil, fmt.Errorf("ripgrep not found in $PATH")
}
// after
cmd := getRgSearchCmd(ctx, pattern, path, include)
if cmd == nil {
    return nil, fmt.Errorf("ripgrep not found in $PATH; install it with 'brew install ripgrep' or 'apt install ripgrep'")
}

if _, err := exec.LookPath("rg"); err != nil {
    // rg unavailable — skip ripgrep path or warn the user to install it
}

null

cmd := getRgSearchCmd(ctx, pattern, path, include)
if cmd == nil {
    return nil, fmt.Errorf("ripgrep not found in $PATH")
}

When it happens

Trigger: searchWithRipgrep is invoked and getRgSearchCmd(ctx, pattern, path, include) returns nil — i.e. exec.LookPath("rg") fails because ripgrep is not installed or not on PATH.

Common situations: Fresh machines or CI containers without ripgrep; minimal Docker images; PATH modified so rg's location (e.g. /usr/local/bin, ~/go/bin, ~/.cargo/bin) is missing; crush installed via a method that doesn't bundle rg.

Related errors

• docker mcp is not available, please ensure docker is install
• ripgrep: %w
• ripgrep: %w\n%s
• path does not exist: %s
• failed to resolve workspace path: %w

AI-assisted analysis of charmbracelet/crush@7944b8e522 (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c9835a775bfe3623. Report an issue: GitHub.