Grex Documentation
Grex is a Windows file-search application and CLI for local drives, UNC shares, WSL distributions, and Docker containers.
These docs describe the current implementation, including destructive behavior and target-specific limitations.
Start here
| Goal | Read |
|---|---|
| Install or update Grex | Usage: Install, update, or remove |
| Run the first search | Usage: Run a search |
| Understand filters | Usage: Filters |
| Replace safely | Usage: Replace text |
| Search Docker | Usage: Docker |
| Search WSL | Usage: WSL |
| Configure AI | Usage: AI chat |
| Automate with the CLI | Technical Reference: CLI |
| Troubleshoot | Usage: Troubleshooting |
| Build or test | Build and Test |
| Contribute a translation | Translation and Localization |
| Report a vulnerability | Security and Privacy |
Documentation set
User documentation
- README: product overview, downloads, quick start, and important warnings
- Usage Guide: complete installation and GUI workflow
- Feature Matrix: exact target support and capability boundaries
- Technical Reference: shortcuts, syntax, schemas, files, CLI, protocols, outputs, and caps
- Security and Privacy: local writes, keys, network activity, Docker, WSL, logs, and reporting
Developer documentation
- Architecture: services, ViewModels, code-behind, search flows, persistence, and failure strategy
- Build and Test: Windows setup, commands, test projects, package artifacts, and release automation
- Translation and Localization: catalogs, status comments, scripts, tests, and CRLF rules
- Regex Builder Localization: Regex-specific resource families and validation workflow
- Contributing: workflow, code standards, tests, docs, dependencies, and release checklist
- Third-party Notices: redistributed components and license texts
Important boundaries
- GUI, CLI, and .NET tests are Windows-only.
- Published releases target win-x64.
- Replace has no undo, transaction, or automatic backup.
- Docker replacement is disabled.
- WSL replacement filters eligible text files, uses
sed -i -E, and treats replacement text literally. - Direct Docker search and mirror fallback do not have identical filters.
- Binary/document search is best effort and has no OCR; replacement skips those formats.
- AI chat does not automatically send file contents, but does send path/query/filter metadata and conversation text.
- AI keys and settings exports are plain text.
- Non-English resource catalogs are incomplete.
- The app has no automatic updater or application telemetry implementation.
Releases and support
For a bug report, include Grex version, Windows build, target type, path form, query mode, filters, reproduction steps, and relevant redacted %Temp%\Grex.log lines.
Documentation maintenance
Behavior changes should update one authoritative page:
| Change | Page |
|---|---|
| Install or user workflow | usage.md |
| Capability or target support | features.md |
| Option, schema, path, output, or limit | reference.md |
| Component or data flow | architecture.md |
| Build, test, package, or release | build-and-test.md |
| Resource process | translations.md |
| Data handling, network, destructive behavior | root SECURITY.md |
Avoid duplicate implementation reports. Link to the authoritative page instead.