Getting oriented

Addressing

One grammar reaches every file, symbol, and line RepoQL indexes — here, in any repository you imported, in the manual inside the binary, and in what the repository has learned about itself. Learn it once and every tool inherits it.

file:///src/**/*.cs#symbol=*Service => structure

Read left to right: where to look, then which part of it, then what comes back. Each of the three is optional, and each composes with the others.

Where to look — the scheme

Scheme	What it addresses
file:///	The repository you are working in.
github://owner/repo	Any repository you imported, at the same fidelity as your own.
help:///	The manual that ships inside the binary — searchable and readable like code.
concept:///	What this repository has learned about itself: invariants, rules, hard-won knowledge.

How wide — globs

The full shell vocabulary, in the path.

Pattern	What it matches
*	One path segment.
**	Any depth.
?	A single character.
{a,b}	Alternatives — `src/{L1,L2}/**` matches either.
[a-z]	A character class.
;	Join addresses — `src/;lib/` matches either side.
!	Exclude — `!/tests/`, applied to every include in the address.

Which part — fragments

A fragment cuts into a file without reading the rest of it.

Fragment	What it narrows to
#symbol=Name	One symbol, matched on its fully qualified name.
#symbol=Name.*	Its direct members.
#symbol=Name.**	Every descendant.
#symbol=*Service	Every match, across every file the glob reached.
#line=42	A single line. Lines are 1-based.
#line=42,60	An inclusive range.

What comes back — modifiers

Append => modifier to decide the shape of the answer: signatures instead of bodies, a directory tree, the commits behind a span, a search inside the scope. There are seventeen of them and they belong to read — the complete set is on its page.

file:///src/** => tree: headlines # one line describing every file file:///src/Auth.cs#symbol=Refresh => history # the commits that built it file:///src/** => find: retry with backoff # search inside the scope

Run it yourself

rql read "file:///src/**/*.cs#symbol=*Service => structure"

Or say it to your agent

“show me the signature of every service class in src, without reading the bodies”

This page names what exists. The depth behind every name — the bounds, the failure modes, how they compose — ships inside the binary at help:///, and answers to explore and read exactly like your code does. Install it, and your agent has the manual.