Feature Request: Add search_path Parameter to grep_search Tool

[cairijun]

Rationale

Searching External Directories

• Token optimization via temp files: I'm using on_tool_output callbacks to redirect large tool outputs to temporary files, returning only file paths and head/tail snippets to the LLM. The LLM should then be able to search these files using grep_search followed by segmented read_file.

• Mono repo workflows: Our team works in a large mono repo, and we typically do out daily dev within a subproject directory. However, debugging sometimes requires searching dependency code in sibling subprojects outside the current working directory.

Searching Gitignored Directories

• Generated code: Some projects generate code into ./target or ./build directories (gitignored). Searching these artifacts is useful during complex debugging sessions.

• Development dependencies: When developing CodeCompanion extensions, I clone dependencies (including CodeCompanion) into ./deps (gitignored) for LSP and unit testing. Agents assisting with development need to search these dependencies to understand internal mechanisms.

Security Considerations

The current approval model tracks approvals per tool per chat buffer. With arbitrary search paths, "Always Accept" would grant overly broad access.

Solution: Path-Grouped Approvals

Extend the approval system to group approvals by path prefix:

approved[bufnr]["grep_search"] = {
  ["/home/user/project"] = true,           -- CWD
  ["/tmp/codecompanion_outputs"] = true,   -- Temp files
}

When search_path is provided, check if that path (or a parent) has been approved. If not, prompt for approval with the specific path displayed. This ensures "Always Accept" applies only to the approved path scope.

Implementation Notes

• Add optional search_path parameter to the schema; default to vim.fn.getcwd() when omitted
• Paths specified explicitly to rg override ignore rules, so we don't need to another no_ignore parameter
• Consider applying the same parameter to file_search for consistency