exists

O(1) bloom filter existence check. Returns true or false in near-zero tokens.

Usage

prx exists <pattern> [path]

Examples

# Does "authenticate" appear anywhere in src/?
prx exists "authenticate" src/

# Does this specific string exist?
prx exists "redis" src/

Output:

{
  "data": {
    "exists": true
  }
}

How it works

prx exists uses a bloom filter built during prx index. The check is O(1) regardless of codebase size. Without an index, it falls back to a fast scan.

Bloom filters have no false negatives: if exists returns false, the pattern definitely isn’t there. They can have false positives: if it returns true, the pattern is very likely there (but do a full search to confirm).

Tips

• Use prx exists before prx search when you just need a yes/no. It costs near-zero tokens vs the full search cost.
• The typical pattern: prx exists "redis" src/ to check if Redis is used at all, then prx search "redis" src/ only if it is.
• prx exists is most useful for large codebases where a full search would be expensive.

See also: search, index