fastfind

A fast, drop-in GNU find replacement built for AI agents and large codebases. 91% GNU find compatibility with 1.6-1.8x better performance.

Why

GNU find is single-threaded. fd is fast but incompatible with find syntax. fastfind is a drop-in find replacement: same flags, same output, parallel traversal.

AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, aider) shell out to find constantly. Symlink fastfind as find and everything speeds up with zero config changes.

Install

cargo install fastfind

The binary is named find. To use as a drop-in replacement:

ln -sf $(which find) ~/.local/bin/find   # adjust PATH priority as needed

Usage

# all files and directories recursively
find .

# files only, by name
find . -type f -name '*.rs'

# complex expressions with operators
find . \( -name '*.log' -o -name '*.tmp' \) -mtime +7 -delete

# exec, like GNU find
find . -type f -name '*.txt' -exec grep -l TODO {} +

# depth-limited search
find . -maxdepth 2 -type d

Features

Tests -- -name, -iname, -path, -ipath, -wholename, -iwholename, -lname, -ilname, -regex, -iregex, -regextype, -type (f/d/l/b/c/p/s with comma-separated multi-type), -xtype, -empty, -size, -perm, -readable, -writable, -executable, -user, -group, -uid, -gid, -nouser, -nogroup, -mtime, -mmin, -atime, -amin, -ctime, -cmin, -newer, -anewer, -cnewer, -newerXY, -used, -fstype, -inum, -samefile, -links, -true, -false, -daystart

Actions -- -print, -print0, -printf, -ls, -fls, -fprint, -fprint0, -fprintf, -exec (; and +), -execdir (; and +), -ok, -okdir, -delete, -prune, -quit

Options -- -H/-L/-P, -depth/-d, -maxdepth, -mindepth, -xdev/-mount, -noleaf, -ignore_readdir_race/-noignore_readdir_race, -warn/-nowarn

Operators -- ( expr ), ! expr/-not, -a/-and, -o/-or, , (comma/list)

See GNU_FIND_COVERAGE.md for the full compatibility matrix and GNU_FIND_COMPAT.md for the remaining ~9%.

Performance

• Parallel directory traversal via jwalk (rayon-based work-stealing)
• Raw byte output on Unix (skip Display/UTF-8 overhead)
• 64KB stdout buffer
• opt-level = 3, LTO, single codegen unit
• 1.6-1.8x faster than GNU find, 1.05-1.1x faster than fd

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Error (bad arguments, path not found, etc.)

License

Licensed under either of Apache License, Version 2.0 or MIT License at your option.