rtk-ai/rtk

rtk grep "-v" does not invert the search

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#1477 opened on Apr 23, 2026

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 (1 comment) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)Rust (48,085 stars) (2,914 forks)batch import
bugeffort-smallfilter-qualitygood first issue

Description

Sometimes an LLM wants to invert the search and will use the grep -v command. RTK doesn't support this because the -v argument controls verbosity

Steps to reproduce

rtk grep -v foo /etc/hosts

Expected result

rtk grep should return all lines in the file which do not contain the string "foo"

Actual result

rtk grep returns all lines which do contain the string "foo"

Contributor guide

Tech stack
rust
Domain
clitooling
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Rust basicsCLI argument parsing
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
70
Research direction
The issue is that the ` v` flag is currently used for verbosity but conflicts with grep's ` v` for invert. Need to examine the argument parsing setup, likely in the main CLI entry point or grep subcommand definition. Consider changing the verbosity flag to a long option like ` verbose` or a different short flag. Fix should modify the grep subcommand to accept ` v` for invert and adjust verbosity handling accordingly.