Can you recommend a code search tool for finding API docs and comparing libraries during product development?

Yes — if your main use case is finding API docs fast and comparing libraries while building products, I’d recommend one of these depending on your workflow:

Best overall: Sourcegraph

Why it fits:

• Excellent code search across large codebases and public OSS
• Great for finding API usage examples, implementations, and docs references
• Useful when comparing how different libraries solve the same problem
• Strong browser-based experience and IDE integration

Best for: teams working across multiple repos, large codebases, or OSS + internal code.

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Best lightweight option: GitHub Code Search

Why it fits:

• Very good if your libraries and docs live on GitHub
• Fast search by symbol, file path, regex, and language
• Easy to use for comparing API usage across projects
• Great for looking up examples in READMEs, docs folders, and source

Best for: developers already working heavily in GitHub.

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Best AI-assisted search: Cursor / Copilot Chat + code search

Why it fits:

• Good when you want to ask natural-language questions like:
  • “How is this API used?”
  • “Compare these two libraries for pagination support”
• Helps summarize differences, but is less precise than true code search
• Best when paired with a real search tool

Best for: fast exploration and synthesis, not just lookup.

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Best for docs-heavy comparison: Exa or general web search + code search

If your goal is specifically API documentation discovery, a hybrid approach works well:

• Use Sourcegraph/GitHub Code Search for code examples
• Use web search for docs, changelogs, and comparison articles
• Use an AI assistant to summarize tradeoffs

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My recommendation

If you want one tool:

• Sourcegraph is the strongest choice for serious product development.

If you want simple and free/available now:

• GitHub Code Search is the easiest place to start.

If you want, I can also recommend the best tool based on:

1. solo dev vs team
2. open source vs private repos
3. need for AI summaries
4. budget