Search entire repository instead of client-side filtering

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Context

When users search for files in the file tree browser, they expect the search to return results for their entire list of files. The UI is currently only filtering the available client-side list of files that are visibly shown. This does not match user expectations.

!190487 (comment 2509129120)

@slashmanov issue(ux): filtering is done client-side, which means this can not act as a search. Do we plan to change this at some point?

Screen_Recording_2025-05-16_at_14.21.32

Design proposal

MVC

See #543753 (comment 2743989118)

Since we already have this functionality, how about we simply trigger the global search Find File functionality upon clicking on the text box (renaming it from Filter to “Search by filename” (to match the string on the modal)?

From an engineering perspective, this will be the simplest solution (only a couple of lines on the frontend).

Long-term solution

See #543753 (comment 2804696436)

I'm aligned with using the Find File search, however I would recommend attaching the search results closer to the search field itself (see first row of #543753 (comment 2804546623)), so that the search results are more closely attached to the context of what users are searching.

• Use the Find file search functionality
• Change icon to Search icon
• Update placeholder text to "Search files" instead of "Filter files"
• Per !207244 (comment 2795392904) and Pajamas, when users start typing it would be helpful to add the x to give them a quick way to clear the search.
• Find file search results panel customization
  • When users start typing in Find file, a ~ appears in front of the typed text (see below for reference). This is unnecessary in the scope of the file tree browser, as users would expect the search to already be scoped to files. Remove the ~ if possible.
  • Remove the "Project files" header. This is redundant in the context of the file tree search.

Proposal

Priority

Per #550196 (comment 2732007230), the MVC approach in this issue should be addressed before rolling out the file tree.