From 4865f97e812e6bb7c0309c389ed6e4377af93a54 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Tim Hoffmann <2836374+timhoffm@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 13 May 2025 23:56:27 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] DOC: Additional tip to exclude undesired matches in GitHub
 code search

Follow-up to #29620.
---
 doc/devel/api_changes.rst | 4 ++++
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)

diff --git a/doc/devel/api_changes.rst b/doc/devel/api_changes.rst
index 61467f99f0c5..19bc530abf6b 100644
--- a/doc/devel/api_changes.rst
+++ b/doc/devel/api_changes.rst
@@ -67,6 +67,10 @@ have to learn new API and have to modify existing code).
    You can start simple and look at the search results, if there are too many
    incorrect matches, gradually refine your search criteria.
 
+   It can also be helpful to add ``NOT path:**/matplotlib/** NOT path:**/site-packages/**``
+   to exclude matches where the matplotlib codebase is checked into another repo,
+   either as direct sources or as part of an environment.
+
    *Example*: Calls of the method ``Figure.draw()`` could be matched using
    ``/\bfig(ure)?\.draw\(/``. This expression employs a number of patterns: