diff --git a/github-code-search.ts b/github-code-search.ts
index fb5fc84..902aac8 100644
--- a/github-code-search.ts
+++ b/github-code-search.ts
@@ -326,7 +326,15 @@ async function searchAction(
     );
   }
 
-  const rawMatches = await fetchAllResults(effectiveQuery, org, GITHUB_TOKEN!, onRateLimit);
+  // Only retain raw file content when a regex filter is active — it's the
+  // only consumer (local fallback matching, issue #148) — see PR #154 review.
+  const rawMatches = await fetchAllResults(
+    effectiveQuery,
+    org,
+    GITHUB_TOKEN!,
+    onRateLimit,
+    regexFilter !== undefined,
+  );
   let groups = aggregate(
     rawMatches,
     excludedRepos,
diff --git a/src/aggregate.test.ts b/src/aggregate.test.ts
index efb78c0..274d7bd 100644
--- a/src/aggregate.test.ts
+++ b/src/aggregate.test.ts
@@ -334,3 +334,137 @@ describe("aggregate — regexFilter", () => {
     expect(groups[0].matches[0].textMatches[0].fragment).toBe("import axios from 'axios'");
   });
 });
+
+// ─── aggregate — fileContent fallback (issue #148) ────────────────────────────
+
+describe("aggregate — regexFilter fallback to full fileContent", () => {
+  it("keeps a match whose API fragment does not contain the full regex match but whose fileContent does", () => {
+    // The API fragment only shows a narrower context (e.g. "react-dom" noise);
+    // the regex needs "react": "18 which only the full file content has.
+    const fileContent =
+      'deps:\n  "prettier": "latest",\n  "react": "18.2.0",\n  "react-dom": "18.2.0"\n';
+    const matches: CodeMatch[] = [
+      {
+        path: "package.json",
+        repoFullName: "myorg/repoA",
+        htmlUrl: "https://github.com/myorg/repoA/blob/main/package.json",
+        archived: false,
+        fileContent,
+        textMatches: [{ fragment: '"react-dom": "18.2.0"', matches: [] }],
+      },
+    ];
+
+    const groups = aggregate(matches, new Set(), new Set(), false, /"react": "18/);
+    expect(groups).toHaveLength(1);
+    const tm = groups[0].matches[0].textMatches[0];
+    expect(tm.fragment).toContain('"react": "18');
+    expect(tm.matches[0].text).toBe('"react": "18');
+  });
+
+  it("drops the match when neither the fragment nor fileContent contain a match", () => {
+    const matches: CodeMatch[] = [
+      {
+        path: "package.json",
+        repoFullName: "myorg/repoA",
+        htmlUrl: "",
+        archived: false,
+        fileContent: 'deps:\n  "vue": "3.0.0"\n',
+        textMatches: [{ fragment: '"vue": "3.0.0"', matches: [] }],
+      },
+    ];
+
+    const groups = aggregate(matches, new Set(), new Set(), false, /"react": "18/);
+    expect(groups).toHaveLength(0);
+  });
+
+  it("does not use fileContent when the API fragment already matches (no behaviour change)", () => {
+    const fileContent = 'deps:\n  "react": "18.2.0"\n';
+    const matches: CodeMatch[] = [
+      {
+        path: "package.json",
+        repoFullName: "myorg/repoA",
+        htmlUrl: "",
+        archived: false,
+        fileContent,
+        textMatches: [{ fragment: '"react": "18.2.0"', matches: [] }],
+      },
+    ];
+
+    const groups = aggregate(matches, new Set(), new Set(), false, /"react": "18/);
+    expect(groups[0].matches[0].textMatches[0].fragment).toBe('"react": "18.2.0"');
+  });
+
+  it("falls back to fragment-only behaviour (drops the match) when fileContent is absent", () => {
+    // Backward compatibility: no fileContent field at all (e.g. raw content
+    // fetch failed) behaves exactly as before this issue's fix.
+    const matches: CodeMatch[] = [
+      {
+        path: "package.json",
+        repoFullName: "myorg/repoA",
+        htmlUrl: "",
+        archived: false,
+        textMatches: [{ fragment: '"react-dom": "18.2.0"', matches: [] }],
+      },
+    ];
+
+    const groups = aggregate(matches, new Set(), new Set(), false, /"react": "18/);
+    expect(groups).toHaveLength(0);
+  });
+
+  it("keeps a match whose span reaches beyond the default ±2-line context window", () => {
+    // The match runs from "BEGIN" (line 11) to "END" (line 22) — far wider
+    // than a fixed window built only around the match's start line, which
+    // would never include "END" and silently drop an otherwise-valid match.
+    const decoysBefore = Array.from({ length: 10 }, (_, i) => `d${i + 1}`);
+    const body = Array.from({ length: 10 }, (_, i) => `m${i + 1}`);
+    const decoysAfter = Array.from({ length: 3 }, (_, i) => `d${i + 11}`);
+    const fileContent = [...decoysBefore, "BEGIN", ...body, "END", ...decoysAfter].join("\n");
+    const matches: CodeMatch[] = [
+      {
+        path: "file.txt",
+        repoFullName: "myorg/repoA",
+        htmlUrl: "",
+        archived: false,
+        fileContent,
+        textMatches: [{ fragment: "unrelated fragment", matches: [] }],
+      },
+    ];
+
+    const groups = aggregate(matches, new Set(), new Set(), false, /BEGIN[\s\S]*?END/);
+    expect(groups).toHaveLength(1);
+    const tm = groups[0].matches[0].textMatches[0];
+    expect(tm.matches[0].text).toBe(["BEGIN", ...body, "END"].join("\n"));
+    expect(tm.matches[0].line).toBe(11);
+    expect(tm.fragment).toContain("BEGIN");
+    expect(tm.fragment).toContain("END");
+    expect(tm.fragment).not.toContain("d1\n");
+  });
+
+  it("finds every separate match rather than only the first when falling back to fileContent", () => {
+    const fileContent = [
+      "match_A here",
+      "gap",
+      "gap",
+      "gap",
+      "gap",
+      "gap",
+      "gap",
+      "another match_A here",
+    ].join("\n");
+    const matches: CodeMatch[] = [
+      {
+        path: "file.txt",
+        repoFullName: "myorg/repoA",
+        htmlUrl: "",
+        archived: false,
+        fileContent,
+        textMatches: [{ fragment: "unrelated fragment", matches: [] }],
+      },
+    ];
+
+    const groups = aggregate(matches, new Set(), new Set(), false, /match_A/);
+    const tms = groups[0].matches[0].textMatches;
+    expect(tms).toHaveLength(2);
+    expect(tms.map((tm) => tm.matches[0].line)).toEqual([1, 8]);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/aggregate.ts b/src/aggregate.ts
index 4a73024..e75e419 100644
--- a/src/aggregate.ts
+++ b/src/aggregate.ts
@@ -79,6 +79,77 @@ function recomputeSegments(
 
 // ─── Aggregation ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
+/**
+ * Finds every match of `re` directly against the full downloaded `content`
+ * and builds a display-friendly fallback `TextMatch` per match, used when the
+ * API-provided fragment does not contain a match but the full file content
+ * does — see issue #148.
+ *
+ * Matches (and their line/col) are computed once against the *entire* file in
+ * a single forward pass — no rescanning of the preceding text per match, and
+ * no fixed-size window built only from the match's start line, so a match
+ * spanning more than `contextLines * 2 + 1` lines (or reached via
+ * lookaround) is never silently dropped: the window is expanded to always
+ * contain the match's full span.
+ */
+function fallbackMatchesFromFullContent(
+  content: string,
+  re: RegExp,
+  contextLines = 2,
+): TextMatch[] {
+  re.lastIndex = 0;
+  // Precompute newline offsets once — O(n) — so line/col and window-boundary
+  // lookups are O(log n) via binary search instead of O(n) per match.
+  const newlines: number[] = [];
+  for (let i = 0; i < content.length; i++) {
+    if (content[i] === "\n") newlines.push(i);
+  }
+  const lineOfOffset = (offset: number): number => {
+    let lo = 0;
+    let hi = newlines.length;
+    while (lo < hi) {
+      const mid = (lo + hi) >> 1;
+      if (newlines[mid] < offset) lo = mid + 1;
+      else hi = mid;
+    }
+    return lo + 1; // 1-based
+  };
+  const startOffsetOfLine = (line: number): number => (line === 1 ? 0 : newlines[line - 2] + 1);
+  const totalLines = newlines.length + 1;
+  const lines = content.split("\n");
+
+  const results: TextMatch[] = [];
+  let m: RegExpExecArray | null;
+  while ((m = re.exec(content)) !== null) {
+    const start = m.index;
+    const end = start + m[0].length;
+    const startLine = lineOfOffset(start);
+    // `end - 1` so a match ending exactly on a newline still resolves to the
+    // line it belongs to rather than the following (empty) one.
+    const endLine = end > start ? lineOfOffset(end - 1) : startLine;
+
+    const windowStartLine = Math.max(1, startLine - contextLines);
+    const windowEndLine = Math.min(totalLines, endLine + contextLines);
+    const windowStartOffset = startOffsetOfLine(windowStartLine);
+    const fragment = lines.slice(windowStartLine - 1, windowEndLine).join("\n");
+    const col = start - startOffsetOfLine(startLine) + 1;
+
+    results.push({
+      fragment,
+      matches: [
+        {
+          text: m[0],
+          indices: [start - windowStartOffset, end - windowStartOffset],
+          line: startLine,
+          col,
+        },
+      ],
+    });
+    if (m[0].length === 0) re.lastIndex++; // guard against zero-width matches
+  }
+  return results;
+}
+
 export function aggregate(
   matches: CodeMatch[],
   excludedRepos: Set<string>,
@@ -107,7 +178,7 @@ export function aggregate(
       // Preserve the caller's lastIndex: aggregate() must not have observable
       // side-effects on the passed-in RegExp instance.
       const savedLastIndex = regexFilter!.lastIndex;
-      const updatedTextMatches: TextMatch[] = m.textMatches
+      let updatedTextMatches: TextMatch[] = m.textMatches
         .map((tm) => {
           // Derive the absolute start line of this fragment from the first API
           // segment. If no API segment is available, fall back to 1 so that
@@ -124,6 +195,13 @@ export function aggregate(
           return segs.length > 0 ? { fragment: tm.fragment, matches: segs } : null;
         })
         .filter((tm): tm is TextMatch => tm !== null);
+      // Fix: fall back to the full downloaded file content when none of the
+      // API-provided fragments contain a match — the API fragment can be too
+      // narrow to include the whole regex match even though the file does
+      // contain it, silently dropping otherwise-valid results — see issue #148.
+      if (updatedTextMatches.length === 0 && m.fileContent) {
+        updatedTextMatches = fallbackMatchesFromFullContent(m.fileContent, globalRe);
+      }
       // Restore the caller's original lastIndex (rather than hard-coding 0),
       // so aggregate() doesn't have observable side effects on its inputs.
       regexFilter!.lastIndex = savedLastIndex;
diff --git a/src/api.test.ts b/src/api.test.ts
index 83ae3bb..c46791b 100644
--- a/src/api.test.ts
+++ b/src/api.test.ts
@@ -338,6 +338,75 @@ describe("fetchAllResults", () => {
     const results = await fetchAllResults("hello", "org", "tok");
     expect(results[0].textMatches[0].matches[0].line).toBe(1);
   });
+
+  it("propagates the downloaded raw content into fileContent when keepFileContent is true", async () => {
+    const fileContent = "line one\nline two\nconst x = doSomething()\n";
+    const fakeItem = {
+      path: "src/mod.ts",
+      html_url: "https://github.com/org/repo/blob/main/src/mod.ts",
+      repository: { full_name: "org/repo", archived: false },
+      text_matches: [{ fragment: "const x = doSomething()", matches: [] }],
+    };
+    globalThis.fetch = (async (url: string | URL | Request) => {
+      const urlStr = url.toString();
+      if (new URL(urlStr).hostname === "raw.githubusercontent.com") {
+        return new Response(fileContent, { status: 200 });
+      }
+      return new Response(JSON.stringify({ items: [fakeItem], total_count: 1 }), {
+        status: 200,
+        headers: { "content-type": "application/json" },
+      });
+    }) as typeof fetch;
+
+    const results = await fetchAllResults("doSomething", "org", "tok", undefined, true);
+    expect(results[0].fileContent).toBe(fileContent);
+  });
+
+  it("leaves fileContent absent when the raw content fetch fails, even with keepFileContent true", async () => {
+    const fakeItem = {
+      path: "src/mod.ts",
+      html_url: "https://github.com/org/repo/blob/main/src/mod.ts",
+      repository: { full_name: "org/repo", archived: false },
+      text_matches: [{ fragment: "hello world", matches: [] }],
+    };
+    globalThis.fetch = (async (url: string | URL | Request) => {
+      const urlStr = url.toString();
+      if (new URL(urlStr).hostname === "raw.githubusercontent.com") {
+        return new Response("Not Found", { status: 404 });
+      }
+      return new Response(JSON.stringify({ items: [fakeItem], total_count: 1 }), {
+        status: 200,
+        headers: { "content-type": "application/json" },
+      });
+    }) as typeof fetch;
+
+    const results = await fetchAllResults("hello", "org", "tok", undefined, true);
+    expect(results[0].fileContent).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+
+  it("does not retain fileContent when keepFileContent is false (default — non-regex queries)", async () => {
+    const fileContent = "line one\nline two\nconst x = doSomething()\n";
+    const fakeItem = {
+      path: "src/mod.ts",
+      html_url: "https://github.com/org/repo/blob/main/src/mod.ts",
+      repository: { full_name: "org/repo", archived: false },
+      text_matches: [{ fragment: "const x = doSomething()", matches: [] }],
+    };
+    globalThis.fetch = (async (url: string | URL | Request) => {
+      const urlStr = url.toString();
+      if (new URL(urlStr).hostname === "raw.githubusercontent.com") {
+        return new Response(fileContent, { status: 200 });
+      }
+      return new Response(JSON.stringify({ items: [fakeItem], total_count: 1 }), {
+        status: 200,
+        headers: { "content-type": "application/json" },
+      });
+    }) as typeof fetch;
+
+    // No keepFileContent argument — defaults to false.
+    const results = await fetchAllResults("doSomething", "org", "tok");
+    expect(results[0].fileContent).toBeUndefined();
+  });
 });
 
 // ─── fetchRepoTeams ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
diff --git a/src/api.ts b/src/api.ts
index ab7e2b0..693e435 100644
--- a/src/api.ts
+++ b/src/api.ts
@@ -196,6 +196,10 @@ export async function fetchAllResults(
   org: string,
   token: string,
   onRateLimit?: (waitMs: number) => Promise<void>,
+  // Only regex-mode local filtering (issue #148) ever reads `fileContent`.
+  // Default to false so ordinary (non-regex) queries don't keep every
+  // downloaded raw file alive in memory for the whole run — see PR #154 review.
+  keepFileContent = false,
 ): Promise<CodeMatch[]> {
   // Write the initial progress line (no newline — will be overwritten by \r).
   process.stderr.write(pc.dim("  Fetching results from GitHub…"));
@@ -278,6 +282,11 @@ export async function fetchAllResults(
       htmlUrl: item.html_url,
       archived: item.repository.archived === true,
       isTemplate: item.repository.is_template === true,
+      // Propagate the already-downloaded content for local regex filtering
+      // fallback — see issue #148. No extra network calls: reuses the content
+      // fetched above for line-number resolution. Opt-in via `keepFileContent`
+      // so non-regex queries don't retain every raw file in memory.
+      fileContent: keepFileContent ? fileContent : undefined,
       textMatches: (item.text_matches ?? []).map((m) => {
         const fragment: string = m.fragment ?? "";
         const fragmentStartLine = fileContent ? computeFragmentStartLine(fileContent, fragment) : 1;
diff --git a/src/types.ts b/src/types.ts
index 8e95aef..ae5f692 100644
--- a/src/types.ts
+++ b/src/types.ts
@@ -22,6 +22,11 @@ export interface CodeMatch {
   textMatches: TextMatch[];
   archived: boolean;
   isTemplate?: boolean;
+  /** Full raw file content, when already downloaded by `fetchAllResults()` for
+   *  line-number resolution. Used as a fallback for local regex filtering
+   *  when the API-provided fragment does not contain the full match — see
+   *  issue #148. Absent when the raw content could not be fetched. */
+  fileContent?: string;
 }
 
 export interface RepoGroup {