The limitation is not 20 in total, but 20 per repo. The same data is used for both the the "Default" and "Phabricator" result formats.

https://codesearch.wmcloud.org/search/?q=edit-dialog-error%7Cclass+ResourceLoader%5Cb&files=&excludeFiles=&repos=

In order to be useful as a todo list in Phabricator, it probably doesn't make sense to list unlimited results in the same repo. I'd expect if there are more than 20 matches in the same repo, for that to not be a separate "todo" item in the context of some Phab task.

Also, in order for the format switch to be instant, we currently reformat the same data from memory, it is not a separate query.

What I would suggest is:

1. Make it clear in the markdown format when more results exist than are shown. E.g. "20 of 45 files".

It's not obvious where a button would go for fetching more, because it would be a per-repo backend query, not a combined one. As a strawman we could:

2. Display "Load more" buttons for each repo that has more results. Whenever one is clicked, we re-render the Phabricator format.

For example, if you have results from 5 repos and two of them have more than 20 results, there'll be two buttons like "Load 32 matches from Foo" and "Load 29 matches from Bar".

Make it clear in the markdown format when more results exist than are shown. E.g. "20 of 45 files".

That sounds like a good immediate idea to me, at least if nothing else — at the moment, I feel like it seems potentially misleading for the checkbox-line to say (e.g.) "45 files", and then not list all of those 45 files.

Thank you for tagging this task with good first task for Wikimedia newcomers!

Newcomers often may not be aware of things that may seem obvious to seasoned contributors, so please take a moment to reflect on how this task might look to somebody who has never contributed to Wikimedia projects.

A good first task is a self-contained, non-controversial task with a clear approach. It should be well-described with pointers to help a completely new contributor, for example it should clearly point to the codebase URL and provide clear steps to help a contributor get set up for success. We've included some guidelines at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/good_first_task/ !

Thank you for helping us drive new contributions to our projects <3