diff --git a/packages/cli/src/config/config.ts b/packages/cli/src/config/config.ts
index 969b45fb..04145318 100755
--- a/packages/cli/src/config/config.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/config/config.ts
@@ -532,6 +532,7 @@ export async function loadCliConfig(
       respectGeminiIgnore: settings.fileFiltering?.respectGeminiIgnore,
       enableRecursiveFileSearch:
         settings.fileFiltering?.enableRecursiveFileSearch,
+      disableFuzzySearch: settings.fileFiltering?.disableFuzzySearch,
     },
     checkpointing: argv.checkpointing || settings.checkpointing?.enabled,
     proxy:
diff --git a/packages/core/src/utils/filesearch/fileSearch.ts b/packages/core/src/utils/filesearch/fileSearch.ts
index 661c5f6d..046e73cf 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/utils/filesearch/fileSearch.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/utils/filesearch/fileSearch.ts
@@ -101,6 +101,7 @@ class RecursiveFileSearch implements FileSearch {
 
   async initialize(): Promise<void> {
     this.ignore = loadIgnoreRules(this.options);
+
     this.allFiles = await crawl({
       crawlDirectory: this.options.projectRoot,
       cwd: this.options.projectRoot,
@@ -116,7 +117,11 @@ class RecursiveFileSearch implements FileSearch {
     pattern: string,
     options: SearchOptions = {},
   ): Promise<string[]> {
-    if (!this.resultCache || !this.fzf || !this.ignore) {
+    if (
+      !this.resultCache ||
+      (!this.fzf && !this.options.disableFuzzySearch) ||
+      !this.ignore
+    ) {
       throw new Error('Engine not initialized. Call initialize() first.');
     }
 
@@ -131,7 +136,7 @@ class RecursiveFileSearch implements FileSearch {
       filteredCandidates = candidates;
     } else {
       let shouldCache = true;
-      if (pattern.includes('*') || this.options.disableFuzzySearch) {
+      if (pattern.includes('*') || !this.fzf) {
         filteredCandidates = await filter(candidates, pattern, options.signal);
       } else {
         filteredCandidates = await this.fzf
@@ -175,12 +180,14 @@ class RecursiveFileSearch implements FileSearch {
 
   private buildResultCache(): void {
     this.resultCache = new ResultCache(this.allFiles);
-    // The v1 algorithm is much faster since it only looks at the first
-    // occurence of the pattern. We use it for search spaces that have >20k
-    // files, because the v2 algorithm is just too slow in those cases.
-    this.fzf = new AsyncFzf(this.allFiles, {
-      fuzzy: this.allFiles.length > 20000 ? 'v1' : 'v2',
-    });
+    if (!this.options.disableFuzzySearch) {
+      // The v1 algorithm is much faster since it only looks at the first
+      // occurence of the pattern. We use it for search spaces that have >20k
+      // files, because the v2 algorithm is just too slow in those cases.
+      this.fzf = new AsyncFzf(this.allFiles, {
+        fuzzy: this.allFiles.length > 20000 ? 'v1' : 'v2',
+      });
+    }
   }
 }