I think the best way is to go to aur.archlinux.org and search for whatever program you want there. You can get popularity scores, info on when then manifest was last updated and user comments l. Then you can copy paste the name to yay.

There's Octopi, which looks like this. To see AUR packages, you just have to click on the alien-looking icon.

yay xfce sensors

3 aur/xfce4-sensors-plugin-nvidia-hddtemp_through_netcat-current 1.3.95-1 (+2 0.00) (Orphaned) 
    Sensors plugin for the Xfce panel with nvidia and hddtemp (through netcat) support
2 aur/xfce4-sensors-plugin-nvidia 1.4.4-2 (+26 0.00) 
    A lm_sensors plugin for the Xfce panel with nvidia gpu support
1 extra/xfce4-sensors-plugin 1.4.4-1 (198.8 KiB 808.5 KiB) [xfce4-goodies] 
    Sensors plugin for the Xfce panel
==> Packages to install (eg: 1 2 3, 1-3 or ^4)
==> 1
Sync Explicit (1): xfce4-sensors-plugin-1.4.4-1
[sudo] password for unperson: 
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (8) exo-4.18.0-1  garcon-4.18.2-1  libwnck3-43.0-3  libxfce4ui-4.18.6-1  libxfce4util-4.18.2-1  xfce4-panel-4.18.6-1
             xfconf-4.18.3-1  xfce4-sensors-plugin-1.4.4-1

Total Download Size:    2.66 MiB
Total Installed Size:  15.76 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 

I moved from Manjaro linux(icky, run by libertarians I think, smelly) to EndeavourOS(based, presumably run by commies and anarchsists, sexy) for a bunch of reasons, like Endeavour runs really well even from an old hard drive, it's a great OS. I kind of miss Pamac though.

EndeavorOS is a glorified graphical installer for Arch Linux with extra branding and pre-configured window managers. Manjaro is a project to convert Arch into a stable distribution rather than a rolling release one (which failed horribly along with incompetant maintainers)

You should really just be using vanilla Arch linux instead of downstream forks. The appeal of these downstream forks was their graphical installer (usually in the form of Calamares) but arch linux now includes a program called archinstall in the installation media which does the same thing but better since it follows the arch linux KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid) that just installs what you need.

That doesn't mean you should reinstall your os or anything. But understand that downstream arch linux forks most of the time are just thin coats of paint over the actual work of the Arch linux. The appeal of these distros is long gone but their branding still persists to cover up the big bad and scary arch linux (which is a bad stereotype)

Yay doesn’t have search? Apt has keyword search. Maybe switch to Debian…

I got spooked by all the aur installers having security issues(any aur installer pulls user written scripts that don't have a little oversight).

I know its the opposite of what you want, but seriously, its typically a 3-4 step process to get software from the Aur.

1. Search " arch aur"
2. find the aur link, check when it was last updated and the comments below to ensure there's nothing glaringly bad
3. copy the link by clicking it
4. cd to your downloads folder

4.a. git clone <aur link>

4.b. cd <aur package>

4.c. makepkg

4.d. pacman -U <package>.tar.zst

Obviously more than 4 steps, but half of those are clicking a link and going to a folder. the important steps are 4.x.

IMO its worth the handful of extra steps because you genuinely cant trust these packages. If you want to update, go to the cloned dir, run git pull and repeat 4.c and 4.d and it will replace the other version, easily downgrade if you don't delete the old .zst, etc.

I moved from Manjaro linux(icky, run by libertarians I think, smelly) to EndeavourOS(based, presumably run by commies and anarchsists, sexy)

I thought the same of Manjaro. What gives you your opinion of endeavor?

I found this libre arch variant the other day https://www.parabola.nu. I'd never come across is before which kind of worries me.