diff --git a/src/core/controller.ts b/src/core/controller.ts
index 4b412716..c0ff5e3e 100644
--- a/src/core/controller.ts
+++ b/src/core/controller.ts
@@ -73,6 +73,20 @@ export class Controller<ElementType extends Element = Element> {
     return this.scope.data
   }
 
+  findElement(selector: string): Element | undefined {
+    const elementWithId = document.getElementById(selector)
+    if (elementWithId && this.scope.containsElement(elementWithId)) {
+      return elementWithId
+    }
+    const newSelector = this.classifySelector(selector)
+    return this.scope.findElement(newSelector)
+  }
+
+  findAllElements(selector: string): Element[] {
+    const newSelector = this.classifySelector(selector)
+    return this.scope.findAllElements(newSelector)
+  }
+
   initialize() {
     // Override in your subclass to set up initial controller state
   }
@@ -100,4 +114,16 @@ export class Controller<ElementType extends Element = Element> {
     target.dispatchEvent(event)
     return event
   }
+
+  private classifySelector(selector: string | string[]): string {
+    const tokens = Array.isArray(selector) ? selector : [selector]
+
+    const definedClasses: string[] = (this.constructor as any).classes.flatMap((key: string) => {
+      const value = (this as any)[`${key}Classes`] as string[] | undefined
+      return value ?? []
+    })
+
+    const allTokensDefined = tokens.every((token) => definedClasses.includes(token))
+    return "." + tokens.join(allTokensDefined ? "." : " ")
+  }
 }
diff --git a/src/tests/modules/core/find_element_test.ts b/src/tests/modules/core/find_element_test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b41d8d56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/tests/modules/core/find_element_test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+import { ClassController } from "../../controllers/class_controller"
+import { ControllerTestCase } from "../../cases/controller_test_case"
+
+export default class FindElementTests extends ControllerTestCase(ClassController) {
+  fixtureHTML = `
+    <div data-controller="${this.identifier}"
+      data-${this.identifier}-active-class="active"
+      data-${this.identifier}-loading-class="busy"
+    >
+      <div id="inside" class="busy"></div>
+    </div>
+    <div id="outside" class="busy"></div>
+
+    "test findElement finds element by id inside scope"() {
+      const result = this.controller.findElement("inside")
+      this.assert.equal(result?.id, "inside")
+    }
+
+    "test findElement does not find element by id outside scope"() {
+      const result = this.controller.findElement("outside")
+      this.assert.equal(result, undefined)
+    }
+
+    "test findElement finds element by defined class"() {
+      const result = this.controller.findElement(this.controller.loadingClass)
+      this.assert.ok(result instanceof Element)
+      this.assert.ok(result?.classList.contains("busy"))
+    }
+
+    "test findAllElements returns multiple matches for defined class"() {
+      const results = this.controller.findAllElements(this.controller.loadingClass)
+      this.assert.ok(Array.isArray(results))
+      this.assert.equal(results.length, 1)
+      this.assert.ok(results[0].classList.contains("busy"))
+    }
+  `
+}