Search & Command Palette
Press ⌘+F for global search and command execution from anywhere.
Opening
| Where | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Anywhere in the app | ⌘+F |
| Global hotkey (if set) | Configured in Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts |
| Sidebar Search button | Click |
Esc closes the palette.
Scope
Type to search across:
- Notes — title and body
- Journal entries — title and body
- Tasks — title, description, project name
- Inbox items — title, source URL, captured text
- Tags — direct match by tag name
- Settings — jumps to a settings panel by name
Results are grouped by type, with snippet previews and relative dates.
Scoped Search
Number prefixes scope to a single source:
| Prefix | Scope |
|---|---|
| 1 | Notes only |
| 2 | Journal only |
| 3 | Tasks only |
| 4 | Inbox only |
Type the number, then your query.
Tag Filter
Type #tagname anywhere in your query to filter results to items tagged with that tag. Multiple tags compose with AND.
Examples:
#research neural networks— items taggedresearchcontaining "neural networks"#daily 1 review— notes only, taggeddaily, containing "review"
Date Filters
The filter bar's Today, This Week, and This Month presets narrow results to items modified in that stretch. They read your local calendar, so "Today" is your own midnight-to-midnight day rather than UTC's — a note edited late in the evening still counts as today's.
Recents
When the palette is empty it shows your recent trail: the items you last opened from search, each with the query that led you to them. It is a way back to a note you found yesterday without remembering how you phrased it.
The trail is keyboard-navigable like any result list — ↑ / ↓ move between entries and Enter opens the highlighted one. Clear wipes the trail.
Semantic Search
If embeddings are enabled in Settings → AI, search results are ranked by both keyword match and semantic similarity. This means:
- Queries phrased differently from the source can still find it
- "Setting up authentication" matches notes about "OAuth flow" even without keyword overlap
- Older notes resurface when their meaning matches your current query
Toggle semantic search per query with the search bar's options menu, or always-on in settings.
See Embeddings & Semantic Search for setup.
Result Actions
For each result row:
- Enter — open in current tab
- ⌘+Enter — open in new tab
- ⌘+⌥+Enter — open in split pane
- → — preview without opening
Performance
Search runs against the index DB for keyword match. Embedding-based ranking happens on the device, not the server. Even with semantic search enabled, queries don't leave your machine.
For large vaults, the keyword index is FTS5-backed and stays sub-100ms even with 10k+ documents.
If the Search Index Is Damaged
The search index is a cache. It is rebuilt from your notes, so it can be thrown away and re-derived at any time — your notes, tasks and vault files are never at risk.
A disk fault or an unclean shutdown can still leave it unreadable. Memry checks the index when it opens a vault, and again whenever a background repair pass touches it. If the index turns out to be damaged, Memry drops it, rebuilds it from your notes, and tells you it did so with a short "Search index repaired" notice. There is nothing to do — search works again once the rebuild finishes.
Reopening the vault is enough to trigger the check by hand.