Skip to main content

Text Search

The search bar at the top of the sidebar searches your notes by text. Type a word and results appear as you type.

How it works​

Text search uses SQLite's full-text search engine. It indexes every word in every note: headings, paragraphs, list items, code blocks, and the extracted text from any PDFs or files you've imported.

The search is fast. Even with thousands of notes, results show up instantly.

As you type: after two characters, Coeus starts showing results. These are the most relevant text matches. Good for finding a note you know exists.

Press Enter: triggers a full search, which also includes semantic search if you have it set up. This is better when you're looking for something by topic rather than by a specific word.

What gets searched​

  • Note titles
  • Note body text (all blocks)
  • Tags
  • Frontmatter properties
  • Extracted text from PDFs and other imported files

Search syntax​

You can use plain words, and you can quote a phrase to search for it exactly:

"project timeline"

For everything else, just type naturally. The search handles stemming: searching for "running" also finds "run" and "runs."

When text search isn't enough​

If you can't remember the exact words, try pressing Enter to run a full search with semantic matching. Or just ask the AI: it can find things based on what they mean, not just what they say.