Search - ONA.UNO Docs

ONA.UNO gives you multiple ways to search your library — from fast title lookups to semantic search that understands meaning, not just keywords. This page covers all the search modes and how to get the most out of them.

Search toolbar

Access search by clicking the search field in the toolbar or pressing Cmd+K.

• Scope is visible as segmented buttons: Titles | Summary | Content | Semantic
• Fuzzy is a separate toggle (shown for non-semantic scopes)
• The loupe menu now contains predefined queries, recent queries, and Advanced Search…

ONA.UNO search runs only when you press Return (or click Apply). There’s no live-as-you-type search — this keeps large libraries fast. Use Esc (or the clear control) to exit search and return to the full timeline immediately. If processing changed items while search was active, ONA.UNO runs a short background refresh right after restore.

Search and Scope

A committed search becomes your active filtered scope:

• Chat uses only the filtered result items.
• Day/daypart summaries use only filtered items.
• The toolbar chat button changes from All to Filtered.

If you select items while search is active, selection can still be used for inspection, but chat remains on the committed filtered scope until search is cleared.

Advanced Search panel

For longer or complex queries, open the Advanced Search panel:

• Click the expand button (↕︎) next to the search field, or press ⌥Return while the search field is focused.
• In the panel: Return applies the generated query, ⌥Return inserts a newline.
• Use operator helpers (title:, tag:, flags, day filters) and date pickers:
  • From builds date>=YYYY-MM-DD
  • Between builds date>=start AND date<=end (inclusive end date)
• Reapplying a helper replaces prior clauses of the same type (tag:, title:, day:, date...) instead of stacking duplicate AND filters.

Newlines are treated like spaces.

Titles

Searches only note titles and AI-generated titles. Fast and precise when you remember part of a note’s name.

Summary (Default)

Full-text search across titles, tags, and AI micro summaries. A good default when you want fast, literal matches.

Content

The most comprehensive text search. Searches Summary scope plus full note content.

Fuzzy

Fuzzy is a typo-tolerant title matcher for non-semantic scopes. It searches title + AI title with trigram matching and then appends fuzzy-only hits after strict hits.

Important:

• Fuzzy only runs for plain-text queries. If you use advanced syntax (fields, operators, or date expressions), the search runs in strict mode even when Fuzzy is toggled on.
• Toggling Fuzzy reruns your committed search immediately.
• If a Set switch loads a different saved Fuzzy preference, the committed search reruns automatically.

Semantic

Best for: finding conceptually related notes, even when exact words don’t match.

Semantic search uses AI embeddings to understand the meaning of your query, not just the words. This is the most powerful search mode for “what was that thing about…” questions.

Tips for effective semantic search:

• Use phrases and sentences, not single words
• Describe what you’re looking for naturally: “notes about project planning for Q1” works better than “project”
• The AI understands context and synonyms, so “car maintenance tips” will find notes about “vehicle servicing”

Cost: Semantic search requires generating an embedding for your search phrase.

• Mixed mode: No cost (embeddings generated locally)
• Online mode: Minimal cost (a few cents per thousand searches)

Query Syntax

You can combine search terms with special operators:

• tag:name — Filter by tag (use quotes for multi-word: tag:"project alpha")
• title:term — Search only in titles
• is:starred — Show only starred items
• is:youtube — Show only YouTube content
• day:today / day:week / day:month — Filter by date
• date>=2024-01-01 — Date comparisons (also <=, ==, <, >)

Combine with AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses:

(tag:work OR tag:project) AND day:month

Switching scope keeps your query text and immediately reruns your committed search in the new scope.

Keep tags consistent (AI consolidation)

If AI-generated tags become fragmented into near-duplicates over time, use:

AI → Consolidate AI Tags…

This workflow analyzes AI tags in your current Set’s active sources and helps you merge near-duplicates with a manual review-first mapping table.

For the full end-to-end flow (progress/cost display, stale-scope protection, overlap conflict handling, and safety backup), see:

• Tag Consolidation

Search and summaries

When a committed search is active, selecting a Day or Daypart generates a summary using only the matching items. This makes it easy to answer questions like “What happened with project X last week?” by combining search + day selection.

Recent Searches

ONA.UNO remembers your recent searches for quick access.

To use recent searches:

1. Click the loupe icon to open the search menu
2. Your recent searches appear at the bottom
3. Click any recent search to run it immediately

To clear recent searches:

1. Open the search menu (loupe icon)
2. Scroll to the bottom
3. Click “Clear recent searches”

Recent searches are stored locally and limited to the last 15 queries.

The search menu also includes predefined searches:

• All Starred (inserts is:starred)
• All YouTube (inserts is:youtube)
• Advanced Search… (opens the advanced panel)

Limitations (current)

Some flag-based filters are intentionally limited to keep the UI predictable:

• NOT is:youtube is not supported.
• is:youtube OR is:starred is not supported.

Match Strictness

For semantic search and chat retrieval, you can adjust how strictly ONA.UNO matches results.

Settings → AI → Semantic matching → Match strictness

Setting	Effect
Broader	More results, includes tangentially related notes
Balanced	Default setting, good precision/recall balance
Stricter	Fewer results, only highly relevant matches

This setting affects both:

• Semantic search results in the timeline
• Context retrieved for chat conversations

Rebuilding the Search Index

If search results seem out of sync or missing recent changes, you can manually rebuild the search index.

Settings → Maintenance → Search index → Rebuild Search Index

This forces a full rebuild of the search index. The process runs in the background and typically completes within a few seconds.

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Related / Next

• AI tag cleanup workflow: Tag Consolidation
• Chat scope with search results: Chat
• Full scope rules: Scope and Context
• Stars as a search filter: Stars and Deleting Browser Clips