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Search

FoldNotes provides multiple ways to find content — from system-wide Spotlight search to in-app filtering with qualifier syntax. Search is one of FoldNotes' strongest features: your entire collection is fully indexed and instantly searchable.

Spotlight Search (System-Wide)

FoldNotes indexes every note into macOS and iOS Spotlight. This means you can find your notes without even opening the app — from the Home Screen, Lock Screen, or the Mac desktop.

Spotlight search results showing FoldNotes notes

What's Indexed

Spotlight indexes the full text of every note, not just the title. It also stores metadata so results are rich and useful:

  • Title and full body text (every word is searchable)
  • Tags (shown in Spotlight results as keywords)
  • Task counts (active, done, overdue)
  • Favourite status
  • Word count and dates (created, modified)
  • Collection name (shown as the subtitle)

How to Search on macOS

  1. Open Spotlight with Cmd+Space (or the menu bar icon)
  2. Type your search query — this searches across all apps, so you may see other results first
  3. Wait a moment — after a second or two, a FoldNotes category header appears in the results list. This is Spotlight grouping your notes under the app name
  4. Click any result to open it directly in FoldNotes

The subtitle tells you which collection

Each Spotlight result shows FoldNotes — Collection Name underneath the note title. If you have multiple collections (e.g. "Work" and "Personal"), this tells you which collection the note belongs to. If your collection is named "FoldNotes", you'll see "FoldNotes — FoldNotes" — the first is the app, the second is your collection name.

How to Search on iOS/iPadOS

  1. Swipe down from the Home Screen or pull down from the Lock Screen to open Search
  2. Type your query
  3. FoldNotes results appear under a FoldNotes section alongside results from other apps
  4. Tap a result to open it in FoldNotes

Tips for Spotlight

  • Full-text search works — type a phrase from the middle of a note and Spotlight will find it
  • Tag names are keywords — if you tag notes with #project, searching "project" will surface those notes
  • Spotlight learns from you — notes you open frequently rank higher over time
  • Works offline — the Spotlight index is local, so searches work without an internet connection
  • Multi-collection — on macOS, results from all registered collections appear together, each labelled with its collection name

Search All Notes (In-App)

Press Cmd+Shift+F (macOS) or tap the search icon in the toolbar (iOS/iPadOS) to open the global search panel. This is the most powerful search within FoldNotes — it combines full-text search with qualifier syntax for targeted filtering.

Search All Notes popover with qualifier syntax

Type any text to search across all note titles and content. Results appear instantly with highlighted context snippets showing where the match was found.

On macOS, the search panel reads the full .md file to provide rich context — you'll see the actual paragraph containing your match, not just a truncated preview.

Qualifier Syntax

Prefix special keywords to narrow your search. Qualifiers can be combined with each other and with text:

Qualifier Example Description
tag: tag:project Notes with a specific tag (case-insensitive)
has:tasks has:tasks Notes containing active (incomplete) tasks
is:favourite is:favourite Favourited notes only (is:favorite also works)
is:overdue is:overdue Notes with overdue tasks

Combining Qualifiers

All qualifiers filter together with AND logic. Add free text to further narrow results:

tag:work is:overdue deploy

This finds notes tagged "work" that have overdue tasks and contain the word "deploy".

Qualifier-Only Searches

You don't need to include text at all. Type just a qualifier to browse matching notes:

is:favourite
tag:ideas has:tasks
Key Action
↑ / ↓ Navigate results
Return Open selected note
Escape Dismiss search
Cmd+F Find the search text within the opened note

On iOS with a hardware keyboard, the same shortcuts apply.

The search field at the top of the note list filters notes in real-time. It searches both note titles and the first ~200 characters of content.

The sidebar filter is intentionally fast and lightweight — it searches the local cache rather than reading files from disk. Use it when you're browsing and want to quickly narrow the visible list. For deep full-text search, use Search All Notes (Cmd+Shift+F).

Find in Note

Press Cmd+F to search within the current note. Use Cmd+G for next match and Cmd+Shift+G for previous.

Find works across folded sections too — if a match is inside a collapsed section, FoldNotes will automatically unfold it to reveal the result.

Jump from global search

When you open a note from Search All Notes, FoldNotes carries the search text forward. Press Cmd+F immediately to highlight all occurrences of that term within the note.

Command Palette

Type / after whitespace or at the start of a line to open the command palette. This is a context-aware menu for quick actions — not a search tool per se, but useful for finding commands:

  • Insert formatting (headings, tasks, lists, code blocks, tables)
  • Set task metadata (due date, priority) on task lines
  • Access commands (save snapshot, version history, compare notes)

Navigate with arrow keys, confirm with Return, dismiss with Escape.

The command line tool provides full-text search with advanced options:

fn search "meeting agenda"           # Literal search
fn search "TODO" --context 2         # Show surrounding lines
fn search "\\d{4}" --regex           # Regular expression
fn search "deploy" --tag project     # Filter by tag
fn search "ideas" --titles-only      # Titles only (fast)

The CLI reads .md files directly, so it always searches the latest on-disk content. For metadata queries (tasks, tags, backlinks), the CLI reads the app's SwiftData cache.

Keep FoldNotes running for best results

The CLI reads from the app's local cache for metadata queries. FoldNotes updates this cache in real time as iCloud sync events arrive. For the most accurate results, keep the app running on your Mac while using the CLI.

Comparison

Method Scope Speed Full Text Qualifiers Opens FoldNotes
Spotlight System-wide Instant Yes No Yes (on click/tap)
Search All Notes Current collection Instant Yes Yes Already open
Sidebar Filter Note list Instant Title + 200 chars No Already open
Find in Note Current note Instant Yes No Already open
CLI fn search Any collection Fast Yes --tag, --regex Optional (fn open)