Tags & Search

Glyph provides powerful search capabilities backed by SQLite full-text indexing, making it easy to find any note regardless of how large your space grows.

Full-Text Search

Opening Search

Access search in multiple ways:

Search Behavior

When you type a search query:

1. Debounced: Waits 180ms after you stop typing
2. Full-text: Searches note titles and content
3. Ranked results: Most relevant notes appear first
4. Live updates: Results refresh as you type

Search Syntax

Basic Search

Type any word or phrase:

project alpha

Finds notes containing both “project” and “alpha”.

Phrase Search

Use quotes for exact phrases:

"user interface design"

Finds notes with that exact phrase.

Keyword Matching

Glyph tokenizes your query and searches for:

• Individual terms: Each word is a search term
• Minimum length: Terms must be 2+ characters
• Stopword filtering: Common words like “the”, “a” may be filtered

Search Results

Results display:

• Note title: Name of the matching note
• Snippet: Preview of matching content with highlights
• Relevance score: Higher scores appear first
• Match context: Surrounding text for context

Ranking Algorithm

Glyph uses a hybrid search algorithm combining:

Keyword Overlap

• Counts how many search terms appear in the note
• Higher overlap = higher score

Trigram Similarity

• Compares character trigrams between query and content
• Handles typos and fuzzy matching

Phrase Bonus

• If the exact query phrase appears, boost the score

Title Bonus

• Notes with query terms in the title rank higher

Formula:

score = (0.6 × overlap) + (0.4 × trigram) + phrase_bonus + title_bonus

Tags

Tag Syntax

Add tags anywhere in your notes:

# Project Notes

#project #important #2024

This note contains three tags.

Tags must:

• Start with #
• Contain alphanumeric characters, dashes, underscores
• Not contain spaces (use - instead: #project-alpha)

Nested Tags

Create hierarchies with /:

#projects/alpha
#projects/beta
#work/client/acme

Frontmatter Tags

Define tags in YAML frontmatter:

---
tags: [project, draft, urgent]
---

# Note Content

Both inline tags and frontmatter tags are indexed identically.

Tag-Based Search

Filtering by Tag

Use the tag filter in the search interface:

1. Open search
2. Select one or more tags
3. Results narrow to notes with those tags
4. Optionally add a text query

Tag Autocomplete

When typing tags, Glyph suggests:

• Existing tags in your space
• Tag counts (how many notes use each tag)
• Nested tag paths

Multiple Tags

Select multiple tags to find notes with all selected tags (AND logic):

• Tag #project AND #urgent
• Shows only notes containing both tags

Combined Search

Combine text search with tag filtering:

Query: "user interface"
Tags: #project, #draft

Finds notes that:

1. Contain the phrase “user interface”
2. Have both #project and #draft tags

Tag Browser

View all tags in your space:

The tags list shows:

• Tag name: The full tag text
• Count: Number of notes using this tag
• Sorted: By count (most used first) or alphabetically

Advanced Search

Glyph supports advanced search parameters via the Tauri command interface:

Search Options

• query: Text to search for
• tags: Array of tags to filter by
• title_only: Search only note titles
• tag_only: Search only tags (no content)
• limit: Maximum results (default: 50)

Example Searches

invoke("search_advanced", {
  request: {
    query: "meeting",
    title_only: true
  }
});

invoke("search_with_tags", {
  tags: ["project", "active"]
});

invoke("search_advanced", {
  request: {
    query: "design system",
    tags: ["ui", "reference"],
    limit: 20
  }
});

Indexing

Automatic Indexing

Glyph indexes your notes automatically:

• On save: Every time you save a note
• On create: When you create a new note
• On delete: When you delete a note
• On rename: When you rename a note

Index Contents

The search index stores:

• Note title: Filename without extension
• Note content: Full markdown text
• Tags: Both inline and frontmatter tags
• Paths: Relative path in your space
• Timestamps: Created and updated times

Rebuild Index

If search results seem outdated:

Recent Notes

View recently modified notes:

invoke("recent_notes", { limit: 10 });

This returns the 10 most recently updated notes, useful for:

• Quick access to recent work
• “Continue where you left off” features
• Recent activity timeline

Performance

Search Speed

Glyph’s search is optimized for spaces with thousands of notes:

• SQLite FTS5: Full-text search engine
• Indexed queries: Sub-100ms for most queries
• Candidate limiting: Fetches top 300 candidates, then ranks
• Debounced input: Reduces unnecessary queries

Scaling

Search performance characteristics:

Troubleshooting

Search returns no results

Solutions:

1. Check spelling and try synonyms
2. Simplify your query (use fewer words)
3. Rebuild the search index
4. Verify the note exists in your space

Search is slow

Solutions:

1. Reduce query complexity
2. Use more specific search terms
3. Filter by tags to narrow results
4. Rebuild index if it’s corrupted

Tags not appearing

Solutions:

1. Ensure tags start with #
2. Check for spaces (use #tag-name not #tag name)
3. Save the note (tags index on save)
4. Rebuild index if needed