Intelligent Search
Find by meaning, not just keywords
Clear Tangle's Smart search understands the meaning of your content. Search for "team motivation" and find notes about "employee engagement"—even without those exact words. All processing happens locally for maximum privacy.
Quick Access
Open Smart search with Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + F
Open command palette with Cmd/Ctrl + P
How It Works
Describe What You Need
Type a natural language query about what you're looking for.
AI Understands Meaning
Your query is converted to a vector embedding and compared against all your content.
Get Ranked Results
Results are sorted by relevance—most similar first.
Local-First Privacy
Search uses local AI processing—no external API calls for vector embeddings.
- Model: State-of-the-art locally hosted embedding model
- Speed: ~100ms per embedding
- Privacy: Zero external API calls
Search Types
Smart Search
Find content by meaning. Great for vague queries or when you can't remember exact words.
Example: "notes about improving sleep quality"Command Palette
Quick navigation and actions. Search by title or navigate to features.
Example: "project: Marketing" or "page: Roadmap"Smart Filters
Narrow results with filters:
Project
Search within a specific project
Tag
Filter by tag
Date Range
Limit to specific time periods
Type
Captures, pages, or tasks only
Find Related
From any capture's detail view, click "Find Related" to discover similar items. This helps you:
- Discover connections you didn't know existed
- Find older notes on the same topic
- Build context for research or writing
- Identify duplicate or overlapping captures
Example Searches
notes about renewable energy (finds "solar power", "wind farms")improving team communicationideas for the product launchmeeting notes from last monthanything related to budget concernsresearch on customer feedbackNavigation Tips
- ↑↓Navigate results
- EnterOpen selected item
- EscClose search
Hybrid Fallback
If Smart search doesn't find results or embeddings fail, Clear Tangle automatically falls back to traditional text search to ensure you always find your content.