Search 

Kimün provides powerful search capabilities to find notes by content, filename, section, and path. Search indexes all Markdown files in your workspace and supports structured queries with operators and filters.

Opening search 

In TUI 

Press Ctrl+E to open the search box. Start typing to search across note content and filenames.

In CLI 

Use the search command:

kimun search "your search query"

Free text 

Free text search looks across both note content and filenames simultaneously. Searches are:

• Case-insensitive: kimun matches Kimün, KIMÜN, kimun, etc.
• Diacritics-ignored: kimun matches Kimün, accent marks are ignored
• Wildcard-supported: Use * to match patterns

Wildcard patterns 

• kimu* — matches anything starting with "kimu" (e.g., "kimun", "kimune", "kimurei")
• *meeting* — matches "meeting" anywhere in the note (e.g., "meeting notes", "team-meeting", "zoom-meeting-2024")
• *report — matches anything ending with "report"

Multiple terms 

Space between terms functions as AND — all terms must match for a note to appear:

kimun search     → must contain both "kimun" AND "search"
task report      → must contain both "task" AND "report"

Operators 

Operators allow you to filter by filename, section, or path. Each operator has both a short form (symbol) and a long form (colon-prefixed).

@ or at: — filename filter 

Filter notes by their filename (basename only, not full path):

@tasks           → notes whose filename contains "tasks"
at:tasks         → same (long form)
@project         → notes with "project" in the filename
at:notes         → notes with "notes" in the filename

< or in: — section filter 

Filter notes by Markdown sections (defined by #, ##, ###, etc.). The search term must appear within that section:

<personal        → content under a "Personal" heading
in:personal      → same (long form)
<work            → content under a "Work" heading
in:meeting       → content under a "Meeting" heading

Section names are matched case-insensitively against heading text. A note matches if any of its sections contain the search term.

/ or pt: — path filter 

Filter notes by their full path within the workspace:

/docs            → notes under a "docs/" directory
pt:docs          → same (long form)
/journal/2024    → notes under "journal/2024/" directory
/archive         → notes under an "archive/" directory

Paths are matched as prefixes, so /docs matches both /docs/readme.md and /docs/guides/tutorial.md.

Labels 

Labels are #name tokens written directly in your note body. When Kimün indexes a note, any word starting with # followed by one or more [A-Za-z0-9_] characters is recorded as a label for that note.

Reviewed the quarterly numbers today. #finance #q2 #review

Label rules 

• Allowed characters: letters, digits, and underscores ([A-Za-z0-9_]+). A hashtag ends at the first character outside that set, so #tag-with-dash yields the label tag.
• Case-insensitive: labels are stored in lowercase. #Finance and #finance are the same label.
• Code is excluded: hashtags inside inline code spans (`#tag`) and fenced code blocks are not indexed as labels.
• Frontmatter is excluded: hashtags inside YAML (---) or TOML (+++) frontmatter blocks are not indexed as labels.
• HTML is excluded: hashtags inside HTML blocks or inline HTML (e.g. <span data-tag="#foo">) are not indexed as labels.
• Link bodies are excluded: hashtags inside markdown link spans [text](url#fragment) — including URL fragments — are not indexed as labels.
• Wikilinks are excluded: hashtags inside wikilink spans [[...]] (e.g. [[#section]]) are not indexed as labels.

Searching by label 

Use #<label> (short form) or lb:<label> (long form) to filter to notes carrying that label:

#finance             → notes labelled "finance"
lb:finance           → same (long form)
#q2                  → notes labelled "q2"
lb:review            → notes labelled "review"

Excluding by label 

Prefix the label with - to exclude notes that carry it:

-#draft              → exclude notes labelled "draft"
-lb:draft            → same (long form)

Combining label filters 

Multiple label filters are ANDed together — every label must be present:

#finance #q2         → notes with both "finance" AND "q2" labels
lb:finance lb:review → notes with both "finance" AND "review" labels

Label filters mix freely with free-text search and other operators:

#finance report @2024           → labelled "finance", contains "report", filename has "2024"
#project -#archived <work       → labelled "project", not "archived", under a "Work" section

An unknown label (one that has never appeared in any note) returns zero results, not an error.

Exclusion operators 

Use the - prefix to exclude terms from search results. The - always leads, then the operator prefix follows:

-cancelled           → exclude notes containing "cancelled"
-<draft              → exclude notes with "draft" in any section title
-@temp               → exclude notes with "temp" in the filename
-/private            → exclude notes under a "private/" directory
-#draft              → exclude notes labelled "draft"

Long forms work the same way: -in:draft, -at:temp, -pt:private, -lb:draft.

Exclusion-only searches 

You can search using only exclusions to find all notes except those matching the exclusion:

-cancelled           → all notes EXCEPT those containing "cancelled"
-<draft              → all notes EXCEPT those with "draft" in section titles
-@temp               → all notes EXCEPT those with "temp" in the filename
-/archive            → all notes EXCEPT those under an "archive/" directory

Combining filters 

All operators compose freely in a single query. Space between terms = AND.

Each term (with or without an operator prefix) must match for a note to appear:

@tasks <work report                → file "tasks", has "Work" section, contains "report"
<personal kimun                    → "kimun" under a "Personal" section
@thoughts kimun                    → file "thoughts" containing "kimun"
meeting -cancelled                 → "meeting" but not "cancelled"
@2024 -<draft                      → files from 2024 without "draft" in section titles
/journal -<temp report             → in journal/, not titled "temp", containing "report"
screen* @notes                     → starts with "screen", in file "notes"
<personal report -completed        → "report" under "Personal", excluding "completed"

Operator precedence 

There is no OR operator. All terms are ANDed together. Each term must match for a note to appear in results.

Example queries 

Given these notes:

tasks.md

# Work
## TODO
* Talk with Bill
* Finish the report

# Personal
* Make the search in Kimün awesome
* Buy groceries

projects.md

# Projects
## Personal
### Kimün
The simple but great note taking app!

Search	Returns	Reason
kimun	projects.md, tasks.md	both contain "kimun"
<personal kimun	projects.md, tasks.md	"kimun" under a Personal heading in both
<personal report	tasks.md	"report" only under Personal in tasks.md
@tasks <work	tasks.md	file "tasks", has Work section
screen*	any note with "screenshot", "screens", etc.	wildcard matches "screen" prefix
meeting -cancelled	notes with "meeting" but not "cancelled"	exclusion removes matching notes
@2024 -<draft	files from 2024 without "draft" in section titles	combined exclusion
-cancelled	all notes except those with "cancelled"	exclusion-only search
/journal -<temp	notes in journal/ without "temp" in section titles	path + section exclusion
@tasks <work report	tasks.md	file "tasks", "Work" section, contains "report"
-@archive -<draft	all notes except those in archive/, excluding "draft" titles	combined exclusions
#finance	notes labelled "finance"	label filter
lb:review	notes labelled "review"	label filter (long form)
#finance #q2	notes with both "finance" and "q2" labels	combined label filters
#project -#draft	notes labelled "project" but not "draft"	label inclusion + exclusion

Edge cases 

• Exclusion-only searches return all notes except those matching the exclusion criteria
• Wildcards with operators: @task* <work matches files starting with "task" that have a "Work" section
• Operator prefixes are case-insensitive: <Personal and <personal are equivalent, @Tasks and @tasks are equivalent
• Multiple operators of same type: <work <personal is AND — both sections must exist
• Empty results: If no notes match, the search returns an empty list
• Unknown labels: #nonexistent returns zero results, not an error
• Hashtags in code: `#tag` and hashtags inside fenced code blocks are not treated as labels