Search and the command palette

Lar has two related search surfaces:

The command palette opens over the current application context.

• The command palette is the fastest way to find an Object or run an action without leaving what you are doing.
• The full Search page gives you filters, matching controls, multiple layouts, and the option to save the search as a Query.

Open the command palette

Press ⌘K or ⌘P on macOS. You can also choose Search in the sidebar or floating navigation bar. On a compact screen, Search opens the command palette first rather than navigating straight to the Search page.

When the query is empty, recently opened Objects appear first. Start typing to search both content and actions. The palette can show:

• live Object matches, with their Object Type;
• recently opened Objects;
• navigation commands such as Open Calendar, Open Tasks, Open Graph, and Open settings;
• creation commands, including Quick capture, Define a new Type, and New from template;
• commands that apply to the current Object, such as Add reminder, Export current object, or Run workflow.

If your text does not match an existing Object, Create “your text” creates a new Page with that title through Quick Capture.

The palette returns at most 50 entries. Its ranking combines command matches, recent Objects, and live workspace search results.

Navigate without the mouse

• Use ↑ and ↓, or Ctrl+P and Ctrl+N, to move through results.
• Press Enter to run the selected command or open the selected Object.
• Press ⌘+Enter on macOS, or Ctrl+Enter on other platforms, to open an Object in a new tab when that action is available.
• Press Shift+Enter to open an Object in the side panel when available.
• Press Esc to close the palette.

When the palette was opened specifically for the side panel, plain Enter opens an Object there.

Move from the palette to full Search

Choose the expand button beside the palette field. Lar carries the current text into the full Search page, so you can refine it without typing it again.

The full page searches after a short pause while you type. Results normally appear as a list with a matching excerpt. An Alias match label means an Object matched one of its aliases rather than its title or body.

On wider screens, use the layout control to switch among:

• List, which includes matching excerpts and tags;
• Wall, for compact cards;
• Gallery, for visual cards.

Compact layouts always use the List view. Search results can contain several Object Types, so Table, Board, and Calendar layouts are not offered here.

Choose how text is matched

Open Options, then choose a matching mode:

• Auto and Exact currently use Lar’s indexed text search.
• Semantic looks for meaning rather than only matching words. It requires semantic search to be enabled and indexed in Settings.

The Options panel also shows Objects and blocks, Only objects, and Only blocks. Lar currently returns an Object-level result list for all three choices; a block match appears as an excerpt under its Object. The selection is preserved when you leave an Object and return to Search.

Note

Semantic results do not include the highlighted text excerpts shown for indexed text matches. Objects excluded from AI are not added to the semantic index.

Filter the result set

Search options can:

• include only selected Object Types;
• exclude selected Object Types;
• require one or more tags;
• limit the number of results, including a random-result mode.

Selecting several tags uses an all tags rule: an Object must have every selected tag. Type and tag filters apply after the base text or semantic search.

The default result limit is 25. Lar may inspect a larger candidate set before applying filters and the final limit.

Save a search as a Query

Choose Save as Query on the full Search page. The saved Query keeps:

• the search text;
• included Object Types;
• included tags;
• the result limit.

The live Search page’s excluded-Type and random-sampling choices are not stored in the saved Query. Open the new Query if you want to add property filters, sorting, grouping, or a different view.

Create an Object from no results

If Search finds nothing, choose Create “query”. Lar creates a Page with the query as its title. This is useful when searching is also your preferred capture workflow: search first to avoid duplicates, then create only when nothing exists.

Search troubleshooting

If expected content is missing:

1. Clear included and excluded Object Types.
2. Remove tag filters.
3. Increase or remove the result limit.
4. Switch Semantic back to Auto to check the text index.
5. Search an alias or a distinctive phrase from the body.

If Semantic matching is unavailable or incomplete, open Settings → AI and review semantic indexing. Ordinary indexed search remains local and does not require an AI provider.