Search & Views
Find what you know from a remembered phrase, a topic, a date, or a relationship. MindWiki gives you search, five vault views, and agent retrieval over the same collection, so useful work stays within reach as your knowledge grows.
Search answers a question. Views let you survey a collection. A Context Pack brings back a known set of sources for recurring work. Choose the route that matches what you remember.
Choose the fastest route back
| You need | Start with |
|---|---|
| A known page | A distinctive title in the command palette or page search. |
| A particular passage | Vault search, then find within the page. |
| Research about a topic | Hybrid search through your connected agent. |
| A project folder | Files view. |
| A sortable overview | Table view. |
| A broad category | Kanban view. |
| Work around a date | Calendar view. |
| A visual scan | Cards view. |
| A related idea | Wikilinks, backlinks, or the Mac knowledge graph. |
| Your usual project background | A Context Pack or goal-based context preparation. |
Search in MindWiki Cloud
Choose search in the sidebar or Search vault in Cmd+K. Enter a title, phrase, or topic and open a result to inspect the full page. For a page you already know, try a distinctive part of its title in the command palette.
Within an open page, Cmd+F finds a passage without searching the entire collection again. Searching for a specific term is often the quickest way to return to a source you remember.
Search on Mac
Use the sidebar search or page search with Cmd+P. Check the title and path when several notes have similar names. Property filters can narrow the collection by recorded metadata, while the command palette helps you jump to available actions and pages.
Good titles improve every route back. “Homepage Messaging Decision” is more useful in results than a dozen pages called “Notes.” Add a short explanation and a source link when capturing material so future searches have meaningful text to match.
Retrieve by meaning with an agent
MindWiki's hybrid search combines keyword matching with semantic retrieval. It helps an agent discover relevant notes even when your question uses different words from the original page.
Search my MindWiki for research about why new users abandon onboarding. Read the strongest matches, separate evidence from interpretation, and cite the page titles or paths behind your summary.Search identifies candidate sources. Reading those sources gives the agent the evidence for a useful answer. Ask it to distinguish current decisions from older alternatives and to flag gaps rather than invent missing context.
For a larger task, give the agent your goal and constraints. It can search for relevant pages, read the strongest sources, and ask you to clarify when several projects match. See MCP retrieval tools.
Browse the same pages in five views
| View | What it shows | A useful moment |
|---|---|---|
| Files | Folders and pages | Write inside a known project. |
| Table | Pages in rows with metadata | Compare and sort the collection. |
| Kanban | Pages grouped into columns | Scan categories or a working pipeline. |
| Calendar | Pages placed by the supported date field | Review work around a date. |
| Cards | A compact grid of pages | Scan titles and page context visually. |
Web and Mac both offer these views, with different controls. Switching views changes how you see the pages; it does not create copies of them.
Understand each platform's controls
Table: the web table shows title, area, and updated date, with sortable column headings. Use Mac's native view and property controls for additional structured browsing. A table of vault pages is different from a Markdown table inside a single note.
Kanban: the web board groups by area and opens pages from their cards. Mac lets you choose a grouping property and drag cards to change its value. A metadata change does not relocate the file in your folder tree.
Calendar: the web calendar uses the page's updated date and lets you browse months. Mac provides created and updated date choices, including file timestamps where applicable. A custom deadline property remains recorded information unless a supported workflow explicitly uses it; it does not itself schedule a reminder.
Cards: use cards for a quick overview when you want to recognize pages rather than compare columns. Open a page to see its complete content.
When a result is missing
- Confirm the page saved and you are using the same MindWiki account.
- Try its exact title, a distinctive phrase, or the known path.
- Check the folder directly if you know where it lives.
- Allow new edits to sync and indexing to catch up.
- Ask your agent to name the pages it actually retrieved.
Search covers supported page text and metadata. Adding an attachment keeps its original file, but does not automatically make every word in a PDF, image, recording, or archive searchable. Save a companion summary when you want its important meaning easy to retrieve.
Use search from your own tools
The REST API and MCP expose retrieval for scripts and agents. Use a dedicated read-scoped API key for REST requests, or your client's authorized MCP connection. See API Access and MCP Tools for the supported inputs.
Next: Context Packs, Knowledge Graph, and Properties.