# Search for text pattern
Grep "API authentication" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

# Case-insensitive search
Grep "authentication" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md" -i

# Show context around matches
Grep "authentication" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md" -C 3

Tag Search

To find notes with specific tags:

# Find notes with a tag
Grep "#project" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

# Find nested tags
Grep "#project/active" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

# Find notes with any of multiple tags
Grep "#meeting|#standup" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

Wikilink Search

To find notes linking to a specific note:

# Find backlinks to a note
Grep "\[\[Target Note\]\]" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

# Find all wikilinks in a note
Grep "\[\[[^\]]+\]\]" --path "${NOTE_PATH}"

Frontmatter Search

To search within YAML frontmatter:

# Find notes with status: active
Grep "^status: active" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

# Find notes by type
Grep "^type: meeting" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

# Find notes with specific tag in frontmatter
Grep "tags:.*project" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

Search Patterns

Phrase Search

# Exact phrase
Grep "user authentication flow" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

Pattern Matching

# Words starting with "auth"
Grep "auth\w+" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

# Date patterns
Grep "2026-01-\d{2}" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

Folder-Scoped Search

# Search only in Projects folder
Grep "deadline" --path "${VAULT_PATH}/Projects" --glob "*.md"

# Exclude folders (using find + grep)
find "${VAULT_PATH}" -path "*/Archive/*" -prune -o -name "*.md" -exec grep -l "active" {} \;

Search Results

Output Formats

When presenting search results:

List format (for many results):

Found 15 notes matching "authentication":

1. Projects/API-Design.md (5 matches)
2. Resources/Security-Guide.md (3 matches)
3. Journal/2026-01-15.md (2 matches)
...

Detail format (for few results):

## Projects/API-Design.md
Line 45: The authentication flow uses JWT tokens...
Line 78: For API authentication, we support OAuth2...

## Resources/Security-Guide.md
Line 12: Authentication best practices include...

Ranking Results

Rank results by relevance:

Title match - Query appears in filename
Heading match - Query appears in # heading
Frontmatter match - Query in metadata
Content frequency - More matches = higher rank
Recency - Recently modified notes

Advanced Search

Combining Criteria

To search with multiple conditions:

# Notes with "API" AND in Projects folder
Grep "API" --path "${VAULT_PATH}/Projects" --glob "*.md"

# Notes with "meeting" modified this week
find "${VAULT_PATH}" -name "*.md" -mtime -7 -exec grep -l "meeting" {} \;

Excluding Content

# Find notes WITHOUT a tag
find "${VAULT_PATH}" -name "*.md" -exec grep -L "#archive" {} \;

Code Block Search

To search within code blocks:

# Find code blocks with specific content
Grep "```.*\n.*import.*\n.*```" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md" --multiline

Integration with Other Skills

obsidian-vault - Navigate to search results
obsidian-frontmatter - Filter by metadata fields
obsidian-templates - Find template usage

User Interaction

When performing searches:

Clarify scope - "Searching entire vault" or "Searching in Projects/"
Show count first - "Found 23 notes matching 'authentication'"
Offer refinement - "Want to narrow by folder or date?"
Enable drill-down - "Read result #3"

Performance Tips

For large vaults:

Scope narrowly - Search specific folders when possible
Use Glob first - Find files by name before content search
Limit results - Show top 10-20 by default
Cache common searches - Remember recent queries

Troubleshooting

No Results Found

If search returns nothing:

Check spelling
Try case-insensitive search
Expand search scope
Use partial matches

Too Many Results

If search returns too many:

Add more specific terms
Narrow to specific folders
Filter by date modified
Combine with tag/frontmatter search

Quick Reference

Search Type	Pattern
Full-text	`Grep "query" --path $VAULT --glob "*.md"`
Tags	`Grep "#tagname" --path $VAULT --glob "*.md"`
Backlinks	`Grep "\[\[NoteName\]\]" --path $VAULT --glob "*.md"`
Frontmatter	`Grep "^field: value" --path $VAULT --glob "*.md"`
In folder	`Grep "query" --path $VAULT/Folder --glob "*.md"`
Recent	`find $VAULT -name "*.md" -mtime -7 -exec grep -l "query" {} \;`

obsidian-search

Obsidian Search

Configuration

Search Types

Full-Text Search