Obsidian Search Vault

Search Vault

Search the user's Obsidian Zettelkasten using qmd. The user's query is passed as arguments to /obsidian-search-vault.

Argument parsing

The argument string may contain:

• A query (required): any free-form text
• -c <collection>: restrict search to a specific collection
• --full: fetch and display the full content of the top result
• -n <num>: number of results (default: 5)
• --bm25: use fast keyword-only search instead of hybrid
• --vector: use pure vector search instead of hybrid

If no arguments are provided, ask the user what they want to search for.

Collections

Steps

1. Parse the query and flags from the user's arguments
2. Choose the right command (default: qmd query for hybrid search)
3. Run the search and display results clearly
4. If --full is specified, or the user asks to open/read a note, fetch it with qmd get <docid>
5. If results are poor, suggest alternative collections or rephrase

Commands

# Hybrid search — query expansion + BM25 + vector + LLM re-ranking (best quality)
qmd query "<query>"
qmd query "<query>" -c <collection>
qmd query "<query>" -n 10

# Fast BM25 keyword search (instant, no models)
qmd search "<query>"
qmd search "<query>" -c <collection>

# Pure vector similarity search
qmd vsearch "<query>"

# Fetch full note content
qmd get qmd://collection/filename.md

# List files in a collection
qmd ls <collection>

Output format

Present results as a clear numbered list:

• Title with score badge
• Collection name
• Relevant excerpt from the note
• qmd get path for reference

After showing results, offer to:

• Fetch the full content of any result
• Search a specific collection
• Try a different query