tomevault-io Vault Semantic Search
Find vault content by meaning rather than exact keywords using the vault_semantic_search tool. This uses RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) to search indexed vault files semantically.
When to Use Semantic Search
Use vault_semantic_search when... |
Use keyword tools (search_vault) when... |
|---|---|
| The user asks about concepts or topics | The user wants an exact filename or string |
| The query is "find notes about..." or "what do I have on..." | The query is "find the file called..." |
| The user doesn't remember exact words | The user knows the exact term to search |
| You need to discover related content across the vault | You need to find a specific known file |
| Keyword search returned poor or no results | You know the exact path or filename |
Try semantic search first for concept-based queries. Fall back to keyword tools if semantic search isn't available or returns insufficient results.
How to Use
Call the vault_semantic_search tool with these parameters:
query(required) — The search question, topic, or concept. Natural language queries work best.maxResults(optional) — Number of results to return, 1-20. Default is 5. Increase for broad surveys.folder(optional) — Limit results to files within a specific folder path.tags(optional) — Filter results by Obsidian tags. Uses OR logic — any matching tag qualifies.
Search Strategies
- Broad discovery — Use a conceptual query with higher
maxResults(10-15):vault_semantic_search("project management methodologies", maxResults=10) - Focused search — Narrow with
folderwhen the user mentions a specific area:vault_semantic_search("meeting notes about budget", folder="Work/Meetings") - Tag-filtered search — Use
tagswhen the user references tagged content:vault_semantic_search("design patterns", tags=["programming", "architecture"]) - Follow-up reading — After finding relevant results, use
read_fileon promising matches to get full note content
Combining with Keyword Search
For comprehensive results, use both search approaches:
- Start with
vault_semantic_searchfor concept-based discovery - If results are insufficient, try
search_vaultwith specific keywords - Use
read_fileon the most relevant results from either approach
Limitations
- Requires vault indexing — Semantic search only works when the user has enabled vault indexing in settings. If it's not available, fall back to keyword tools.
- File paths may be missing — The Google API sometimes doesn't return source file paths in results. Excerpts are still useful for answering questions.
- Only indexed files are searchable — Files in excluded folders or newly created files that haven't been indexed yet won't appear in results.
Tips
- Frame queries as natural language questions or topic descriptions for the best semantic matching.
- When the user asks "what do I know about X" or "find everything related to X", this is the ideal tool to use.
- If results mention relevant content but lack file paths, suggest the user check the RAG status modal to verify indexing is complete.
Source: allenhutchison/obsidian-gemini — distributed by TomeVault.