Search Tool Preference

Search Tool Preference

Use Exa MCP tools for all web search:

• web_search_exa — general web search
• get_code_context_exa — code, GitHub, docs, Stack Overflow
• company_research_exa — company/vendor info

Do not use the built-in WebSearch tool. If Exa tools are not visible, discover them with ToolSearch(query: 'exa').

Documentation Search (QMD) — Always Use First

QMD is the primary way to find documentation. Do NOT manually read docs/index.md, TECHNICAL_OVERVIEW.md, or subdirectory CLAUDE.md files for doc lookup — use QMD search instead.

# Search for docs relevant to your task
qmd_search "authentication flow"

# Get a specific document by path
qmd_get "motium/cortex/docs/architecture/authentication.md"

Why QMD over manual reads:

• Searches across all indexed documentation in one query
• No need to read index.md first — search finds the right doc directly
• Token-efficient — returns excerpts, not full files
• .gitignore respected — no node_modules pollution

Only use Read tool for: CLAUDE.md (root) and .claude/MEMORIES.md at session start. For everything else, search first with QMD.

If QMD tools are not available, fall back to reading docs/index.md manually.