Search syntax

Everything on this page works in the search window: press ⇧⌘F, or click Search in the toolbar. For a guided tour that builds these up one step at a time, read Find anything in your Library.

The examples use a Library where meeting notes live in meetings, project notes in projects, and notes carry tags such as #launch and an owner property.

How a search is read

• Spaces mean and. pricing decision finds notes that contain both words, anywhere in the note.
• OR means either. It must be in capitals; a lowercase or is searched as a word. And binds tighter than OR, so a b OR c d means (a and b) or (c and d). Use parentheses to say otherwise.
• Words match from their start, in the title, the text and the tag names. budg finds "budget"; port doesn't find "report". Capitals and accents are ignored.
• A word followed by a colon is a filter. Only the names under Filters, plus line: and section:, work. Anything else, such as owner:, shows an error instead of results.
• Filter names ignore capitals (TAG:launch works), but most filter values don't: see the notes on each filter.
• Quote values that contain spaces: tag:"reading list", path:"Client work/**".
• Half-typed searches are forgiven. A missing ) is fine, and a dangling OR is ignored. A stray ) ends the search: everything after it is ignored.

Operators

Put the minus right against what it excludes: -draft, not - draft. A hyphen inside a word, as in well-known, is part of the word.

Properties in brackets. The property name is case-sensitive and must be spelled as it is in your notes; only top-level properties work. The value ignores capitals but must match the whole value, so [owner:Theo] doesn't find "Theo Grant". Quotes around the value are optional. Checkbox properties take true or false.

Lines and sections. Both need the parentheses; line:proofs on its own is an error. Quote a phrase to keep it together: line:("launch date" october). A section starts at any heading and runs until the next heading of any level, and the text before the first heading counts as a section of its own.

Filters

Date ranges are in the next section. Plain words only search titles, text and tag names, never other properties; to match a property, use brackets.

Dates

created and updated take a comparison and a date. before: and after: are shorthands for updated.

• >= and <= are two characters each: a > or < followed by =.
• Write dates as YYYY-MM-DD, with four-digit years and two-digit months and days, or as a full timestamp such as 2026-10-01T09:00:00Z. Relative dates like today or last week aren't understood.
• For one day, combine two comparisons: updated>=2026-09-03 updated<=2026-09-03. An equals sign (updated=2026-09-03) matches almost nothing.
• Days run from midnight to midnight UTC, so a note edited late in the evening, in time zones behind UTC, can count toward the next day.
• created: and updated: with a colon aren't filters; they show unknown field.

Regular expressions

There are two ways to use a pattern:

• Put it between slashes anywhere in a search: tag:launch /\$\d+/ finds launch notes that mention a dollar amount.
• Turn on the Regex switch (the asterisk at the right end of the search box) and type the pattern without slashes. The whole box becomes one pattern. With the switch on, results are ranked by keyword only, matches by meaning are left out, and Help and canvas results don't appear.

Rules:

• A pattern is matched against the note's title, then its text, ignoring capitals. Tags and properties aren't searched. Put (?-i) at the start to make it case-sensitive.
• ^ and $ match the start and end of everything searched, which begins with the title: /^pricing/ finds notes whose title starts with "pricing". Put (?m) at the start to match the start or end of any line instead.
• Patterns use the syntax most tools share: ., \d, \w, \b, [abc], (a|b), *, +, ?, {2,4}. Look-arounds and back-references aren't available.
• Between slashes, the closing / is required; write \/ for a slash inside the pattern. Without a closing slash, the text is searched as an ordinary word.
• With slashes, a pattern can match inside words, which plain words can't: /port/ finds "report".

Errors you might see

When Terra can't read a search, a red line appears above the results instead. Some of these show briefly while you're still typing, such as an unclosed quote or a half-written date, and go away once the search is complete.

When a search fails, the whole list empties, including Help and canvas results, until you fix it.

Not supported

• AND and NOT as words. Spaces already mean and, and - means not; typing AND or NOT searches for those words.
• Comparing other properties: [rating>3] isn't a comparison. It's quietly searched as plain words.
• Relative dates such as today or last week.
• Matching inside a word without a pattern: use /port/.
• Including nested tags under a parent tag: search each nested tag by its full name, such as tag:"projects/terra".
• Saving a search or seeing past searches. The window remembers only your last search, until you quit.

What's next

• Find anything in your Library — the guided version, with Go to file and the command palette.
• Keyboard shortcuts — every key, including the ones for search.
• Glossary — the Terra words used on this page.