Search Skill

Fast keyword search across all vault markdown files using the Grep tool. No indexes, no plugins, no setup — just structured search with directory grouping.

Usage

/search <term>

Examples:

• /search project planning
• /search weekly review
• /search TODO

How to Execute

When the user invokes /search <term>:

Step 1: Search for the term

Use the Grep tool to search all .md files for the term:

Grep:
  pattern: <search term>
  glob: "*.md"
  output_mode: content
  -n: true
  -C: 1

Exclude hidden directories (.claude/, .obsidian/) and templates:

Grep:
  pattern: <search term>
  glob: "*.md"
  path: .
  output_mode: content
  -n: true
  -C: 1

Filter out results from .claude/, .obsidian/, and Templates/ directories.

Step 2: Group results by directory

Organise matches into sections by their parent directory:

• Daily Notes/ — journal entries
• Goals/ — goal and vision documents
• Projects/ — project notes
• Archives/ — archived content
• Inbox/ — unprocessed items
• (root) — top-level notes

Step 3: Present results

Format output as:

## Search: "<term>"

### Daily Notes/
- **2024-01-15.md** (line 23): ...matching context...
- **2024-01-14.md** (line 8): ...matching context...

### Projects/
- **Project Alpha.md** (line 45): ...matching context...

### Goals/
- **2024 Goals.md** (line 12): ...matching context...

**Found X matches across Y files**

Step 4: Suggest related content

After showing results, check if any matched files contain [[wiki-links]] to other notes. If so, briefly mention:

💡 Related notes mentioned in results: [[Note A]], [[Note B]]

No Results

If no matches are found:

1. Suggest alternative search terms (synonyms, related words)
2. Offer to search with case-insensitive matching if the original search was case-sensitive
3. Suggest checking Archives/ if not already included

Tips

• Search is case-sensitive by default. Add -i: true to the Grep call for case-insensitive search
• Use regex patterns for advanced searches: task.*complete, #tag-name
• Combine with /daily to quickly find when something was mentioned