Search
NuvoPad uses SQLite's FTS5 (Full-Text Search 5) extension to index and search the content of all your notes. All indexing and querying happens locally — there is no cloud round-trip, no indexing lag, and no data leaves your machine.
Using the Search Bar
The search bar is located at the top of the note list panel. Click it or start typing immediately after clicking the note list to begin a search.
- Click the search bar at the top of the note list (or press Ctrl+P to open the command palette which also searches notes).
- Type your query. Results update as you type.
- Each result card shows a snippet of the matching content with the matched terms highlighted.
- Click a result to open it in the editor. Clear the search field (or press Escape) to return to the full note list.
How the FTS5 Index Works
NuvoPad maintains a dedicated notes_fts virtual table that mirrors the title and body of every note. Writes (create, update, delete) are reflected in the FTS index automatically via SQLite triggers — you never need to manually re-index.
Search results are ranked by relevance using FTS5's built-in BM25 ranking algorithm. More relevant matches (exact phrase, title match) appear first.
Performance target: under 50 ms for a workspace of 10,000 notes on typical hardware.
Snippet Highlighting
Each search result card displays a snippet — a short excerpt from the note body — with the matched terms visually highlighted. If a match is in the note title, the title is highlighted directly.
Command Palette Search
The command palette (Ctrl+P) provides a unified search that covers both note content and application actions:
| Category | What it searches |
|---|---|
| Notes | Note titles (fuzzy match) |
| Notebooks | Notebook names |
| Actions | Built-in commands: New Note, Toggle Sidebar, Switch Theme, Settings, Import, Export, etc. |
Use the arrow keys to move through results and Enter to execute. Escape closes the palette.
Search Tips
- Search matches both note titles and note body content.
- Multi-word queries return notes that contain all the words (AND semantics by default).
- Search is case-insensitive.
- For very large note collections, search performance remains fast because the FTS5 index is co-located with your SQLite data on disk — no network request is ever made.
📝 Note