QMD - Quick Markdown Search

Local search engine for markdown content.

Status

!qmd status 2>/dev/null || echo "Not installed: npm install -g @tobilu/qmd"

MCP: query

{
  "searches": [
    { "type": "lex", "query": "CAP theorem consistency" },
    { "type": "vec", "query": "tradeoff between consistency and availability" }
  ],
  "collections": ["docs"],
  "limit": 10
}

Query Types

Type	Method	Input
lex	BM25	Keywords — exact terms, names, code
vec	Vector	Question — natural language
hyde	Vector	Answer — hypothetical result (50-100 words)

Writing Good Queries

lex (keyword)

• 2-5 terms, no filler words
• Exact phrase: "connection pool" (quoted)
• Exclude terms: performance -sports (minus prefix)
• Code identifiers work: handleError async

vec (semantic)

• Full natural language question
• Be specific: "how does the rate limiter handle burst traffic"
• Include context: "in the payment service, how are refunds processed"

hyde (hypothetical document)

• Write 50-100 words of what the answer looks like
• Use the vocabulary you expect in the result

expand (auto-expand)

• Use a single-line query (implicit) or expand: question on its own line
• Lets the local LLM generate lex/vec/hyde variations
• Do not mix expand: with other typed lines — it's either a standalone expand query or a full query document

Intent (Disambiguation)

When a query term is ambiguous, add intent to steer results:

{
  "searches": [
    { "type": "lex", "query": "performance" }
  ],
  "intent": "web page load times and Core Web Vitals"
}

Intent affects expansion, reranking, chunk selection, and snippet extraction. It does not search on its own — it's a steering signal that disambiguates queries like "performance" (web-perf vs team health vs fitness).

Combining Types

Goal	Approach
Know exact terms	lex only
Don't know vocabulary	Use a single-line query (implicit expand:) or vec
Best recall	lex + vec
Complex topic	lex + vec + hyde
Ambiguous query	Add intent to any combination above

First query gets 2x weight in fusion — put your best guess first.

Lex Query Syntax

Syntax	Meaning	Example
term	Prefix match	perf matches "performance"
"phrase"	Exact phrase	"rate limiter"
-term	Exclude	performance -sports

Note: -term only works in lex queries, not vec/hyde.

Collection Filtering

{ "collections": ["docs"] }              // Single
{ "collections": ["docs", "notes"] }     // Multiple (OR)

Omit to search all collections.

What works here (himmel fork, measured)

Measured on a 38-query golden set with scripts/eval/qmd-quality/qmd-quality.sh
(HIMMEL-4184). Re-run it before changing this advice.

1. Always scope collections. This is the largest lever measured: hybrid
   MRR rose from 0.57 unscoped to 0.83 scoped. Unscoped vector hits are swamped
   by the large luna collection (handovers and session logs).
2. Send lex + vec, with lex first. Scoped hybrid beats either alone
   (MRR 0.83 vs lex 0.78 vs vec 0.43). Put ticket keys, file names, script and
   flag names in lex; they are what BM25 finds and embeddings miss.
3. Keep a -flag out of vec and hyde. A vec sub-query containing
   --no-verify is refused outright. Write no-verify, or move the term to
   lex.
4. Leave rerank on (the default) and pass intent. Once scoped, rerank is
   neutral to slightly positive (hit@5 0.92 vs 0.90) at about 1.5 s per query.
   Unscoped, it lowered MRR.

Other MCP Tools

Tool	Use
get	Retrieve doc by path or #docid
multi_get	Retrieve multiple by glob/list
status	Collections and health

CLI

qmd query "question"              # Auto-expand + rerank
qmd query $'lex: X\nvec: Y'       # Structured
qmd query $'expand: question'     # Explicit expand
qmd query --json --explain "q"    # Show score traces (RRF + rerank blend)
qmd search "keywords"             # BM25 only (no LLM)
qmd get "#abc123"                 # By docid
qmd multi-get "journals/2026-*.md" -l 40  # Batch pull snippets by glob
qmd multi-get notes/foo.md,notes/bar.md   # Comma-separated list, preserves order

HTTP API

curl -X POST http://localhost:8181/query \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searches": [{"type": "lex", "query": "test"}]}'

Setup

npm install -g @tobilu/qmd
qmd collection add ~/notes --name notes
qmd embed