Research tools

Semantic Search guides.semantic-search.hero.title_accent

Search by what you mean, not the words you happen to remember. Ask a real question and get back the passages that answer it — even when they never use your phrasing.

3 min read~1k tokensResearch

When to reach for it

You know a source in your library made a particular point — about labour, about the body, about a place — but you can't remember which one, or the words it used. Keyword search fails here because you're searching for an idea, not a string. This is the tool for the half-remembered.

Ask in plain language

Type a real question or a description of the idea — "where do these sources talk about the artist's relationship to the state?" — not a keyword. Full sentences work better than fragments here, because the search reads for meaning, and a fuller question gives it more to match against.

A natural-language query in the search bar

Screenshot

Read results ranked by meaning

Results come back ordered by how closely each passage matches the idea you asked about — the most relevant first — with the specific passage surfaced, not just the document title. A source can rank highly without containing a single word from your query. That's the point: it found the concept, not the phrase.

Results ranked by relevance

Screenshot

Tip

Scan the top few, then re-ask. A slightly reworded question often surfaces a different, sharper set — searching here is a conversation, not a single shot.

Narrow when you need to

Scope the search to a single project when you only want to search this show's materials, or add a keyword filter when you do know an exact term that must appear. Meaning-first, keyword-when-useful — you get both, not one or the other.

Scoping search to a project

Screenshot

What it will — and won’t — do

It finds the passages closest in meaning to your question and ranks them. It doesn't answer the question for you — it points you at the evidence and leaves the reading to you. Think of it as a research assistant who knows your whole library by heart and can hand you the right page in seconds.

Note

Semantic search is a Pro feature. Each search costs roughly 1,000 tokens — the cheapest tool here, and the one you’ll reach for most often.

What comes next