Memory Metadata Search

Memory Metadata Search

Find notes by their structured frontmatter fields instead of (or in addition to) free-text content. Any custom YAML key in a note's frontmatter beyond the standard set (title, type, tags, permalink, schema) is automatically indexed as entity_metadata and becomes queryable.

When to Use

• Filtering by status or priority — find all notes with status: draft or priority: high
• Querying custom fields — any frontmatter key you invent is searchable
• Range queries — find notes with confidence > 0.7 or score between 0.3 and 0.8
• Combining text + metadata — narrow a text search with structured constraints
• Tag-based filtering — find notes tagged with specific frontmatter tags
• Schema-aware queries — filter by nested schema fields using dot notation

Two Tools, Two Patterns

Both accept the same filter syntax.

Filter Syntax

Filters are a JSON dictionary. Each key targets a frontmatter field; the value specifies the match condition. Multiple keys combine with AND logic.

Equality

{"status": "active"}

Array Contains (all listed values must be present)

{"tags": ["security", "oauth"]}

$in (match any value in list)

{"priority": {"$in": ["high", "critical"]}}

Comparisons ($gt, $gte, $lt, $lte)

{"confidence": {"$gt": 0.7}}

Numeric values use numeric comparison; strings use lexicographic comparison.

$between (inclusive range)

{"score": {"$between": [0.3, 0.8]}}

Nested Access (dot notation)

{"schema.version": "2"}

Quick Reference

Rules:

• Keys must match [A-Za-z0-9_-]+ (dots separate nesting levels)
• Operator dicts must contain exactly one operator
• $in and array-contains require non-empty lists
• $between requires exactly [min, max]

Using search_by_metadata

Metadata-only search. Results are scoped to entity-level items.

# All notes with status "in-progress"search_by_metadata(filters={"status": "in-progress"})
# High-priority specs in a specific projectsearch_by_metadata(    filters={"type": "spec", "priority": {"$in": ["high", "critical"]}},    project="research",    limit=10,)
# Notes with confidence above a thresholdsearch_by_metadata(filters={"confidence": {"$gt": 0.7}})
# Paginate through resultssearch_by_metadata(filters={"type": "meeting"}, limit=10, offset=20)

Using search_notes with Metadata

Combine text search with structured filters by passing metadata_filters, tags, or status alongside the text query.

# Text search narrowed by metadatasearch_notes("authentication", metadata_filters={"status": "draft"})
# Filter-only (empty query string)search_notes("", metadata_filters={"type": "spec"})
# Convenience shortcuts for tags and statussearch_notes("planning", status="active")search_notes("", tags=["security", "oauth"])
# Mix text, tag shortcut, and advanced filtersearch_notes(    "oauth flow",    tags=["security"],    metadata_filters={"confidence": {"$gt": 0.7}},)

Merging rules: tags and status are convenience shortcuts merged into metadata_filters via setdefault. If the same key exists in metadata_filters, the explicit filter wins.

Tag Search Shorthand

The tag: prefix in a query converts to a tag filter automatically:

# These are equivalent:search_notes("tag:tier1")search_notes("", tags=["tier1"])
# Multiple tags (comma or space separated) — all must match:search_notes("tag:tier1,alpha")

Example: Custom Frontmatter in Practice

A note with custom fields:

---title: Auth Designtype: spectags: [security, oauth]status: in-progresspriority: highconfidence: 0.85---
# Auth Design
## Observations- [decision] Use OAuth 2.1 with PKCE for all client types #security- [requirement] Token refresh must be transparent to the user
## Relations- implements [[Security Requirements]]

Queries that find it:

# By status and typesearch_by_metadata(filters={"status": "in-progress", "type": "spec"})
# By numeric thresholdsearch_by_metadata(filters={"confidence": {"$gt": 0.7}})
# By priority setsearch_by_metadata(filters={"priority": {"$in": ["high", "critical"]}})
# By tag shorthandsearch_notes("tag:security")
# Combined text + metadatasearch_notes("OAuth", metadata_filters={"status": "in-progress"})

Guidelines

• Use metadata search for structured queries. If you're looking for notes by a known field value (status, priority, type), metadata filters are more precise than text search.
• Use text search for content queries. If you're looking for notes about something, text search is better. Combine both when you need precision.
• Custom fields are free. Any YAML key you put in frontmatter becomes queryable — no schema or configuration required.
• Multiple filters are AND. {"status": "active", "priority": "high"} requires both conditions.
• Prefer search_by_metadata for filter-only queries. It's purpose-built and returns entity-level results. Use search_notes with empty query only when you also need text search features.
• Dot notation for nesting. Access nested YAML structures with dots: {"schema.version": "2"} queries the version key inside a schema object.
• Tags shortcut is convenient but limited. tags and status are sugar for common fields. For anything else, use metadata_filters directly.