tolaria/docs/adr/0009-keyword-only-search.md

type, id, title, status, date

type	id	title	status	date
ADR	0009	Keyword-only search (remove semantic indexing)	active	2026-03-24

Context

Laputa previously used QMD (a Go binary) for semantic vector indexing, enabling similarity-based search. This added significant complexity: a bundled Go binary requiring code-signing, an indexing step on vault open, status bar progress tracking, auto-install logic, and a separate tools/qmd/ directory. The semantic search quality did not justify the operational burden, especially as the AI agent (with MCP vault tools) became a more natural way to do exploratory queries.

Decision

Remove QMD semantic indexing entirely and keep only keyword-based search. Search uses walkdir to scan all .md files, matching against titles and content with case-insensitive substring matching and relevance scoring.

Options considered

• Option A (chosen): Keyword-only search via walkdir — zero dependencies, no indexing step, instant results, no binary to sign/bundle. Downside: no fuzzy or semantic matching.
• Option B: Keep QMD semantic search — richer search results, similarity matching. Downside: bundled Go binary, code-signing, indexing latency, maintenance burden.
• Option C: Replace QMD with a Rust-native embedding library — no external binary. Downside: large model files, cold start time, still needs indexing.

Consequences

• No external search binary to bundle, sign, or install.
• No indexing step on vault open — search is instant.
• search_vault Tauri command scans files directly with walkdir, runs in a blocking Tokio task.
• Title matches rank higher than content-only matches; exact title matches rank highest.
• The AI agent (via MCP search_notes tool) provides an alternative for exploratory/semantic queries.
• Re-evaluation trigger: if users report keyword search is insufficient for large vaults (9000+ notes).