jfox-search

name

jfox-search

description

Search and retrieve notes from a Zettelkasten knowledge base. Use when user wants to search notes, find information, look up knowledge, query the knowledge graph, find related notes, discover backlinks, or get link suggestions. Triggers on: "搜索", "查找", "找一下", "查一下", "搜一下", "帮我找", "有没有关于", "search notes", "look up", "find", "find related notes", "search knowledge base", "notes about", "query knowledge graph", "backlinks", "suggest links".

JFox Knowledge Base Search

Search and retrieve notes from the Zettelkasten knowledge base.

Prerequisites

Knowledge base must be initialized (jfox init). If search index is stale, run jfox index rebuild first.

Search Strategy Selection

Match search approach to user intent:

User Intent	Strategy	Command
Exact keyword	Keyword (BM25)	jfox search "<keyword>" --mode keyword --format json
Concept or idea (fuzzy)	Hybrid (BM25 + semantic)	jfox search "<concept>" --mode hybrid --format json
Pure semantic similarity	Semantic	jfox search "<idea>" --mode semantic --format json
Explore related topics	Graph traversal	jfox query "<topic>" --depth 2 --json
What links to note X	Backlinks	jfox refs --search "<title>" --format json
What should I link to	Link suggestions	jfox suggest-links "<content>" --format json

Default strategy: --mode hybrid (best balance of precision and recall).

Workflow

Single Search

jfox search "<query>" --mode hybrid --top 10 --format json

Parse JSON output and present as:

Found N related notes:

1. [Title] (score: 0.85)
   Type: permanent | Tags: tag1, tag2
   Summary: First 100 chars...

2. [Title] (score: 0.72)
   ...

Tip: Use jfox show <note_id> for full note content.

Graph-Aware Search

For exploring connections around a topic:

jfox query "<topic>" --top 10 --depth 2 --json

Returns both search results AND their graph neighbors for broader knowledge landscape view.

Backlink Discovery

Find what references a specific note:

jfox refs --search "<title>" --format json

Link Recommendations

Find notes that should be linked from given content:

jfox suggest-links "<content>" --top 10 --threshold 0.6 --format json

Default threshold: 0.6. Lower to 0.3-0.5 for broader suggestions; raise to 0.7-0.8 for stricter matching.

Full Command Reference

# Basic search
jfox search "<query>" --mode <hybrid|keyword|semantic> --top <N> --format json

# Filter by note type
jfox search "<query>" --type permanent --format json

# Graph query with traversal
jfox query "<query>" --top <N> --depth <D> --json

# Link suggestions
jfox suggest-links "<content>" --top <N> --threshold <T> --format json

# Backlinks / references
jfox refs --search "<title>" --format json
jfox refs --note "<note-id>" --format json

Multi-KB Search

All search commands support --kb <name> to target a specific KB:

jfox search "<query>" --kb work --format json

Error Handling

• "Index not found": Run jfox index rebuild
• Empty results: Try broader query, switch to hybrid mode, or lower --threshold
• Slow search: First search loads embedding model (30-60s). Subsequent searches are fast. Use jfox daemon start to avoid repeated loading.