qmd

QMD - Quick Markdown Search

Local search engine for markdown content.

Status

!qmd status 2>/dev/null || echo "qmd CLI not found on this runtime PATH"

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