The operators
These work in the search box in the Relic window on a computer and on your phone. Mix them with ordinary words and with each other. Capitals do not matter, and a space after the colon breaks the operator, so write tag:travel with nothing between.
| Operator | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| tag:x | Only items carrying that exact tag. Repeat it to require several tags at once. | tag:travel tag:receipt |
| kind:text | Only pieces of text. string means the same thing. | kind:text maplewood |
| kind:image | Only images and screenshots. photo and img mean the same thing. | kind:image gate |
| kind:file | Only files. files means the same thing. | kind:file manual |
| is:kept | Only items in your Vault. is:vault means the same thing. | is:kept condor |
| has:file | Only items with a file or an image attached. has:image and has:blob mean the same thing. | has:file folio |
A tag has to match in full. tag:ip finds items tagged ip and leaves zip alone. A kind Relic does not know simply matches nothing. An is: or has: value it does not know is treated as ordinary words instead, so a stray colon in your text never eats part of the search.
Tag names are the ones on the items themselves, which you can browse with the # button. See Tags, and Collections for the groups Relic works out on its own.
Phrases and exclusions
- "registered agent"
- Those words, in that order, as written. Quotes turn off the loose matching.
- -word
- Leave out anything containing that word. A minus inside quotes is just a hyphen.
Both combine with everything else. "registered agent" -draft finds the phrase and skips your drafts. A search made only of exclusions has nothing to match, so give it at least one ordinary word or operator.
Sort words
Type the order you want and Relic sorts by date for that search. The word is taken out of the words being matched, and the sort button itself is left alone.
- newest
- Most recent first. latest and most recent do the same.
- oldest
- Oldest first. earliest does the same.
So latest invoice looks for invoices and puts the newest at the top. Only these words count. Last and first are left as ordinary words, because last name and first aid are things people search for.
Dates
A date phrase anywhere in the box becomes a date filter, and the phrase drops out of the words being matched. receipt last week searches for receipts and limits them to last week. The full list of phrases, and the date button beside the sort button, are on Search by date.
In the web vault and the CLI
The web vault at relic.space understands the operators, the quoted phrases and the minus above. It adds two date operators of its own, and both take a plain YYYY-MM-DD date:
- after:2026-01-01
- Only items captured on or after that day.
- before:2026-07-01
- Only items captured before that day.
The relic command line tool takes a search string with the same operators in it, and adds flags for the common filters: --tag, --vault, --after, and --sort newest. So relic search "tag:travel gate" --vault and relic search gate --tag travel --vault ask the same question. The full command reference is at relic.space/docs/cli.md, and the developers page lists the rest of the documents an agent can read.
The operators an agent is most likely to want:
- tag: to pull one project's items without knowing their words.
- is:kept to stay inside the Vault and out of throwaway copies.
- kind:file or has:file when only an attachment will do.