--- title: Search | Relic Help description: Type in the Relic window and the list filters as you go. What search covers, the All and Vault scopes, the sort button, and what to do when nothing matches. canonical: https://relic.space/help/search source: https://relic.space/llms.txt --- Find # Searching your vault Type in the Relic window and the list filters as you go. What search covers, the All and Vault scopes, the sort button, and what to do when nothing matches. Updated 10 September 2026 · Every platform ## [Type and the list filters](#type-to-filter) Press Ctrl \+ Shift \+ Q and start typing. You do not have to click the search box first: whatever you type from anywhere in the window goes into it. The list catches up about a seventh of a second after you stop typing (140 ms), so it does not thrash on every keystroke. The Relic window with gate b12 typed in the search box. Two rows match: a photo of a boarding pass from Condor Air, captured on a Pixel 9 two days ago and tagged screenshot and travel, and a piece of text captured on a Windows PC yesterday. The control row under the box shows the All and Vault switch, a date button and a sort button reading Best. Two words are enough. The photo matches because Relic read the gate number out of the picture. Esc clears the search. Press it again and the window closes. Up and Down move through the results and Enter copies the one you are on. The rest of the keys are on the [shortcuts page](https://relic.space/help/shortcuts). ## [What search looks at](#what-it-covers) Everything Relic knows about an item is searchable: * The title and the note you wrote on it. * Its tags, both the ones you added and the ones Relic worked out. See [Tags](https://relic.space/help/tags). * The text of the item itself. * The name of a file or an image, and the text inside a document you saved. * The text Relic read out of a picture, so a screenshot is as searchable as a note. A word that is close but not exact still finds the item, so a typo or a half-remembered spelling usually works. Relic also understands a few plain words as instructions: a tag name, a kind of item, a date, or a sort order. Those are on the [search operators](https://relic.space/help/search-syntax) page. Results come from every device you have signed in. A screenshot you took on your phone a minute ago turns up in the same list as something you copied on this computer an hour ago. ## [All, Vault, and sorting](#scope-and-sort) The switch under the search box picks what you are searching. **All** is everything Relic has captured. **Vault** is only the items you kept on purpose. Searching behaves the same way in both. The All and Vault switch, with Vault selected. The sort button at the right of that row cycles through three orders. Click it again to move to the next one: **Best** The closest matches first. This is where it starts. **Newest** Strict date order, most recent at the top. **Oldest** Strict date order, oldest at the top. You can also type the order. Put _newest_, _latest_ or _most recent_ anywhere in the search and Relic sorts by date for that search only. _Oldest_ and _earliest_ do the same the other way. The word is taken out of the words being matched, so _latest invoice_ searches for invoices and sorts them by date. ## [When nothing matches](#nothing-matches) When a search comes up empty, Relic says **No results for “gate b12”** with your words in the quotes, and under it: Try a different term, or switch scope to search the Vault too. Three things are worth trying, in this order: * Switch the scope back to **All**. A Vault search only ever looks at items you kept. * Take out any date chip or tag chip sitting above the list. Each one narrows the results. * Use fewer words. Relic matches all of your words at once before it tries anything looser. ## [The ? cheatsheet](#cheatsheet) The small **?** pill at the right of the search box opens a card with the same list, inside the app. It has three parts: * The search words, from _tag:work_ to date phrases and sort words. * The keys that work while the window is open, from arrows and Enter to undoing a delete. * Two mouse moves: drag a row out to another app, drop files in to save them. It also lists your own global shortcuts, so it stays right if you changed them. ## [The same search everywhere](#everywhere) The search box on your phone is the same one, with the same words and operators. The web vault at relic.space understands them too, and adds a couple of its own. See [the operators page](https://relic.space/help/search-syntax#web-and-cli). One part is different. Searching by what an item is _about_, rather than by the words in it, needs the models that run on a computer. A phone and the web vault search the words, the tags and the text a computer already read out of your pictures. [Search by meaning](https://relic.space/help/search-by-meaning) covers what that means in practice. Related [Search words and operatorsFind](https://relic.space/help/search-syntax)[Search by dateFind](https://relic.space/help/search-by-date)[Search by meaningFind](https://relic.space/help/search-by-meaning)[The Relic windowGet started](https://relic.space/help/the-popup)