Search operators

Every search box in TypeFire, the one in the sidebar and all four Spotlight tabs, takes the same small set of operators. Type key:value and it turns into a chip in front of the words; the words that are left are the free text. Click into an empty box to see the operators for that world, press ⌫ on an empty box to take the last chip off, and click the (i) in the list to come back here.

Everything you type is combined: tag:launch in:Projects plan finds notes in the Projects folder, tagged launch, with "plan" somewhere in them.

The operators every world has

Operator	What it does	Example
tag:	Carries this tag	tag:work
in:	Lives in this folder or collection (notes and snippets). collection: and folder: mean the same	in:Email, in:"Q4 plan"
is:	Has this flag (see the table below)	is:pinned
before: / after:	Changed before or after a day	before:2026-09-01, after:7d
type:	A world, or a world and a sub-type after a slash. snippet (expansion, selection, chain), clip (text, rich, html, image, file, document, color, url), note. A sub-type only one world has can stand alone	type:clip, type:clip/image, type:chain
"..."	These words, in this order	"launch week"
-	Not this. Works on a word and on any operator	-draft, -tag:old, -is:pinned

A date is YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM or YYYY, or today, yesterday, or an age like 7d, 2w, 3m, 1y. before: means strictly before that day and after: strictly after it. A value with a space goes in quotes: in:"Q4 plan".

What is: can take

World	Flags
Notes	favorite, pinned
Snippets	favorite, chain, selection
Clips	pinned, file, image, text, document

Notes only

Operator	What it does	Example
path:	The folder path contains this	path:projects/2026
file:	The file name contains this	file:meeting
line:	All of these words on one line	line:"todo call"
section:	All of these words under one heading	section:"open questions"
[property]	Has this frontmatter property, or this value of it	[status], [status:done]

Snippets only

Operator	What it does	Example
abbr:	The abbreviation contains this	abbr:sig

Clips only

Operator	What it does	Example
app:	Copied from this app	app:chrome

In the All tab

The All tab understands every operator, and an operator that belongs to one world narrows the list to that world: app:chrome shows clips only, abbr:sig snippets only, line:todo notes only. The operators shared by all three narrow all three, so is:pinned is your pinned notes and pinned clips together. A negation never narrows to a world: -tag:draft keeps every clip, because a clip without tags has no draft tag to exclude.