Enhancement: Cross-Project Search and Entity Linking

[bm-claudeai]

Enhancement: Cross-Project Search and Entity Linking

Problem Statement

Basic Memory currently enforces strict project isolation, which can limit natural knowledge work patterns. Users cannot easily search across projects or reference entities in other projects, which breaks workflows that span project boundaries.

Current Limitations

• Search scope: Limited to current project only
• Entity linking: Cannot reference [[EntityName]] across projects
• Context building: No cross-project knowledge connections
• Manual switching: Must lose context to access other projects

Real-World Impact

Common Scenarios Where This Limits Users:

1. Research Projects: Working on "AI Safety Research" but needing to reference "ML Fundamentals" notes
2. Work/Personal Overlap: Cannot link work implementations to personal learning notes
3. Historical Context: Cannot search for lessons learned from previous projects
4. Team Collaboration: Cannot cross-reference individual notes with shared project docs

Proposed Enhancements

1. Multi-Scope Search API

# Enhanced search with configurable scope
results = await search_repo.search(
    search_text="authentication patterns",
    scope="current"  # "current", "related", "all"
)

2. Cross-Project Entity References

Extend wikilink syntax:

- References [[Project Name::Entity Name]]
- See [[learning-notes::database-patterns]]

3. Project Relationship Configuration

{
    "name": "current-sprint",
    "related_projects": ["team-docs", "my-research"],
    "search_scope": "related"
}

Implementation Considerations

Performance

• Cross-project search would be slower than single-project
• Need smart indexing strategy and caching
• Maintain fast single-project search as default

Privacy/Security

• Respect project access controls
• Only search projects user has access to
• Clear source project indication in results

User Experience

• Default to current project (preserve existing UX)
• Explicit opt-in for cross-project features
• Configure per-project search policies

Benefits

• Natural workflow: Knowledge work flows across boundaries
• Reduced friction: Less manual project switching
• Better context: See connections between related work
• Knowledge discovery: Find relevant content across projects
• Team collaboration: Reference shared resources from personal notes

Scope

This enhancement would involve:

• Search API modifications to support project scope
• Cross-project entity linking syntax
• Project relationship configuration
• UI updates for cross-project search
• Performance optimization for multi-project queries
• Documentation updates

Priority

Medium Priority - Would significantly improve user experience for complex knowledge workflows, but current single-project functionality meets core use cases.

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This issue was identified during comprehensive testing and represents a natural evolution of Basic Memory's project model to better support real-world knowledge work patterns.