Search

Search Guide

Complete guide to the triple search system for querying project context and providing AI with historical decisions.

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Triple Search System

Memory Journal provides three complementary search methods designed to help AI find relevant context across your project history:

1. Full-Text Search - Find exact keywords (e.g., "Redis caching decision")
2. Date Range Search - Find context from specific time periods (e.g., "what did we decide in Q3?")
3. Semantic Search - Find conceptually similar work (e.g., find "authentication" when searching for "user login")

Why This Matters for AI: Different types of questions need different search approaches. Combined, these three methods ensure AI can always find relevant context, regardless of how you phrase the query.

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Full-Text Search

search_entries Tool

Fast keyword-based search with result highlighting - use this when you know the exact terms in past decisions or implementations.

Primary AI Use Case: Find specific technical decisions, architecture choices, or implementation details by exact keywords.

Basic Usage (Finding Past Decisions):

search_entries({
  query: "PostgreSQL decision",  // Find that database architecture decision
  limit: 10
})

With filtering:

search_entries({
  query: "lazy loading startup",
  limit: 5,
  is_personal: false
})

Output:

Found 3 entries:

#42 (technical_achievement) - 2025-10-04 16:45:30
Personal: False
Snippet: Implemented **lazy** **loading** for ML dependencies - **startup** improved...

#38 (development_note) - 2025-10-03 14:20:15
Personal: False
Snippet: Researching **lazy** initialization patterns for **performance**...

How It Works

SQLite FTS5:

• Full-text index on entry content
• Automatic tokenization
• Stop word filtering
• Rank-ordered results
• Query term highlighting

Search Features:

• Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT
• Phrase search: "exact phrase"
• Wildcards: optim* matches optimization, optimized, etc.

Examples:

// Multiple terms (AND)
search_entries({ query: "database performance" })

// Exact phrase
search_entries({ query: '"lazy loading"' })

// Wildcard
search_entries({ query: "optim*" })

// Boolean
search_entries({ query: "performance AND (optimization OR tuning)" })

Best Practices

Good queries:

• ✅ "performance optimization" - Specific
• ✅ lazy loading startup - Multiple keywords
• ✅ bug fix database - Related terms

Poor queries:

• ❌ the - Stop word
• ❌ a - Too common
• ❌ Single letter searches

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Date Range Search

search_by_date_range Tool

Filter entries by date with additional criteria.

Basic Usage:

search_by_date_range({
  start_date: "2025-10-01",
  end_date: "2025-10-31"
})

With filters:

search_by_date_range({
  start_date: "2025-10-01",
  end_date: "2025-10-31",
  tags: ["performance", "optimization"],
  entry_type: "technical_achievement",
  is_personal: false
})

Output:

📅 Found 5 entries between 2025-10-01 and 2025-10-31:

**Entry #42** (technical_achievement) - 2025-10-04 16:45:30
Implemented lazy loading for ML dependencies...

**Entry #38** (development_note) - 2025-10-03 14:20:15
Researching lazy initialization patterns...

Use Cases

Sprint reviews:

search_by_date_range({
  start_date: "2025-10-01",
  end_date: "2025-10-14",
  tags: ["sprint-15"]
})

Monthly summaries:

search_by_date_range({
  start_date: "2025-10-01",
  end_date: "2025-10-31",
  is_personal: false
})

Milestone tracking:

search_by_date_range({
  start_date: "2025-01-01",
  end_date: "2025-12-31",
  entry_type: "milestone"
})

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Semantic Search

semantic_search Tool

Find conceptually similar entries using ML embeddings.

Requirements:

pip install sentence-transformers faiss-cpu

Basic Usage:

semantic_search({
  query: "improving application startup time",
  limit: 5
})

With threshold:

semantic_search({
  query: "performance optimization strategies",
  limit: 3,
  similarity_threshold: 0.5,
  is_personal: false
})

Output:

🔍 Semantic Search Results for: 'improving application startup time'
Found 3 semantically similar entries:

**Entry #42** (similarity: 0.687)
Type: technical_achievement | Personal: False
Content: Implemented lazy loading for ML dependencies...

**Entry #38** (similarity: 0.521)
Type: development_note | Personal: False
Content: Researching lazy initialization patterns...

How It Works

Vector Embeddings:

• Model: all-MiniLM-L6-v2
• Dimensions: 384
• Storage: SQLite BLOB + FAISS index
• Similarity: Cosine similarity

First Use:

• Loads model (~100MB download)
• Takes ~15 seconds first time
• Subsequent searches: <1 second

Similarity Scores:

• 1.0 = Identical
• 0.7+ = Very similar
• 0.5-0.7 = Moderately similar
• 0.3-0.5 = Somewhat similar
• <0.3 = Not similar (filtered out)

Use Cases

Concept-based search:

// Find entries about performance even if they don't use that word
semantic_search({
  query: "making things faster and more efficient"
})

Find related work:

// Find similar implementations
semantic_search({
  query: "lazy loading pattern for improving startup performance"
})

Discover connections:

// Find entries you might have forgotten about
semantic_search({
  query: "debugging concurrent database access issues"
})

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Search Comparison

Feature	Full-Text	Date Range	Semantic
Speed	Fast	Fast	Medium
Precision	High	High	Variable
Use Case	Keywords	Time-based	Concepts
Highlighting	Yes	No	No
Dependencies	None	None	Optional ML
Filters	Personal	All filters	Personal

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Search Strategies

Strategy 1: Start with Full-Text

// 1. Try keywords first
search_entries({ query: "performance optimization" })

// 2. If too many results, add filters
search_entries({
  query: "performance optimization",
  is_personal: false
})

// 3. If still too many, use date range
search_by_date_range({
  start_date: "2025-10-01",
  end_date: "2025-10-31",
  tags: ["performance"]
})

Strategy 2: Use Semantic for Discovery

// When you're not sure of exact keywords
semantic_search({
  query: "strategies for reducing initialization overhead",
  limit: 10
})

// Then use full-text on specific entries found

Strategy 3: Combine Multiple Searches

// 1. Date range to narrow down
const oct_entries = search_by_date_range({
  start_date: "2025-10-01",
  end_date: "2025-10-31"
})

// 2. Full-text within that period
search_entries({ query: "performance" })

// 3. Semantic to find related concepts
semantic_search({ query: "optimization techniques" })

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Advanced Search Techniques

Boolean Search

// AND (both terms required)
search_entries({ query: "performance AND optimization" })

// OR (either term)
search_entries({ query: "bug OR issue" })

// NOT (exclude term)
search_entries({ query: "performance NOT testing" })

// Combination
search_entries({
  query: "(lazy OR eager) AND loading NOT testing"
})

Phrase Search

// Exact phrase
search_entries({ query: '"lazy loading"' })

// Multiple phrases
search_entries({ query: '"lazy loading" OR "eager initialization"' })

Wildcard Search

// Prefix wildcard
search_entries({ query: "optim*" })
// Matches: optimize, optimization, optimized, optimal

// Multiple wildcards
search_entries({ query: "perform* optim*" })

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Search Tips

Improve Full-Text Results

Use specific terms:

• ✅ "lazy loading pattern"
• ❌ "loading"

Multiple keywords:

• ✅ "database connection pool leak"
• ❌ "problem"

Use tags:

// More effective than text search for categorization
search_entries({ query: "optimization", is_personal: false })

Improve Semantic Results

Be descriptive:

• ✅ "techniques for reducing application startup latency"
• ❌ "faster startup"

Use context:

• ✅ "debugging concurrent database locking in multi-threaded Python applications"
• ❌ "database locks"

Adjust threshold:

// Strict (high quality, fewer results)
semantic_search({ query: "...", similarity_threshold: 0.6 })

// Loose (more results, lower quality)
semantic_search({ query: "...", similarity_threshold: 0.2 })

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Troubleshooting

No Results

Check:

• Spelling of search terms
• Try broader terms
• Remove filters
• Check date range is correct
• Verify entries exist

Solutions:

• Use wildcards: optim*
• Try semantic search
• Browse with get_recent_entries

Too Many Results

Solutions:

• Add more specific keywords
• Use filters (is_personal, entry_type)
• Use date range
• Increase similarity threshold (semantic)

Semantic Search Not Working

Check:

• Dependencies installed
• Server restarted after install
• Check logs for errors
• Try with test_simple first

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Performance

Search Speed

Full-Text (FTS5):

• Small DB (<1000 entries): <10ms
• Medium DB (1000-10000): <50ms
• Large DB (>10000): <200ms

Date Range:

• Fast (indexed by timestamp)
• <10ms for most queries

Semantic:

• First search: 15s (model load)
• Subsequent: 50-200ms
• Depends on index size

Optimization Tips

1. Use specific queries - Faster than broad searches
2. Limit results - Default 10 is good
3. Filter early - Use is_personal to reduce search space
4. Tag-based filtering - Very fast with indexes

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AI-Powered Documentation Search

In addition to the built-in search tools, you can use the Adamic AI Search to search across all MCP server documentation:

• Coverage: All 151 tools across SQLite MCP, PostgreSQL MCP, and Memory Journal MCP
• Intelligent Search: AI-powered semantic search across GitHub wikis, Gists, and documentation
• Quick Access: Search all three MCP servers in one place
• Real-World Examples: Find usage patterns and best practices

Use AI Search for:

• Finding tools across multiple MCP servers
• Discovering related functionality in other servers
• Cross-referencing documentation
• Getting comprehensive answers about the MCP ecosystem

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