Search & Command Bar
Find any thought instantly and run commands without leaving the keyboard.
Command bar
The command bar (also called the Nexus bar) lives at the bottom of the screen. Press Cmd+K (Ctrl+K on Windows) or tap the chat pill to expand it into a full search field with results above. Start typing to search thoughts across all your gardens — matches against titles, content, aliases, and type. Multi-word queries use AND semantics, so 'event birthday' finds a thought tagged Event with 'birthday' in its title or body. Thoughts whose title matches what you typed are listed first (an exact title, then titles starting with or containing your words), followed by alias matches, and only then thoughts that merely mention the words in their content — so searching a node's name puts the node itself above the Day notes that link to it. Within each group, the most recently updated comes first. Results show the garden name and a content preview, with the linked thought's type icon next to each row; if the match was on an alias, that alias is shown instead (e.g. 'alias: luna' under 'Moon'). Each thought appears once, however many places it's been put: a thought with several placements shows its garden and a count like '24 places'. Choosing a result goes to the thought on the canvas when it's on the one you're viewing or only lives in one place; otherwise it opens in the side panel, and the number beside its title there lists every location. The bar doubles as a launcher for commands, AI chat, and navigation. Commands that act on your current selection live here too — select thoughts on the canvas, then type Move Into, Connect To, Duplicate, Delete, Lock, Create Region, Select Children, Collapse Branch, Suggest Ideas, or Edit. Disconnect is there too, for removing a connection — it acts on a single thought, so select just one. Works on both desktop and mobile with larger touch targets on smaller screens.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Cmd/Ctrl + K | Toggle command bar |
| Escape | Collapse command bar |
| Arrow Up/Down | Navigate results |
| Enter | Go to selected result or ask AI |
Ask AI
Ask AI lives in the command bar as a fallback: when nothing else in the list matches what you typed, it shows up at the top so you can press Enter to send the input as an AI prompt. As soon as your query matches a thought or a command, Ask AI hides and the best match takes the top slot — type 'add' and 'Add to today' is selected, type a thought title and that thought is selected. With no input typed, Ask AI is also visible as a quick way to start a conversation. Ask AI handles natural-language requests to create thoughts, edit content, connect nodes, nest them, create types, navigate, or answer questions about your garden. Conversations are stored per garden, and AI is context-aware — it knows your current garden, selected node, and nearby thoughts.
Command mode
Type > (or /) to switch to command mode. This gives you keyboard access to canvas actions (fit view, select all, undo, redo, zoom, collapse/expand all), every layout mode (Manual, Outline, Grid, Force, Tree, Radial, Cluster, Timeline, Gravity, Gravity 2, Town), sort options (title, type, created, updated, connections), grouping (none, type, cluster), AI suggestions, Settings, Help (opens the help center in a new tab, so your garden stays put), and navigation (e.g. 'Go to Home Garden' — also matches typing 'home' or 'gh' in regular search mode; 'Go to Today' jumps to today's Day node in the Daily sub-garden). Layout, sort, and group commands run the exact same actions as the canvas toolbar menus — including saving your manual positions before an automatic layout, so 'Layout: Manual' can always restore them. Commands show their keyboard shortcuts inline. Admins also get an 'Add to Backlog' command that drops a fresh task into the shared Admin: Roadmap backlog and opens it in the editor panel, ready to type — it only appears for admin accounts.
Search panel
Press Cmd+F (Ctrl+F on Windows) to open the search panel in the sidebar. It supports two modes: text search (keyword matching on titles and content) and semantic search (AI-powered similarity matching that finds conceptually related thoughts). Text results list title matches first (an exact title, then titles starting with or containing your words), then thoughts that only mention the words in their body, newest first within each group, up to 50 results — the same order online and offline. Semantic search needs embeddings, so it requires an OpenAI or Ollama provider — turn on Automatic embeddings in Settings (Claude can't produce embeddings). Results show a similarity score and can be placed directly onto the canvas.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Cmd/Ctrl + F | Open search panel |