Search and Spotlight

Spotlight

⌘K anywhere.

One box for both finding and doing. Type part of an issue title or reference to jump to it; type the name of a place or an action to run it. It is the fastest way to get anywhere in the app and worth learning before the navigation shortcuts.

Spotlight covers:

• Issues, by title, summary and reference like ENG-42, and in Team also by the text of their description
• Projects, by name
• Vault spaces and locally available page titles
• Vault page titles and body text through server full-text search, with matching snippets
• Navigation — the pages in your sidebar, including Home, Insights and Agent work when they are available to you, and each Settings tab
• Actions — create an issue or project, undo and redo, copy the current URL, switch theme, and actions for the page you are on, such as copying an issue’s link or creating an issue in the current project
• Your other teams — type a team’s name and choose Switch to that team
• For company admins, also creating a label, changing the team key and inviting people to the company (this opens Settings → Members)

Spotlight only offers places and actions you can already reach in the app: a page that is turned off for your workspace, or an action reserved for admins, does not appear. Switching organization and signing out stay in their own menus.

Team or Organization scope

Spotlight and the Search page share one scope control with two options:

• Team searches the active team’s issues on your device. It works offline. Results depend on what is available in your local data, and it never shows another team’s issues.
• Organization sends the query (and, on the Search page, the filters) to Orneos and returns issues from every team you currently belong to in the organization. Your membership is checked on every request, so a team you have left stops appearing. It needs a connection.

Every issue is shown with its own team’s prefix. Two teams can both have an issue numbered 12, so results read ENG-12 and OPS-12, never two copies of the same prefix. Opening a result from another team takes you to that team’s page for the issue; Back returns to where you were.

Text matches the issue title and summary, ignoring case. Characters such as %, _ and \ match literally, never as wildcards. In Team, Spotlight also suggests titles spelled similarly to what you typed.

What happens with the issue description depends on where you search:

• Spotlight in Team also matches the description’s text — the words you see in the issue, including text inside links, lists, tables and code blocks. Formatting is ignored, so a phrase still matches when part of it is bold. It never matches link addresses or other hidden formatting details. Issues that match only in their description come after title and summary matches.
• Spotlight in Organization and the Search page in either scope do not search descriptions. A word that appears only in an issue’s description finds it in Spotlight’s Team scope, not there.

Typing a whole reference such as ENG-42 finds that issue, using its own team’s prefix. In Team, that works for the active team’s prefix only; another team’s reference finds nothing there, rather than the active team’s issue with the same number. In Organization, it finds the issue in whichever of your teams uses that prefix.

In Spotlight

The scope control sits under the search box as two options, Team and Organization, and the search box names the current scope: “Search” followed by the active team’s name, or “Search all your teams…”. Spotlight starts in Team, and remembers your choice in this browser.

• ⌘/ (Ctrl/ on Windows and Linux) switches scope without leaving the search box. With the control focused, the arrow keys switch it too.
• In Organization, the issue results come from Orneos and each row names its team. Projects, comments and Vault results still come from the active team.
• The i button (Search help) beside the search box explains what the current scope searches and lists Spotlight’s keys. Open it with a click or Tab then ↵; Esc closes only the help and returns you to the search box.
• Results are grouped (Recent, Issues, Projects, Comments, Vault, then actions), and Spotlight learns the order you use — see Result order. The top result is selected as soon as results appear; ↑ ↓ move the selection.
• ↵ or a click opens the selected issue in its own team; ⌘↵ opens it in a new tab. Clear empties the search box; Esc closes Spotlight.
• ⇧↵ opens the full Search page with what you typed and the current scope, in your current team, instead of opening the selected result. With an empty search box it opens the Search page without a query. While a typing method such as a Japanese or Chinese input method is composing, ↵ and ⇧↵ belong to the input method and Spotlight does nothing.
• Below the issue results, See all opens the Search page with the same text and scope. In Organization it shows how many issues match; in Team it does not, because Spotlight’s quick match is broader than the Search page’s text filter.
• When nothing matches in Team, Spotlight offers Search all your teams (online only) and Open advanced search.
• Offline, Organization is unavailable and shows “Organization search needs a connection”. Spotlight searches the active team instead, and your Organization choice returns when you are back online.

Commands only

Start the search box with > to see only actions and places, without issue or other results. Spotlight matches what you type after the >, so >new lists Create new issue and Create new project.

• It lists the same actions Spotlight always offers you, in the order you use them, and nothing else: actions that are turned off, reserved for admins or not available on this page do not appear. Your other teams still appear only once you type part of a name, such as >switch.
• Commands only replaces the Team and Organization options while it is on, because actions are not scoped; your scope choice is kept for when you leave. ⌘/ and ⇧↵ do nothing in this mode.
• An action runs only when you choose it with ↵ or a click. When nothing matches, Spotlight says “No matching commands”.
• To leave, delete the >, use Clear, or press Esc. In this mode the first Esc leaves the mode and keeps Spotlight open; the next one closes it.

Result order

Spotlight puts the best match first, then what you open most often.

• Relevance comes first. An exact reference such as ENG-42 or an exact title is always at the top, followed by titles that start with what you typed, then titles with a word that starts with it, then other matches, and last, issues that match only in their description. How often you open something never moves it above a better match.
• Then your own use. Among equally good matches, the issues, projects, comments, Vault pages and actions you open most often — and most recently — come first. Groups you use more move up too, after any group holding an exact match. With an empty search box, Recent stays first (in the order you visited) and the action groups follow the order you use them. An action for the page you are on, such as Copy link to issue, counts as one action whichever issue you used it on.
• Only what you choose counts. Opening a result with ↵, a click or ⌘↵ counts; moving the selection or hovering does not. Use older than a few weeks gradually counts for less.
• It only reorders results you can already see. It never adds a result, and another team’s issues still never appear in Team scope.
• Local to this browser. Spotlight keeps only item references and counts, never titles or what you typed, in this browser for your account in this organization. It is not shared with your team or other devices, and it is cleared when you sign out or switch organization. Without it, Spotlight uses its standard order.

The order is fixed while Spotlight is open, so results do not move under the selection.

The search page

g then f opens the issue Search page. It keeps filters alongside the query, and uses the same scope control:

• Organization is selected by default. Rows show their own team’s prefix in the ID column and open in that team. Offline, the page says that Organization search needs a connection and suggests switching to Team; it does not present a cached result as a current search.
• Editing in the results. Status, type, assignee, priority, project and due date can be changed inline only on the rows of the team you are working in. Rows from your other teams are read-only here: they show the status as that team names it, and an Open in button, named after the team, that takes you to the issue in its own team, where you can edit it. A project that belongs to another team is shown as “Project in” followed by that team’s name. If you switch team while a menu is open, the choice is refused rather than applied to the wrong team.
• Team searches the active team’s local issue data and works offline.

Switching scope keeps your query and filters. Changing the query, scope or any filter returns to the first page of results.

Choose filters and sorting, then Save view to name a Search view. Reopening it restores the query, scope, sort and filters. These views belong to you within the team, just like other saved views.

Within a list, s focuses that list’s own search box, which narrows what is on screen rather than searching everything.

Local results and online Vault search

Spotlight combines local lookups with a debounced request to Orneos for Vault full-text search. Issues, projects, available Vault titles and navigation can be found from local material. Online results add matches from Vault page bodies and snippets; server results are filtered by the active team and your space access.

Your Spotlight query is sent to the Orneos server for Vault search, and for issue search when Organization scope is selected. These lookups do not use a model provider, and no local data is sent with them — only the query you typed. If the server cannot be reached, local matches remain useful, but body matches and snippets are unavailable. Opening a Vault page still needs a connection.

Spotlight highlights matching title text, and server Vault snippets mark matching terms. These are search matches, not proof that a document answers your question.

Search boundaries

• Team scope uses the active team; Organization covers issues only. Organization scope returns issues from your current teams. Projects, comments and Vault in Spotlight stay scoped to the active team. See Companies and teams.
• Home Ask stays with its selected team. Asking on Home searches the team you select there and has no Organization option.
• Local completeness depends on your replica. An unloaded record cannot appear in a local lookup.
• Comments are not a complete searchable archive. They load on demand; do not rely on finding an unopened issue through its discussion.
• No text query operators such as assignee:me or label:bug. Use the filter controls for structured narrowing, and save the Search view to reuse it.

For questions rather than lookups — “which issues slipped last month?” — see Insights.