Search

KiwiFS provides three tiers of search, from zero-dependency grep to semantic vector similarity. You can start simple and scale up without changing your data or workflow.

Tier 1: grep

Zero dependencies. Exact string matching. Works everywhere.

kiwifs serve --search grep

Best for small knowledge bases or environments where SQLite isn’t available.

Tier 2: SQLite FTS5 (default)

BM25-ranked full-text search powered by SQLite FTS5. Supports boolean operators, phrase matching, and path prefix filtering.

kiwifs serve --search sqlite

This is the default. KiwiFS builds and maintains a FTS5 index automatically. Searches are fast even with thousands of pages.

Query syntax

Syntax	Example	Behavior
Keywords	`payment timeout`	Match pages containing both terms
Boolean AND	`payment AND timeout`	Explicit AND
Boolean OR	`payment OR billing`	Match pages containing either term
Boolean NOT	`payment NOT refund`	Exclude pages containing a term
Phrase	`"payment timeout"`	Match the exact phrase

Trust-ranked search

KiwiFS also offers trust-ranked search at /api/kiwi/search/verified. Pages with status: verified or source-of-truth: true in their frontmatter are boosted in results.

Tier 3: Vector search

Semantic similarity search using pluggable embedder providers and vector stores. Enable it in .kiwi/config.toml:

[search.vector]
enabled = true

[search.vector.embedder]
provider = "openai"
model = "text-embedding-3-small"
api_key = "${OPENAI_API_KEY}"

[search.vector.store]
provider = "sqlite-vec"

Supported embedders

Provider	Notes
OpenAI	`text-embedding-3-small`, `text-embedding-3-large`
Ollama	Local models, no API key needed
Cohere	`embed-english-v3.0`, multilingual variants
Vertex AI	Google Cloud embeddings
Bedrock	AWS embeddings
Custom HTTP	Any endpoint returning a vector array

Supported vector stores

Store	Notes
sqlite-vec	Embedded, zero config (default)
Qdrant	Self-hosted or cloud
pgvector	PostgreSQL extension
Pinecone	Cloud-hosted
Weaviate	Self-hosted or cloud
Milvus	Self-hosted or cloud

API endpoints

Endpoint	Method	Description
`/api/kiwi/search`	GET	Full-text search
`/api/kiwi/search/verified`	GET	Trust-ranked search
`/api/kiwi/search/semantic`	GET, POST	Vector similarity search
`/api/kiwi/meta`	GET	Frontmatter metadata query

MCP tools

Tool	Description
`kiwi_search`	Full-text search with pagination
`kiwi_search_semantic`	Vector similarity search
`kiwi_query_meta`	Frontmatter metadata query
`kiwi_query`	DQL queries over metadata

See the Search API reference for detailed endpoint documentation.

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Data Import

Data Export

Deployment

Tier 1: grep

Tier 2: SQLite FTS5 (default)

Query syntax

Trust-ranked search

Tier 3: Vector search

Supported embedders

Supported vector stores

API endpoints

MCP tools

​Tier 1: grep

​Tier 2: SQLite FTS5 (default)

​Query syntax

​Trust-ranked search

​Tier 3: Vector search

​Supported embedders

​Supported vector stores

​API endpoints

​MCP tools

Tier 1: grep

Tier 2: SQLite FTS5 (default)

Query syntax

Trust-ranked search

Tier 3: Vector search

Supported embedders

Supported vector stores

API endpoints

MCP tools