Search

/search — General vault retrieval

Purpose

First-class retrieval skill that answers both what and why questions across all knowledge layers in the OneBrain vault.

Distinct from existing skills:

• /distill synthesizes a topic into a new persisted note (write); /search is read-only
• /recap promotes session insights to memory/ (write); /search is read-only
• Direct qmd query gives content matches; /search ranks by question type and surfaces decision chains

Sources searched (in order of relevance)

1. [agent_folder]/MEMORY.md — always-loaded persona/active-projects
2. [agent_folder]/memory/*.md — match via MEMORY-INDEX topics
3. [logs_folder]/session/**/*-session-*.md — past session logs
4. [projects_folder]/**/*.md — project notes including embedded specs/plans/design docs
5. Project tracker decisions log tables (project MOCs under [projects_folder]/)
6. Vault notes ([knowledge_folder]/, [resources_folder]/, [areas_folder]/)
7. [logs_folder]/checkpoint/*.md — in-session-state recovery (for current-day questions)

Tools used

• qmd lex+vec+hyde if qmd_collection is configured in onebrain.yml (preferred)
• Glob + Grep fallback if qmd unavailable
• Heuristic question-type detection: matches ^why\b (or the agent's bilingual intent inference on non-English equivalents) → "why mode"; else → "what mode"

Output format — what mode

For "what is X" / "what's the current state of X" questions, synthesize a direct answer + cite top 5 sources:

📌 Direct answer (1–3 sentences synthesized from sources)

📚 Sources (top 5 by relevance):
  1. : — 
  2. ...

Output format — why mode

For "why did X" / "why is X" questions, reconstruct chronological decision chain:

🕐 Decision chain (chronological):
  YYYY-MM-DD ·  · ""
  YYYY-MM-DD ·  · ""
  ...

📚 Sources: 

Skill flow

1. Detect question type from input (why keyword or default to what)
2. Run qmd query (lex+vec+hyde) OR grep fallback
3. Score results by question type (why → emphasize sessions + decisions logs; what → emphasize knowledge + project notes)
4. Top-K cap: 5 results by default; --all flag returns full ranked list
5. Format per mode above

Known limitations

• Search quality depends on qmd index freshness — run /qmd embed if recent vault changes not reflected
• Why mode requires chronological events to exist; if no decision history found, falls back to what-mode output with a note

Progress reporting

This skill is long-running for large vaults. Emit:

→ [step 1/4] detecting question type · routing to qmd...
→ [step 2/4] running qmd lex+vec+hyde across all sources...
→ [step 3/4] scoring + ranking results...
→ [step 4/4] formatting answer...

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: onebrain-ai
• Source: onebrain-ai/onebrain
• License: Apache-2.0
• Homepage: https://onebrain.run

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.