# Search

Search runs across post titles, body text and podcast transcripts. You can search from the web app, from Claude over MCP, or from the API.

## Quote your phrases

Separate words are combined with AND, and each word can match anywhere in the document. On a two-hour transcript, `comfort food` will match an episode that says "comfort" in the intro and "food" an hour later.

```
comfort food        # both words, anywhere in the document
"comfort food"      # the exact phrase
```

Quote brand names, product names and anything that is really one idea. On long content this usually makes the difference between clean results and noise.

## Operators

| Syntax | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| `"exact phrase"` | Matches that sequence of words. |
| `AND` `OR` `NOT` | Combines terms. These must be uppercase. Lowercase `and` is treated as an ordinary word. |
| `( )` | Groups terms. |
| `field:value` | Searches one field: `title`, `body`, `transcript` or `author`. |

```
"Acme Corp" OR "acme.com"
"Acme" AND (pricing OR funding OR "series b")
"Acme" NOT "acme paints"
author:altman
```

If your syntax is malformed, for example an unbalanced quote, we repair it and run the search anyway.

## Filters

These narrow a search. Each one is a separate parameter.

| Filter | Values |
| --- | --- |
| `window` | `24h`, `48h`, `week`, `month`, `3months`, `year`, `all` |
| `source_type` | `podcast`, `newsletter`, `blog`. Comma-separated for more than one. |
| `publishing_platform` | `rss`, `substack`, `beehiiv`, `bluesky`, `email` |
| `collection` | A collection slug. Restricts the search to that collection's publications. |
| `source` | A publication slug. |
| `language` | A two-letter code, for example `en`. |
| `has_transcript` | `true` or `false` |
| `has_audio` | `true` or `false` |
| `min_word_count` | A number. Inclusive. |
| `min_duration_seconds` | A number of seconds. 1200 is twenty minutes. |

```
/api/v1/posts/search?q=%22Acme%22&source_type=podcast&has_transcript=true&window=month
```

Time windows roll back from the current moment. `month` means the last thirty-odd days. It does not mean the current calendar month.

You can also write filters into the query itself, for example `source_type:podcast`. The parameters are validated, so a typo gives you an error instead of an empty result. Use the parameters where you can.

## Sorting

`sort=relevance` is the default and puts the most on-topic results first. `sort=recency` gives you newest first, which suits a chronological read of what has been said this week.

## There is no person filter on search

We credit a person on a post only when we are confident about it, which covers a minority of posts. A person filter on search would hide most of the answer. A keyword search for the name finds more.

Browsing by person does work, because it reads the credits directly: `/api/v1/posts?person=<slug>`. See [People](/docs/people).

## Writing a query for an alert

Run it as a search first and look at the results. An alert query that is too broad produces a stream of irrelevant hits, and those get muted. See [Alerts](/docs/alerts).