QMD - Local Markdown Search

Search and retrieve documents from locally indexed markdown knowledge bases.

Installation

bun install -g

Setup

# Add a collection
qmd collection add ~/notes --name notes --mask "**/*.md"

# Generate embeddings (required for vsearch/query)
qmd embed

Usage Rules

Always use --json flag for structured output when invoking qmd commands.

Search Commands

search (BM25 keyword search - fast)

qmd search "authentication flow" --json
qmd search "error handling" --json -n 10
qmd search "config" --json -c notes

vsearch (vector semantic search)

qmd vsearch "how does login work" --json
qmd vsearch "authentication best practices" --json -n 20

query (hybrid with LLM re-ranking - best quality)

qmd query "implementing user auth" --json
qmd query "deployment process" --json --min-score 0.5

Search Options

Option

Description

-n NUM	Number of results (default: 5, or 20 with --json)
-c, --collection NAME	Restrict to specific collection
--min-score NUM	Minimum score threshold
--full	Return complete document content in results
--all	Return all matches

Retrieval Commands

get (single document)

qmd get docs/guide.md --json
qmd get "#a1b2c3" --json
qmd get notes/meeting.md:50 -l 100 --json

multi-get (multiple documents)

qmd multi-get "docs/*.md" --json
qmd multi-get "api.md, guide.md, #abc123" --json
qmd multi-get "notes/**/*.md" --json --max-bytes 20480

Maintenance Commands

qmd update              # Re-index changed files
qmd status              # Check index health
qmd collection list     # List all collections

Search Mode Selection

Mode

Speed

Quality

Best For

search	Fast	Good	Exact keywords, known terms
vsearch	Medium	Better	Conceptual queries, synonyms
query	Slow	Best	Complex questions, uncertain terms

Performance note: vsearch and query have ~1 minute cold start latency for vector initialization. Prefer search for interactive use.

MCP Server

qmd can run as an MCP server for direct integration:

qmd mcp

Exposes tools: qmd_search, qmd_vsearch, qmd_query, qmd_get, qmd_multi_get, qmd_status