QMD - Local Markdown Search

Search and retrieve documents from locally indexed markdown knowledge bases.

Installation

bun install -g https://github.com/tobi/qmd

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