# How search and the Notes list work > How a search chooses between exact words and meaning, the search operators, filters, workspaces and the list itself. Page: https://docs.memex.tools/how-search-works **Notes** is the home screen: every note in your knowledge base, newest change first, with a count. **List** and **Map** at the top switch between two views of the same search; see [How the Map works](https://docs.memex.tools/how-the-map-works). **New note** beside them opens the [editor](https://docs.memex.tools/editor). ## Searching Type in the box and press Enter or **Search**. memex first looks for notes that contain all your words literally, in title or body; if any do, those are the results, best keyword match first. Only when no note contains the words literally does memex search by meaning, comparing your query with every note's embedding and returning the closest. So a search for a phrase you remember finds the note that holds it, and a search for a concept finds notes that discuss it in other words. ## Operators The search box and the assistant's `search` tool read the same expression language, for the question a plain search cannot ask: *this but not that*. The **?** beside the search box lists them. | Write | Finds | |---|---| | `memex memory` | Both words, anywhere in the title or body, in any order. This is the plain search. | | `memex OR memory` | Either word. `\|` means the same. | | `NOT ai` or `-ai` | Notes that do not contain the word. `!ai` means the same. | | `(memex OR memory) NOT ai` | Grouping with parentheses. | | `"review gate"` | The words in that order, next to each other. | | `AND` | Accepted, and means what the space already means. | How an expression is read: - Without parentheses, words next to each other bind before `OR`: `memex memory OR ai` reads as `(memex memory) OR ai`. - Operators are uppercase words: `cats or dogs` is a three-word search, and `not` in a sentence is a word. - A hyphen inside a word is part of it: `memex-oss` is a word, `-oss` is an exclusion. - The symbols are operators wherever they stand: `cat|dog` is `cat OR dog`, and `!` always negates what follows. - Words match by stem: `notes` finds *note*, and English stop words such as *the* and *of* are ignored on both sides, so `NOT the` excludes nothing. A query carrying `OR`, `NOT` or a quoted phrase is an exact one. It runs only against the literal text, ranked by keyword relevance, and never falls back to meaning-search: the nearest notes in meaning to *NOT ai* would be the ones about ai. When nothing matches, the page says so under the box, and the `search` tool says so in `exact_match`; the empty result is then the answer, not a search that fell short. Tags and status combine with an expression the way they combine with any search. Malformed input never errors: a trailing `OR`, an unclosed parenthesis or an unmatched quote is read as far as it goes. ## When search by meaning is late or unavailable A note is searchable by meaning only after its embedding exists, which is usually within seconds of saving and always within about fifteen minutes. When meaning-search is unavailable, because the daily allowance is used up or the provider is down, memex says so under the results rather than pretending an empty keyword match means there is nothing on the subject. > **Self-hosted memex** > > Meaning-search is unavailable when the search model is not answering, or when an OpenAI search model has no key. See [Search model](https://docs.memex.tools/self-hosted-search-model). ## Filters **All tags** narrows to notes carrying every tag you pick. **Status** offers **Any status**, **Verified**, **Pending review**, **Flagged for curation** and **Not described yet**. From a note's page you can also open **All notes added by** a particular assistant. Active filters show as chips, with **Save as workspace** and **Clear all** after them. ## Workspaces **Save as workspace** stores the current search terms, tags and status under a name and an icon, in the sidebar under **Workspaces**; with none saved, that section says how to add one. Up to fifty. Removing one leaves your notes untouched. Merging a tag moves a workspace onto the tag it merged into; removing a tag takes it out of the workspace. ## The list One row per note: the title, with a status mark before it (a clock for pending review, a flag for flagged; verified notes show no mark), its description beneath, and beside them when it was last modified, by whom, and its tags. The row opens the note; the checkbox at its left selects it. Twenty-five, fifty or a hundred rows per page. Ticking notes shows a selection bar that downloads them as one Markdown file or a ZIP of several. ## Related - [Find notes](https://docs.memex.tools/find-notes): Search by words or by meaning, narrow by tags and status, and use search operators. - [Workspaces](https://docs.memex.tools/workspaces): Save a search or a set of filters in the sidebar, one click away. - [Search by meaning misses a new note](https://docs.memex.tools/search-misses-new-note): A note you just approved can take a few minutes to show up in search by meaning. - [How the Map works](https://docs.memex.tools/how-the-map-works): What the map's colours, views and box show, and what it is not.