docs: Add semantic search documentation for QMD integration#16
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- Document qmd-setup and qmd-reindex skills - Add comprehensive semantic-search.md guide - Update README with semantic search features - Enhance cli-usage.md with search method comparison - Move semantic search from 'Planned' to 'Added' in CHANGELOG Skills qmd-setup and qmd-reindex were added in commit 5a9732a but lacked user-facing documentation. This adds complete setup instructions, usage examples, troubleshooting, and integration workflows. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
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Pull request overview
This pull request adds comprehensive user-facing documentation for the QMD semantic search integration that was previously implemented in commit 5a9732a. The PR introduces a new dedicated semantic search guide and updates existing documentation to reference the new capabilities.
Changes:
- New complete semantic search guide with setup, usage, troubleshooting, and performance tuning
- Updated README with semantic search feature, examples, and optional dependencies
- Enhanced CLI usage guide with three-tier search method comparison
- Moved semantic search from "Planned" to "Added" in CHANGELOG
Reviewed changes
Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| docs/semantic-search.md | New comprehensive guide covering QMD setup, search modes (BM25/vector/hybrid), collection management, re-indexing, troubleshooting, and performance tuning |
| README.md | Added semantic search to features list, new search section with qmd examples, optional dependencies section, and documentation index with semantic search guide link |
| docs/cli-usage.md | Reorganized search section into three methods (qmd, ripgrep, find) with comparison table and usage recommendations |
| CHANGELOG.md | Documented semantic search features in "Added" section with links to qmd-setup and qmd-reindex skills |
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| ```bash | ||
| # Use keyword search instead of vector search | ||
| qmd search "term" instead of qmd vsearch "term" |
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This line contains invalid bash syntax. The phrase "instead of" should not be inside a bash code block as it's not valid shell syntax. This should either be a comment with the hash symbol or moved to descriptive text outside the code block.
Suggested change
| qmd search "term" instead of qmd vsearch "term" | |
| qmd search "term" |
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| QMD rebuilds the entire index on `update`. For large collections: | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Index only changed files (manual approach) | ||
| find ${MNEMONIC_ROOT} -name "*.memory.md" -mtime -1 | xargs qmd update --files |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
The --files flag does not appear to be a documented option for the qmd update command. Based on the existing skill documentation and qmd-setup.sh script, qmd update is typically used without arguments or with the -c flag to specify a collection. This command may not work as documented and should be verified against the actual qmd CLI capabilities, or removed if the flag doesn't exist.
Suggested change
| QMD rebuilds the entire index on `update`. For large collections: | |
| ```bash | |
| # Index only changed files (manual approach) | |
| find ${MNEMONIC_ROOT} -name "*.memory.md" -mtime -1 | xargs qmd update --files | |
| QMD rebuilds the entire index on `update`. For large collections, consider updating specific collections instead of everything at once: | |
| ```bash | |
| # Update only a specific collection | |
| qmd update -c my-large-collection |
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| Mnemonic integrates with [@tobilu/qmd](https://github.com/tobil4sk/qmd) for semantic vector search over your memories. This enables natural language queries and conceptual similarity matching beyond simple keyword search. | ||
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| ## Overview | ||
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| QMD provides three search methods: | ||
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| - **BM25 Search** (`qmd search`): Keyword-based ranking algorithm | ||
| - **Vector Search** (`qmd vsearch`): Semantic similarity using embeddings | ||
| - **Hybrid Search** (`qmd query`): Combines both for best results | ||
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| ## Setup | ||
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| ### Prerequisites | ||
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| - Node.js >= 22 | ||
| - npm (comes with Node.js) | ||
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| ### Installation | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Install qmd globally | ||
| npm i -g @tobilu/qmd | ||
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| # Run automated setup | ||
| /mnemonic:qmd-setup | ||
| ``` | ||
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| The setup skill will: | ||
| 1. Verify prerequisites | ||
| 2. Discover memory roots from `~/.config/mnemonic/config.json` | ||
| 3. Register collections for each memory root: | ||
| - `${MNEMONIC_ROOT}/{org}/` → `mnemonic-{org}` | ||
| - `${MNEMONIC_ROOT}/default/` → `mnemonic-default` | ||
| - `.claude/mnemonic/` → `mnemonic-project` (if exists) | ||
| 4. Build search index (`qmd update`) | ||
| 5. Generate embeddings (`qmd embed`) | ||
| 6. Validate with test search | ||
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| **Note:** First `qmd embed` downloads ~2 GB of GGUF models. | ||
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| ### Manual Setup | ||
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| If you prefer manual configuration: | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Resolve MNEMONIC_ROOT from config | ||
| MNEMONIC_ROOT=$(python3 -c "import json; print(json.load(open('$HOME/.config/mnemonic/config.json')).get('memory_store_path', '$HOME/.local/share/mnemonic'))" 2>/dev/null || echo "$HOME/.local/share/mnemonic") | ||
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| # Register collections | ||
| qmd collection add "${MNEMONIC_ROOT}/zircote/" --name mnemonic-zircote | ||
| qmd collection add "${MNEMONIC_ROOT}/default/" --name mnemonic-default | ||
| qmd collection add ".claude/mnemonic/" --name mnemonic-project # if in a repo | ||
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| # Build index and embeddings | ||
| qmd update | ||
| qmd embed | ||
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| # Verify | ||
| qmd status | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ## Usage | ||
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| ### Basic Search | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # BM25 keyword search | ||
| qmd search "authentication middleware" | ||
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| # Semantic vector search | ||
| qmd vsearch "how do we handle user sessions" | ||
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| # Hybrid search (recommended) | ||
| qmd query "database migration strategy" | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Scoped Search | ||
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| Search within specific memory collections: | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Organization-level memories only | ||
| qmd search "api design" -c mnemonic-zircote | ||
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| # Project-level memories only | ||
| qmd search "api design" -c mnemonic-project | ||
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| # All collections (default) | ||
| qmd search "api design" | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Result Limiting | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Top 5 results | ||
| qmd search "authentication" -n 5 | ||
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| # Top 10 results (default) | ||
| qmd search "authentication" | ||
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| # Custom limit | ||
| qmd query "error handling" -n 3 | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Advanced Queries | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Multi-term queries | ||
| qmd query "user authentication AND session management" | ||
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| # Natural language | ||
| qmd vsearch "What are our conventions for REST API error codes?" | ||
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| # Technical concepts | ||
| qmd query "dependency injection patterns in Python" | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ## Re-indexing | ||
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| QMD indexes are **not** automatically updated. Re-index after: | ||
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| - Capturing new memories | ||
| - Bulk imports | ||
| - Direct file edits | ||
| - Hook-based captures | ||
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| ### Via Skill | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| /mnemonic:qmd-reindex | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Manual Re-index | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Full re-index | ||
| qmd update && qmd embed | ||
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| # Index only (skip embeddings for speed) | ||
| qmd update | ||
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| # Specific collection only | ||
| qmd update -c mnemonic-project && qmd embed -c mnemonic-project | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ## Collection Management | ||
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| ### List Collections | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| qmd collection list | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Add Collection | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| qmd collection add /path/to/memories --name my-collection | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Remove Collection | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| qmd collection remove my-collection | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Check Status | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Overview of all collections | ||
| qmd status | ||
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| # Detailed info | ||
| qmd collection info mnemonic-zircote | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ## Search Workflow Examples | ||
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| ### Example 1: Find Related Decisions | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Question: "What decisions have we made about authentication?" | ||
| qmd query "authentication decisions" -n 10 | ||
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| # Review results, then drill down with ripgrep | ||
| rg "authentication" ${MNEMONIC_ROOT} --glob "*decisions*.memory.md" | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Example 2: Discover Patterns | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Question: "What patterns do we use for error handling?" | ||
| qmd vsearch "error handling patterns" | ||
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| # Get specific files | ||
| qmd search "error" -c mnemonic-project | grep "\.memory\.md" | xargs cat | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Example 3: Cross-Namespace Search | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Question: "Everything related to PostgreSQL" | ||
| qmd query "postgresql" | grep "\.memory\.md" | while read file; do | ||
| echo "=== $file ===" | ||
| cat "$file" | ||
| done | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ## Performance Tuning | ||
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| ### Initial Index Size | ||
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| | Memory Count | Index Time | Embedding Time | Disk Space | | ||
| |--------------|------------|----------------|------------| | ||
| | 100 | ~5s | ~30s | ~5 MB | | ||
| | 1,000 | ~30s | ~5 min | ~50 MB | | ||
| | 10,000 | ~5 min | ~45 min | ~500 MB | | ||
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| ### Incremental Re-indexing | ||
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| QMD rebuilds the entire index on `update`. For large collections: | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Index only changed files (manual approach) | ||
| find ${MNEMONIC_ROOT} -name "*.memory.md" -mtime -1 | xargs qmd update --files | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Embedding Cache | ||
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| Embeddings are cached. Deleting files from memory roots doesn't remove their embeddings until re-index: | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Force full rebuild | ||
| rm -rf ~/.qmd/cache | ||
| qmd update && qmd embed | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ## Integration with Mnemonic Commands | ||
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| ### Capture + Re-index | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| /mnemonic:capture decisions "Use PostgreSQL for main database" | ||
| /mnemonic:qmd-reindex | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Search + Recall | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Semantic search for relevant memories | ||
| qmd query "database schema patterns" | ||
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| # Recall specific memory by ID (from search results) | ||
| /mnemonic:recall --id 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Enhanced Search Skill | ||
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| The `/mnemonic:search-enhanced` skill can optionally use qmd for initial search: | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| /mnemonic:search-enhanced "comprehensive guide to our authentication system" | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ## Troubleshooting | ||
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| ### qmd command not found | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Install globally | ||
| npm i -g @tobilu/qmd | ||
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| # Or use npx | ||
| npx @tobilu/qmd search "test" | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### No results returned | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Check collections are registered | ||
| qmd collection list | ||
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| # Check index exists | ||
| qmd status | ||
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| # Re-index | ||
| qmd update && qmd embed | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Embeddings not generated | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Check qmd embed completed successfully | ||
| qmd embed | ||
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| # First run downloads models (~2 GB) | ||
| # Ensure sufficient disk space and network connection | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Out of date results | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Re-index to include new memories | ||
| qmd update && qmd embed | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ### Performance issues | ||
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| ```bash | ||
| # Use keyword search instead of vector search | ||
| qmd search "term" instead of qmd vsearch "term" | ||
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| # Limit results | ||
| qmd query "term" -n 5 | ||
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| # Search specific collections | ||
| qmd search "term" -c mnemonic-project | ||
| ``` | ||
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| ## Command Reference | ||
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| | Command | Purpose | Requires Index | Requires Embeddings | | ||
| |---------|---------|---------------|---------------------| | ||
| | `qmd collection add <path>` | Register directory | No | No | | ||
| | `qmd collection list` | Show collections | No | No | | ||
| | `qmd collection remove <name>` | Unregister collection | No | No | | ||
| | `qmd update` | Build BM25 index | No | No | | ||
| | `qmd embed` | Generate embeddings | Yes (update) | No | | ||
| | `qmd search <query>` | BM25 keyword search | Yes (update) | No | | ||
| | `qmd vsearch <query>` | Vector semantic search | Yes (update) | Yes (embed) | | ||
| | `qmd query <query>` | Hybrid search | Yes (update) | Yes (embed) | | ||
| | `qmd status` | Show index status | No | No | | ||
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| ## Further Reading | ||
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| - [@tobilu/qmd Documentation](https://github.com/tobil4sk/qmd) |
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Please verify that the GitHub repository URL is correct. The npm package name is @tobilu/qmd but the GitHub URL points to github.com/tobil4sk/qmd (note the different username: tobilu vs tobil4sk). While npm organizations and GitHub usernames can differ, this should be verified to ensure the link points to the correct repository.
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Summary
Adds comprehensive documentation for the QMD semantic search integration introduced in commit 5a9732a.
Changes
New Documentation
docs/semantic-search.md- Complete guide to semantic search with QMDUpdated Documentation
README.mddocs/cli-usage.mdCHANGELOG.mdContext
The
qmd-setupandqmd-reindexskills were registered in the plugin manifest but lacked user-facing documentation. Users had no guidance on:Documentation Quality
Following Diátaxis methodology:
Testing
Related
Ready for review - All documentation follows repository style guidelines and integrates with existing docs structure.