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Qualia provides two search experiences: finding text within the current tab, and searching across all files in your workspace.

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Find in current tab

Press Cmd+F (Mac) or Ctrl+F (Windows/Linux) to open the find bar in your current tab. Type your search term and press Enter or click the arrows to navigate between matches:
  • Up arrow / Shift+Enter: Previous match
  • Down arrow / Enter: Next match
  • Esc: Close find bar
Matches are highlighted in the document as you type.

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Search options

Toggle these options for more control:

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Find and replace

Click the expand arrow to show the replace field:
  1. Enter search term in the first field
  2. Enter replacement text in the second field
  3. Click Replace to replace current match
  4. Click Replace All to replace all matches

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Find in chat

When the chat panel is focused, Cmd/Ctrl+F searches chat history instead of the document. The same options (case, word, regex) apply. Chat search also offers a collapsed content toggle to include text that’s normally hidden behind collapsed sections — the agent’s chain-of-thought (reasoning), command output, and web-search results. It’s off by default; enabling it expands that content while find is open so it’s matched alongside the rest of the conversation.

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Search across files

Open workspace search from the Search button in the Files header, or press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+F.
  1. Enter your search term
  2. Results appear as you type
  3. Click a result to open the file at that location
Results show:
  • Content matches: Lines containing your search term
  • File matches: Files whose names match
  • Folder matches: Directories whose names match
  • Chat matches: Previous chats whose title or messages contain your search term
Content matches appear first, then files and folders, then chats.

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Searching previous chats

The Search sidebar also searches across your previous chats. A chat appears in the Chats section when your search term matches its title or any of its messages. Each result shows the matching message snippets (labeled You or Agent). Click the chat title to open the conversation, or click a snippet to open it and jump straight to that message, which is briefly highlighted. Only the messages you actually see — your own messages and the agent’s replies — are searched, never the agent’s internal/model-only history. The search options below (case, whole word, regex) apply to chat search too.
Searching previous chats is available when working locally. When connected to a remote workspace, the Chats section stays empty.
Notebook search includes cell source and visible text outputs. Click a result to jump to the matching cell.

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Search options

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Replace across files

  1. Toggle the replace field
  2. Enter replacement text
  3. Click Replace All
A confirmation dialog shows:
  • Number of matches
  • Number of files affected
After confirming:
  • Files on disk are updated
  • Open editors are updated in memory
  • Files currently being edited by AI are excluded
Replace across files cannot be undone in a single action. Review the match count before confirming.

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Performance

If a search returns too many results, Qualia shows a truncation notice. Narrow the search to find what you need.

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Search in context

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Notebooks

Find searches across all cells in the notebook — code cells, markdown cells, and outputs.

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Markdown and writeups

Find searches the rendered text when a Markdown file is in Preview or a writeup is in Visual mode. Switch to Source mode to search Markdown syntax and other source-only text. Replace isn’t available while you search rendered text.

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Chat

Find searches the visible chat history including your messages and AI responses.

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Keyboard shortcuts

Use Cmd/Ctrl+F within a tab and Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+F across workspace files.