Search

Search in Brainitive ("Find anything": the search page, ⌘K and the MCP search tool) is built in. It runs on the PostgreSQL database you already have. There is no extra search service to install.

How it works

• PostgreSQL full-text search finds words in issues, comments, pages, tickets, plans, tasks, snippets, bookmarks, quick captures and attachments.
• pg_trgm adds typo tolerance and unaccent ignores accents (so "cafe" finds "café"). Both are PostgreSQL extensions.
• Search only shows what the person searching may see. Drafts are visible only to their author and project admins.
• New and changed content is indexed as it is saved.

Nothing to do after an update

When a version with a new or changed search index starts for the first time, Brainitive notices that the index was never built and queues the build:

• the Docker app container does this on start,
• the scheduler checks every five minutes (search:ensure).

The queue worker then fills the index in the background. Search shows what is already indexed meanwhile. On large installations this takes a few minutes. The queue worker and the scheduler must be running for this. See Queue worker and scheduler.

The PostgreSQL extensions

The search migration creates pg_trgm and unaccent itself, if the database user is allowed to. The bundled Docker database allows it. On your own PostgreSQL, the user needs to own the database (PostgreSQL 13 or newer). On Ubuntu both extensions come with the postgresql-contrib package.

If the user isn't allowed, search still works, just without typo tolerance and accent folding. To add them later, let a superuser create them and refresh the index:

sudo -u postgres psql -d brainitive -c 'CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pg_trgm; CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS unaccent;'
php artisan search:reindex --setup

Rebuild the index by hand

You never have to, but you can, for example after restoring a backup or fixing data directly in the database:

# Docker
docker compose exec app php artisan search:reindex

# Manual install
cd /opt/brainitive && sudo -u www-data php artisan search:reindex

Options:

Option	What it does
--queue	Queue the work for the queue worker instead of running it now
--type=item	Only one kind of content. Repeat for several. Types: item, comment, page, ticket, plan, task, snippet, bookmark, capture, attachment, ticket_attachment
--chunk=500	Records per batch (or per queued job)
--setup	First create the pg_trgm and unaccent extensions (if the user may) and refresh the index functions

php artisan search:ensure queues a full build only when the current index version was never built. It does nothing otherwise.

Search finds nothing?

1. Check that the queue worker runs. The index is built by queued jobs.
2. Check Instance admin → Overview for failed jobs.
3. Run php artisan search:reindex and watch the output.