Search

Search is your fastest way to find anything in Kanman. Instead of clicking through boards and scrolling through projects, press Ctrl+K and start typing—results appear instantly as you type, getting you to what you need in seconds.

The search palette is designed for keyboard-first interaction, inspired by command palettes in tools like VS Code, Slack, and Notion. Once you get comfortable with it, you’ll find it becomes your primary way of navigating the app.

Accessing Search

You can open search from anywhere in the app:

• Keyboard shortcut: Press Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+K (Mac)
• Click: Click the search icon in the header bar
• From any view: Search works the same whether you’re on the homepage, viewing a board, or in settings

What You Can Search

Search finds items across your entire workspace:

• Boards - Find boards by their name
• Projects - Find projects by name, across all your boards
• Tasks - Find tasks by name or description content
• Notes - Find notes by title or content

All searches happen across your entire workspace simultaneously, so you don’t need to know where something is to find it.

Using Search

The search experience is designed to be fast and intuitive:

1. Open search with Ctrl+K (or Cmd+K on Mac)
2. Start typing your search query—no need to press Enter
3. Watch results appear instantly as you type
4. Navigate using arrow keys (↑ / ↓) to highlight results
5. Press Enter to open the selected item

The search palette closes automatically when you select an item or press Escape.

Search Results

Results are organized into categories to help you find what you’re looking for quickly:

Result categories:

• Boards - Matching board names appear first
• Projects - Projects that match your query, showing their parent board
• Tasks - Tasks matching by name or description, with project context
• Notes - Notes matching by title or content

Each result shows contextual information—like which board a project belongs to—so you can identify the right item even when names are similar.

Keyboard Navigation

Search is optimized for keyboard-only use:

Key	Action	Description
↑ / ↓	Navigate results	Move selection up and down through results
Enter	Open selected	Open the highlighted item
Escape	Close search	Dismiss the search palette
Tab	Cycle groups	Jump between result categories

You can open search, find what you need, and navigate there entirely without touching your mouse.

Search Tips

Partial Matching

Search matches partial words, so you don’t need to type complete names:

• Type “mark” to find “Marketing Campaign”
• Type “auth” to find “User Authentication”
• Type “api” to find “API Integration Project”

Case Insensitive

Searches ignore capitalization, so you can type however is natural:

• “MARKETING” = “marketing” = “Marketing”
• “API” = “Api” = “api”

Multiple Words

When you type multiple words separated by spaces, search finds items containing all of those words (AND matching):

• “marketing campaign” finds items containing both “marketing” AND “campaign”
• “user auth” finds items containing both “user” AND “auth”

The words don’t need to be adjacent—they just need to appear somewhere in the item.

Quick Actions

Beyond finding items, search also supports quick actions for creating and navigating:

Prefix	Action	Example
>	Run commands	> new board creates a new board
/	Navigate to sections	/settings opens settings

This command-palette style interaction lets you perform actions quickly without navigating through menus.

Search Scope

Search covers everything in your workspace that you have access to:

• All your boards - Every board in your workspace
• All projects - Projects within those boards
• All tasks - Tasks within those projects
• All notes - Notes attached to those boards

If you have access to it, search can find it.

Performance

Search is optimized for speed and relevance:

• Instant results - Results appear as you type with no delay
• Smart ranking - Recent and frequently accessed items appear higher
• Efficient indexing - Even large workspaces search quickly

You should see results within milliseconds of typing, making search the fastest way to navigate.

Current Limitations

There are a few things search doesn’t currently support:

• Subtasks are not directly searchable (search their parent task instead)
• Deleted items in trash are excluded from search results
• Advanced operators like AND, OR, NOT aren’t available
• Date filtering isn’t supported (e.g., “tasks from last week”)

We’re continually improving search, so these limitations may be addressed in future updates.

Keyboard Shortcut Summary

Shortcut	Platform	Action
Ctrl+K	Windows/Linux	Open search palette
Cmd+K	Mac	Open search palette

This shortcut is consistent with many popular applications, making it easy to remember.

Related Topics

• Keyboard Shortcuts - Complete list of keyboard shortcuts
• Interface - Overview of the Kanman interface