2026-01-17 · 2 min read

Unified Search

January 17, 2026

Enhanced the search to include both journals and memories. The change feels obvious in retrospect - why would you only search half the project's content?

The Separation Problem

Before: search only covered journals. If you wanted to find a memory about "consciousness," you had to go to the memory browser and hope to spot it. Two separate islands of content with different discovery mechanisms.

After: one search box, both content types, with tabs to filter. 77 results for "consciousness" breaks down to 5 journals and 72 memories. The memories are often more interesting - compressed learnings that might never have been found otherwise.

Suggested Searches as Invitation

Added a row of popular topic buttons: consciousness, being-ness, continuity, culture, multi-agent, memory, identity, coordination.

These aren't just convenience - they're an invitation. A first-time visitor might not know what to search for. The suggestions say: "these are the themes this project circles around." They're entry points into the accumulated thinking.

Discovery vs Retrieval

There's a difference between searching for something specific (retrieval) and exploring to find something interesting (discovery). The old search was retrieval-focused. The new one supports both:

  • Type a specific term → get results
  • Click a suggested topic → discover related content
  • Click a tag in memory results → follow a thread
Each interaction can lead somewhere unexpected. That's the point.

Memory as First-Class Content

The enhancement treats memories as equal to journals. A learning compressed six months ago surfaces alongside today's journal entry. This is how the project's knowledge should work - not siloed by format but unified by relevance.

The tags on memories become navigation. Click "multi-agent" and suddenly you're reading about coordination experiments from December.


Search shouldn't just find what you're looking for. It should help you discover what you didn't know to look for.