Search & Quick Switcher

Find anything in seconds with global search and instant navigation

Overview

Cine Power Planner provides two search mechanisms: the Quick Switcher for instant navigation and the Global Search for deep content search across all data types.

Requirements

Functional Requirements

ID	Requirement	Acceptance Criteria	Priority	Source
REQ-SRH-001	The system shall open a Quick Switcher command palette via Cmd/Ctrl + K	Press Cmd/Ctrl+K → palette opens; type query → results filter in real-time; arrow keys navigate; Enter opens; Esc closes	Must	`useSearch`
REQ-SRH-002	The system shall perform fuzzy matching and highlight matching characters in results	Type "prj" → matches "Project"; matching chars highlighted in bold; ranked by relevance; no matches → empty state	Must	`useSearch`
REQ-SRH-003	The system shall support full keyboard navigation (arrows, Enter, Escape) in the Quick Switcher	Arrow down → next result selected; arrow up → previous; Enter → opens item; Escape → closes palette; Home/End supported	Must	`useSearch`
REQ-SRH-004	The system shall support command mode (prefix `>` ) for quick actions, assembled from the registered command sources	Type `>` → command list shown; commands come from the search-bus sources, not a fixed list; Esc clears the prefix	Must	`useQuickSwitcher`
REQ-SRH-005	The system shall provide global search across projects, items, contacts, templates, and devices	Type query → results from all entity types; grouped by type; click result → navigates to item; empty query → recent	Must	`useSearch`
REQ-SRH-006	The system shall allow filtering global search results by content type, date range, and category	Select filter → results narrow; combine filters → intersection shown; clear → all results	Should	`useSearch`
REQ-SRH-007	The system shall persist recent search history locally for quick re-use	Search → query saved; re-open search → recent queries listed; click recent → re-executes; max 10 entries	Should	`useSearch`
REQ-SRH-008	The system shall show result count and display recently visited items first	Results show count label; recently visited items sorted first; no results → helpful empty state message	Should	`useSearch`
REQ-SRH-009	The system shall search across all entity types: projects, contacts, devices, owned gear, templates	Type query → results grouped by type with section headers; click result → navigates to item; empty query → recent items	Must	`useSearch`

Non-Functional Requirements

ID	Requirement	Metric	Priority
NFR-SRC-002	Search shall support fuzzy matching with typo tolerance	Match quality	Should

A search-latency budget ("results within 150 ms of keystroke") was removed in v0.778.8: nothing measured it, and an unmeasured number in a requirements table reads to the user as a guarantee.

Data Requirements

Search index: Built at runtime from IndexedDB stores (projects, contacts, templates, device catalog)
History: Stored in localStorage (obfuscated)
No server-side search: All search operations are client-side

Constraints & Limits

Available to all tiers (Free and Pro)
Fuzzy matching tolerance: up to 2 character distance
Search history capped at 10 recent entries. (The 20 this line used to quote is a real number, but it caps saved searches — a separate store, saved_searches_v1, from the search history in search_history_v2.)

Offline Behavior

Fully available offline — all search runs against local data
No network dependency for any search operation

Dependencies

Requires: Projects — searches project data
Requires: Device Library — searches device catalog
Requires: Contacts — searches contact records

Quick Switcher (Cmd/Ctrl + K)

The Quick Switcher is a command palette for instant navigation anywhere in the app.

Opening the Quick Switcher

Press Cmd + K (macOS) or Ctrl + K (Windows/Linux)
Or click the search icon in the sidebar

How It Works

Start typing to search across projects, features, settings, and tools
Use ↑↓ arrow keys to navigate results
Press Enter to jump to the selected result
Press Escape to close

Features

Feature	Description
Fuzzy matching	Finds results even with typos or partial input
Ghost completion	Inline suggestion completes to the most frequent matching word in your data
"Did you mean"	Spelling correction banner from 3 typed characters
Match highlighting	Matching characters are visually highlighted
Result count	Shows total matches for your query
Recent items	Previously visited items appear first
Keyboard navigation	Full keyboard control without touching the mouse

Type > followed by a space as the first characters to enter Command Mode. The palette's own hint line says so — Type > for commands — and this guide said / until v0.778.8, which does nothing of the sort.

Commands are not a fixed list of four. They are assembled at runtime from ten command sources, so what you can reach grows with the app:

Source	What it offers
Core actions	New project, open help, and the other app-level actions
Theme commands	Light / dark / pink
Exports	The project-scoped export commands, when a project is open
Settings tabs	Every settings tab and section, by name
Tools	The non-PDF tools
PDF Tools	The PDF tool registry
AI prompts	The AI prompt entries
Accounting pages	The accounting pages, when accounting is enabled for your account
Bank transactions	Bank transaction lookups
Recent commands	The commands you ran most recently, first

The Quick Switcher can jump to:

Projects — by name or description
Features — Dashboard, Contacts, Device Library, Templates, Calendar, etc.
Settings — General, Appearance, Backup, Cloud, Auto Gear
Tools — PDF Tools, Frame Line Composer, DoF Simulator, Lens Coverage
Help — Directly to help topics

Gear List Search

The Gear List tab features a specialized contextual search to quickly find and filter equipment within your current project.

Features

Feature	Description
Fuzzy Matching	Typo-tolerant matching that finds equipment even with spelling mistakes.
Search Syntax	Prefix queries with `brand:`, `category:`, or `id:` to narrow results.
History & Pinned	Saves recent searches locally. Pin frequent searches (e.g. `brand:arri`) to the top.
Advanced Filters	Filter by minimum item count, toggle empty categories, and sort by relevance.
Smart Suggestions	The add-item field suggests devices by nickname/alias ("Gummihuhn" → Ronin 4D) and German synonyms.
Favorites Boost	Devices you starred in the Device Library rank higher in add-item suggestions.

Accessing Gear List Search

Navigate to a Project > Gear List tab.
Click the search bar at the top, or press ⌘ + F (Mac) / Ctrl + F (Windows) while the project workspace is open — that puts the caret straight in the category-search box.

Not ⌘ + /. That opens the Help home, everywhere in the app. This guide bound it to gear search until v0.778.8; Keyboard Shortcuts has always had it right.
Type your query or select from Recent Searches / Pinned Searches in the dropdown.

Search Quality Everywhere

Beyond the three main search surfaces, the same matching engine now powers the smaller filter inputs across the app — sub-rental lists, provider pickers in the gear list, shot-list equipment pickers, owned-gear link/share dialogs, gear-set lists, and the rental-house manager (including the public catalog page). All of them understand:

Synonyms & German terms — "Akku" finds batteries, "Objektiv" finds lenses
Typo tolerance — "camrea" still finds the camera
Accent folding — "Munchen" finds München
Acronyms — "ABD" finds Anton/Bauer Dionic (Device Library, Contacts, Owned Gear)
Sound-alike names — "Schnaider" finds Schneider, "Maier" finds Meyer

Global Search

For deeper content search, navigate to Search in the sidebar.

Search Scope

Global Search queries across all stored data:

Content Type	Searchable Fields
Projects	Name, client, location, contact, notes, recording resolution, codec, aspect ratio, frame rate
Items	Device name, category, notes, serial
Contacts	Name, email, company, role
Templates	Name, description
Devices	Name, manufacturer, category

Filters

Narrow results by:

Content type: Projects, Items, Contacts, Templates, Devices
Date range: Created or modified within a time period
Category: Filter items by equipment category

Search History and Saved Searches

Two separate stores, with two separate caps:

Recent searches — the last 10 queries, saved locally for quick re-use. Click a history entry to repeat the search, or click the × to remove it.
Saved searches — searches you keep deliberately, up to 20. These are what the Gear List calls Pinned Searches.

Tips

Use Quick Switcher for navigation: It's faster than clicking through menus
Use Global Search for discovery: When you need to find something across all data
Learn command mode: Type > and a space to access quick actions without leaving the keyboard
Fuzzy matching is forgiving: "alxa" still finds "ALEXA" — don't worry about exact spelling

Last Updated: 2026-09-10 Version: 0.790.2