How to query your Library

Use neural and keyword search to find passages across every document you've uploaded.

May 21, 2026

The Search view is Vulgate's traditional search interface — fast, transparent, and well suited to scanning many results at once. Compared to Chat, search returns raw passages without an AI-written summary; it's perfect for "find the bit where X happens" tasks.

Open Search

In the sidebar, click Search and type your query.

Pick a search mode

Open Advanced search (the sliders icon) to switch between:

  • Neural — understands meaning. Matches passages even if they don't contain your exact words. Best for conceptual questions like "the council's view on Eucharistic adoration".
  • Keyword — matches the exact words and phrases you type. Best for proper nouns, technical terms, or quotations you want to verify.

You can also use the inline syntax keyword:"your terms" directly in the search bar. See Neural vs keyword search for a deeper comparison.

Filter your results

  • Libraries — restrict to one or more Libraries via the Libraries dropdown near the search bar.
  • Author / Date / ISBN / title — set these in the Advanced search dialog, or use inline syntax like author:"name" and title:"…".

Clear filters with the Clear button in Advanced search.

Read results in the Preview pane

Click any result and a Preview pane opens on the right with the surrounding context. You can scroll the document inside the pane, click between results without losing your place, and jump to the full document view with the button at the top of the pane.

When to use Chat instead

If you want a synthesized answer (with footnoted sources) rather than a flat list of passages, switch to Chat. Chat is built on the same retrieval engine, so anything Search can find, Chat can cite.

Search help