GNO - Local Knowledge Engine

Fast local semantic search. Index once, search instantly. No cloud, no API keys.

When to Use This Skill

• User asks to search files, documents, or notes
• User wants to find information in local folders
• User needs to index a directory for searching
• User mentions PDFs, markdown, Word docs, code to search
• User asks about knowledge base or RAG setup
• User wants semantic/vector search over their files
• User needs to set up MCP for document access
• User wants a web UI to browse/search documents
• User asks to get AI answers from their documents
• User wants to tag, categorize, or filter documents
• User asks about backlinks, wiki links, or related notes
• User wants to visualize document connections or see a knowledge graph
• User wants to export a note or collection for gno.sh publishing

Quick Start

gno init                              # Initialize in current directory
gno collection add ~/docs --name docs # Add folder to index
gno index                             # Build index (ingest + embed)
gno search "your query"               # BM25 keyword search

Command Overview

Category	Commands	Description
Search	search, vsearch, query, ask	Find documents by keywords, meaning, or get AI answers
Links	links, backlinks, similar, graph	Navigate document relationships and visualize connections
Retrieve	get, multi-get, ls	Fetch document content by URI or ID
Index	init, collection add/list/remove, index, update, embed	Set up and maintain document index
Tags	tags, tags add, tags rm	Organize and filter documents
Context	context add/list/rm/check	Add hints to improve search relevance
Models	models list/use/pull/clear/path	Manage local AI models
Serve	serve	Web UI for browsing and searching
Publish	publish export	Export gno.sh publish artifacts
MCP	mcp, mcp install/uninstall/status	AI assistant integration
Skill	skill install/uninstall/show/paths	Install skill for AI agents
Admin	status, doctor, cleanup, reset, vec, completion	Maintenance and diagnostics

Search Modes

Command	Speed	Best For
gno search	instant	Exact keyword matching
gno vsearch	~0.5s	Finding similar concepts
gno query --fast	~0.7s	Quick lookups
gno query	~2-3s	Balanced (default)
gno query --thorough	~5-8s	Best recall, complex queries
gno ask --answer	~3-5s	AI-generated answer with citations

Retry strategy: Use default first. If no results: rephrase query, then try --thorough.

Common Flags

-n <num>              Max results (default: 5)
-c, --collection      Filter to collection
--tags-any <t1,t2>    Has ANY of these tags
--tags-all <t1,t2>    Has ALL of these tags
--json                JSON output
--files               URI list output
--line-numbers        Include line numbers

Global Flags

--index <name>    Alternate index (default: "default")
--config <path>   Override config file
--verbose         Verbose logging
--json            JSON output
--yes             Non-interactive mode
--offline         Use cached models only
--no-color        Disable colors
--no-pager        Disable paging

Index names follow the CLI filesystem-identity contract: 1–64 UTF-16 code units, letter/number first, no trailing space or ., no .., separators, or platform-invalid punctuation. NFC/case-equivalent names share one identity. See docs/CLI.md under Global Options for the complete byte limits.

Non-default index search results may include ?index=<name> on gno:// URIs. Keep that query string when passing the URI to gno get.

Important: Embedding After Changes

If you edit/create files that should be searchable via vector search:

gno index              # Full re-index (sync + embed)
# or
gno embed              # Embed only (if already synced)

MCP gno.sync and gno.capture do NOT auto-embed. Use CLI for embedding.

Reference Documentation

Topic	File
Complete CLI reference (all commands, options, flags)	cli-reference.md
MCP server setup and tools	mcp-reference.md
Usage examples and patterns	examples.md