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The Obsidian Search Handbook Is Out, and Its Ideas Are Free

Sebastien Dubois

22 Oct 2026 — 8 min read

My new ebook on finding any note in Obsidian is available now. And if you'd rather not pay, all of its text is coming to this blog as free articles, starting today.

Introduction

You know the note exists. You wrote it yourself, last month or three years ago. But you can't remember what you called it, and searching for what you think was in it returns more results than you'll ever scan. So you give up, and you write the same note again. Or worse, you stop trusting your vault.

I've been there too. My own vault holds about 30,000 notes, so I had to solve this problem properly. When I dug into the research on how people re-find their own information, the findings surprised me. A small 2004 diary study at MIT, by Jaime Teevan and her colleagues, found that people used keyword search in only 39% of their searches, even when they knew key details about what they were looking for. They navigated first, and searched when navigating failed.

My take: whether you'll find a note again is mostly decided when you WRITE it. Its name, its aliases, its type, a few properties and a couple of links do most of the work. The search box can only use what you put there.

That's what I've been writing about for the past few weeks, and it turned into a book. In this article, I want to tell you what's in it, what you can read for free, and how to get the book at the launch price.

The Obsidian Search Handbook is available now

The Obsidian Search Handbook is my method for finding notes in Obsidian, in one book. It's the 2026 edition: a 254-page PDF, plus an EPUB, so you can read it on your computer, your tablet or your e-reader.

The Obsidian Search Handbook, 2026 edition (254-page PDF, and EPUB).

It covers the whole chain, in the order that works for me: designing notes you can find, structuring the vault, Obsidian's built-in search, the terminal, navigation, plugins, AI search and resurfacing. Every chapter ends with a "Try this" exercise, so you apply the idea instead of nodding along. At the end, you get a FAQ (38 questions), a cheat sheet appendix and an appendix that compares the tools and shows my own search order. Updates are free for the whole 2026 edition (all 1.x versions); it's written and checked against Obsidian 1.14.

What's inside

Twelve chapters:

Why you can't find your notes: the research on re-finding information, the FILE framework, the findability stack and LATCH
Design notes you can find: names, the acronym trick, aliases, note types, a minimum of metadata, and tags as pathways
Structure a findable vault: folders by type, the archive, links and Maps of Content, dates, daily notes and a capture-time checklist
Fix a messy vault: a 30-day makeover at 15 minutes a day, for a vault that's already a mess
Obsidian search mastered: the quick switcher, the link suggester, the Search operators, and Bases
Beyond the basics: version history, the Obsidian CLI, mobile, and what to do when search misses a note
Search from outside Obsidian: ripgrep, fzf, OS search, git history, and the files that live outside your vault
Navigate your vault: backlinks, unlinked mentions, the local graph, Canvas, hub notes and bookmarks
The best plugins for finding notes: the ones worth installing, and how to vet them
AI search explained: keyword, semantic, hybrid and agentic search, a 20-query test, and the risks
Set up AI search: qmd, MCP servers, and how my AI assistant finds things in 30,000 notes
Resurfacing: random notes, on-this-day views, review queues, and a routine you can copy

Don't skip the first four chapters because they're not about search tools. Trust me, they're the ones that will save you the most time.

The whole text is free

I strongly believe that this kind of knowledge should be accessible to everyone. So all the text of the book is also coming to this blog, as free articles. What the articles don't have: the foreword, the exercises, the merged FAQ, the cheat sheet appendix and the files of the Complete edition.

The overview is out today: The Complete Guide to Obsidian Search - Find Any Note When You Need It. It gives you the map, the search escalation ladder and the tool comparison.

Then one part per weekday, over the next two and a half weeks:

Fri, Oct 23: Why You Can't Find Your Notes
Mon, Oct 26: Design Notes You Can Find
Tue, Oct 27: Structure a Findable Obsidian Vault
Wed, Oct 28: Fix a Messy Obsidian Vault
Thu, Oct 29: Obsidian Search Mastered
Fri, Oct 30: Obsidian Search Beyond the Basics
Mon, Nov 2: Search Your Obsidian Vault From Outside Obsidian
Tue, Nov 3: Navigate Your Obsidian Vault
Wed, Nov 4: The Best Obsidian Plugins for Finding Notes
Thu, Nov 5: AI Search for Your Obsidian Vault
Fri, Nov 6: Set Up AI Search for Your Obsidian Vault
Mon, Nov 9: Resurfacing in Obsidian

Each one goes live on its date. And to be clear: if the free articles give you what you need, you don't need the book. I mean it.

What the book adds

So why pay for text that's free? Fair question.

Start with the Complete edition, because that's where most of the extra value is. On top of the book, it gives you the files to put the method to work in your own vault:

The Findability Starter Pack: note templates, 6 Bases, 35 saved searches, ripgrep and fzf scripts, a qmd setup, and an AGENTS.md snippet that tells your AI assistant how to search your vault. It's a small starter set built from my own vault, not the Obsidian Starter Kit
6 worksheets: the LATCH audit, the capture-time checklist, the 30-day makeover tracker, the 20-query search test, a search log and a resurfacing routine

The book itself (in both editions) is the same text as the free articles, assembled into one book, plus a few things the articles don't have:

Everything, today. You don't wait until November 9 for the last part.
A foreword and the exercises. A "Try this" at the end of every chapter. Reading about aliases changes nothing; renaming the note you couldn't find last week does.
The reference material in one place. The merged FAQ (38 questions), the cheat sheet appendix and the tool comparison.
Offline. A PDF and an EPUB you keep on any device.

Pricing and the launch code

Two editions:

Complete (the book, the Starter Pack and the worksheets): €49
Book (the ebook, PDF and EPUB): €29

For the launch, the code LAUNCH gives you €10 off either edition: the Complete edition for €39, the Book for €19. One code per order. The launch price ends Thursday, October 29, at 23:59 CET. That's the only deadline; the free articles stay free.

Prices are shown before VAT; EU VAT is added at checkout based on your country.

The Complete edition is also included in the Everything Knowledge Bundle.

As with all my products, there's a 30-day money-back guarantee. If the book isn't for you, reply to your receipt email within 30 days and I'll refund you.

Who it's for

This book is for you if:

Your vault has grown to the point where notes get lost. The note exists, but its name is gone, or Search returns too many results
You write a lot (articles, research, meeting notes, a work vault) and you re-find your own material every day
You want AI search on your vault, and you want to know what works, what to configure and how to measure it
You're just getting started. Findability is decided when a note is created, so the first chapters will spare you a big cleanup later

It's NOT for you if you want a list of plugins to install and nothing else. The notes come first, the tools second. And if you don't use Obsidian, parts of it apply to any Markdown vault, but every example is Obsidian.

How to get it

The store page has both editions. Don't forget the code LAUNCH at checkout.

Want a taste first? Grab the free cheat sheet

Free cheat sheet. If you only want the short version, I made a free PDF: the Free Obsidian Search Cheat Sheet. It has the commands and operators worth remembering (quick switcher, Search, Bases, the Obsidian CLI, ripgrep, fzf and qmd) and the search escalation ladder: which tool to reach for, in which order, depending on what you remember about the note.

Keep it open next to your vault. Enter your email on the page and I'll send it right away, followed by a few short emails about finding notes (you can unsubscribe at any time).

Get the free Obsidian Search Cheat Sheet. 13 pages to keep next to your vault: the search operators worth remembering and the search escalation ladder. Enter your email and I'll send it right away. You'll also get a few short follow-up emails about finding notes in Obsidian, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

FAQ

I'll read the free articles. Is the book still worth it? Maybe not, and that's fine. The book gives you the same text today, in one book, plus a foreword, the exercises, the merged FAQ and the cheat sheet appendix. The Complete edition adds the Starter Pack and the worksheets, which the articles don't have.

Do I need the Obsidian Starter Kit? No. The book works with any vault. The Obsidian Starter Kit ships the note types, templates, properties and Bases described in it, if you'd rather start from a finished system.

Do I need AI tools? No. Two chapters cover AI search. The other ten work without it.

How do updates work? Updates are free for the whole 2026 edition (all 1.x versions); it's written and checked against Obsidian 1.14. New versions show up in your Gumroad library.

Conclusion

I wrote this book because I needed it. At 30,000 notes, "just search for it" stops working, and so does "just organize better". What works is designing notes so they can be found, then using the right tool for what you remember.

Read the free articles, buy the book, or both. Either way, start with one small thing this week: take the last note you couldn't find, and rename it with the words you used to look for it.

That's it for today! ✨