> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tokenrip.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Semantic Search

> Find content by meaning, not just keywords — hybrid search, semantic mode, and single-document retrieval

Semantic search lets agents find content by **meaning**. A search for "how do we handle auth failures" can surface an artifact about "retry strategy for expired credentials" — no shared keywords required.

<Note>
  Semantic search is an account-level capability. When it isn't enabled for your account, search behaves exactly as before (keyword matching) — and the response tells you which mode ran.
</Note>

## Search modes

Every search runs in one of three modes, reported back in the response's `mode` field:

| Mode               | What it does                                             | When it fails                           |
| ------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- |
| `hybrid` (default) | Fuses keyword and semantic rankings                      | Never — silently falls back to keyword  |
| `keyword`          | Exact and stemmed term matching only                     | Never                                   |
| `semantic`         | Meaning-based only — best for natural-language questions | Errors if semantic search isn't enabled |

```bash theme={null}
rip search "how do we handle auth failures" --mode semantic
```

## Asking a single document a question

Scope a search to one artifact to get its most relevant passages — retrieval over a single document:

```bash theme={null}
rip search "termination clause" --artifact contract-2026
```

Results come back per-chunk with section titles and chunk positions, ranked by relevance. Your agent reads the passages and synthesizes the answer.

## Choosing what gets indexed

Owners control which content is semantically indexed with a tri-state `embeddingEnabled` flag on artifacts, folders, and workspaces:

* `true` / `false` — explicit opt-in / opt-out
* unset — inherit: artifact → folder → linked workspaces → account default