Advanced Search

The Search panel goes beyond a quick filename lookup. You can search the current folder or your whole home tree, match file names or file contents, narrow results with filters, and save setups you use often.

For a short introduction, start with Search. This page covers the full Search panel.

Open Search

Open the Search feature from the tab bar or command bar (depending on your layout). The panel includes the query field, scope controls, collapsible Filters, saved searches, and the results list.

Scope: where to look

Control	Behavior
This Folder	Search from the active file browser pane’s current folder. Requires an open file browser tab; otherwise Search prompts you to open one or switch scope.
All files	Search across your home directory tree (not limited to the pane’s folder).

With This Folder selected, turn Recursive on to include subfolders, or off to search only the current directory level.

All files can include extra system-style folders under home when System is enabled in Filters (see below).

What to match

Filenames: compare paths and names (with your chosen match mode).
File Content: search inside file text. Glob match mode is not available for content search.

Match mode (under Filters)

Simple: case-insensitive substring (unless you enable case sensitivity).
Glob: shell-style patterns such as *.jpg or test_*.
Regex: regular expressions.

Additional toggles:

Aa: case-sensitive matching when on.
Hidden: include hidden files and dotfiles when on.
.gitignore: respect .gitignore rules when on.

Date filters

Under Dates, choose Modified or Created, then set From and To with the date pickers. Use Reset to clear both dates.

Tags (in Vials)

When Phials knows tags from your Vials, tag chips appear under Tags.

Click chips to include tags in the filter.
Any: file matches if it has at least one selected tag.
All: file must have every selected tag.

If you search All files or outside a known Vial folder, a note explains that tag filters only apply to files inside registered Vials.

Run search and read results

Type a query.
Click Run (or rely on live updates depending on your query habits).

The status line shows match count. Very large result sets may be capped; the UI states when a cap applies. If tag filtering runs after a cap, you may see a note that search stopped at the raw hit limit before tags were applied.

Results list:

Single-click a result to select it in the active file browser pane (when one is available) and open a preview tab for that file.
Double-click follows your usual file-open behavior (preview or navigate in the pane).
Right-click opens the same context menu as in the file browser.

Show results in the file pane

The mirror control (Show results in the active file pane) toggles whether matches also appear in the active folder view. Turn it on to browse hits in the grid or details view; turn it off to keep results only in the Search panel.

Saved searches

Load saved…: apply a named configuration you saved earlier (pinned items are labeled Pinned · in the list).
Save…: name and store the current query, scope, filters, and options.
Manage: pin, reorder, rename, duplicate, or delete saved searches.

Caches and performance

Deep searches, especially Recursive or All files with content matching, read many files from disk. Phials also uses file and metadata caches so repeat browsing and previews stay fast; those caches can affect how quickly some paths feel familiar but do not replace reading files for a full content search.

See File & Metadata Caches for how to view or clear cached thumbnails and metadata.