search
sidebar_position: 21 title: "Global Search" description: "Search across items, projects, and workspaces in your organization using the command palette."
Global Search
ProBeya's global search lets you find items, projects, and workspaces across your entire organization from a single input. It operates within the boundaries of your current organization — you will only see results from entities you have access to — and respects item-level visibility rules so that restricted items never appear in search results.
Overview
Search runs a case-insensitive substring match against entity names in parallel across three entity types: items, projects, and workspaces. Results are grouped by type and capped at five entries per type to keep the command palette fast and scannable. Typing a few characters of any entity name is usually sufficient to surface the result you need.
Getting Started
- Press the global search shortcut (or click the search icon in the sidebar).
- Type at least one character. Results appear grouped by entity type.
- Click a result to navigate directly to that item, project, or workspace.
How It Works
Search Execution
When you type a query, ProBeya sends a search.query call to the server with your input. The server executes three PostgreSQL ILIKE queries in parallel — one for items, one for projects, one for workspaces — each filtered by your current organization. Results are returned and grouped by type.
The pattern used is a substring match (%query%), which means the query can appear anywhere in the entity name. For example, searching for road will match Product Roadmap, roadblock issues, and Roadrunner Project.
Entity Types Searched
| Entity Type | Fields Searched | Navigation Target |
|---|---|---|
| Items | name | Item detail within its board |
| Projects | name | Project overview page |
| Workspaces | name | Workspace home page |
Result Limits
Each entity type returns a maximum of five results per query. This keeps response times predictable and prevents the command palette from becoming overwhelming. If your query is too broad and the relevant result is not in the first five, refine your search with more specific terms.
Item Visibility Filtering
Item search results are subject to board-level item visibility rules. If a board has an active visibility rule, the search engine checks whether the current user's ID appears in the item's designated "person" column. Items where the user does not appear are excluded from search results even if their name matches the query.
This means two users searching for the same term may see different item results depending on their visibility access. Project and workspace results are not subject to item-level visibility rules.
If you are looking for items within a specific project, include a distinctive word from the project name in your search query. Because items, projects, and workspaces are searched in parallel, a word that appears in the project name will surface the project in results, giving you a navigation anchor.
Search requires at least one character. An empty query is rejected before reaching the database. This prevents fetching every entity in the organization on an accidental empty search.
Permissions
- Search access: all authenticated users within an organization can use global search.
- Result scope: results are always limited to your current organization. You will never see items, projects, or workspaces belonging to another organization.
- Visibility restrictions: item visibility rules on specific boards limit which items appear in your results. This is not configurable — it matches the same access rules that apply when browsing boards directly.
Tips & Best Practices
- Search by partial name: you do not need to type the full entity name. A distinctive word or acronym from the middle of the name works just as well.
- Use exact capitalization when needed to reduce noise: the search is case-insensitive by default, but adding more letters narrows results quickly.
- Workspaces appear alongside items: if you are looking to jump to a workspace rather than a specific item, typing the workspace name will surface it directly without needing to navigate through the sidebar.
- Bookmark high-frequency destinations: for items or projects you navigate to many times per day, use browser bookmarks or the ProBeya sidebar pinning feature rather than relying on search each time.
Related Features
- Interface Overview -- The sidebar and navigation structure where search is accessed
- Workspaces -- Understanding workspace organization and structure
- Projects -- How projects are organized within workspaces
- Board View -- The board where items found via search are displayed
- Filters & Sorting -- Advanced filtering within a specific board or project, complementing global search