Semantic Search

Your Knowledge,
Understood — Not Just Searched.

TotalApp's AI-powered tools can find and surface relevant material from your personal knowledge library automatically — ranked by meaning, not keywords, and running entirely on your own machine.

Try Semantic Search See how it works
How It Works
Writer Tools
Search Modes
Local & Private
app.totalapp.app/knowledge/search
Ranked by Meaning
TotalApp
SearchLibraryCollectionsSettings
Results · 6 of 12,480 chunks
Supplier delay playbookNote96%

Escalate to the account owner after 48 hours of delay; log the impact on the production schedule and notify planning.

delivery delayescalation
Vendor SLA — Q3 reviewPDF91%

Penalty clause applies when on-time delivery falls below 94% over a rolling quarter.

SLApenalty
Re: Orion shipment slippingEmail84%

We agreed to split the order and air-freight the critical parts to protect the launch date.

mitigationfreight
Lead-time benchmarksWeb clip72%

Industry median lead time rose 9% — buffer stock recommended for single-source parts.

lead time
Meaning map
1234?
Your queryClosestOther notes
Closest 4 of 12,480
Local engine
OllamaRunning
Modelnomic-embed-text
Index12,480 chunks
Latency38 ms
0 bytes leave this device
Writer Tools
Related from your library
Supplier delay playbook96%
Vendor SLA — Q3 review91%
Re: Orion shipment slipping84%
Insert as reference
Library indexed240 documents · 12,480 chunks · on-device
Local
Runs on your machine via Ollama
Live
Re-ranks as you type
2
Search modes: Assisted & Automatic
0
Data ever leaves your device
How It Works

Ranked by meaning, not keywords

Semantic Search converts your knowledge library and your current input into text embeddings, then compares them directly using cosine similarity — surfacing the most relevant material first, without you ever typing a search query.

  • ✓
    No manual search box — ranking happens automatically as you type
  • ✓
    A relevance score badge shows how closely each source matches
  • ✓
    Lightweight ranking layer — not a full RAG pipeline or vector database
  • ✓
    Works instantly for personal libraries of tens to low hundreds of sources
See It in Action
Topic
“Climate policy in emerging markets”
Attach Knowledgeranked by relevance
📄Emerging Markets Climate Report 2026
71%
📄COP Policy Briefing Notes
64%
📄Q3 Marketing Plan
28%
📄Team Offsite Notes
21%
📄Vendor Contract Templates
17%
📄Office Supply Order Log
9%
Ranked by meaningNot keywords.
Writer Tools Example

The first place it's wired up

Today, every AI Writer screen — Blog Writer, Essay Writer, Article Writer, Storyteller, Anime Writer, Scenario Writer, and Smart Rewriter — uses Semantic Search behind its Attach Knowledge button. It's simply the first place this capability was built; more AI-powered tools are expected to use it over time.

  • ✓
    Attach Knowledge button ranks your library as you type a topic
  • ✓
    Ground generated content in real documents instead of guesswork
  • ✓
    Cite, reference, or build on material you've already written
  • ✓
    Works the same way across every Writer Tool screen
Explore Writer Tools
Blog WriterInsert Prompt · Attach Knowledge
Sustainable Packaging in 2026
Grounded in 2 attached sources
Based on your Q3 Sustainability Report and Supplier Materials Brief, adoption has accelerated across three key verticals.
Where adoption is moving fastest
Food & beverage lead, then e-commerce fulfillment and cosmetics.
Attached
📄 Q3 Sustainability Report
📄 Supplier Materials Brief
Match
89%
The first place it’s wiredBlog Writer.
Search Modes

Assisted or fully automatic

Choose how much control you want. Assisted mode ranks sources but leaves the final pick to you. Automatic mode attaches the best matches for you — no clicks required.

  • ✓
    Assisted (default): ranked suggestions, you confirm the attachment
  • ✓
    Automatic: top matches auto-attach as you type, with an override anytime
  • ✓
    Choose raw cosine similarity or a normalized 0-100% score display
  • ✓
    Configured once in Settings, applies everywhere Semantic Search runs
Configure Search Modes
Embedding EngineSettings → Agentic
My Knowledge search behavior
Assisted — I pick from ranked suggestions
Auto-attach threshold
Minimum 60% relevance
Embedding model
nomic-embed-text via Ollama
Keyword fallback
Used when Ollama is offline
Mode
AssistedAutomatic
Assisted or fully automaticYou choose.
Rerank

A second look puts the best match on top

Semantic Search shortlists the closest records; an optional Rerank model then reads your text together with each one and re-scores them. The most relevant result rises to the first place, and the weaker ones drop away before anything reaches the AI step.

  • ✓
    Optional: pick a Rerank model in Settings → Agentic, or leave it off
  • ✓
    Free models available — no extra cost to try
  • ✓
    Never blocks you: if the service is unavailable, you simply see the normal ranking
  • ✓
    Cloud-based: unlike local Ollama, the shortlisted text is sent to the model provider
How Rerank Works
Rerank modelSettings → Agentic
Model
NVIDIA Llama Nemotron Rerank (free)
Runs when
At least 2 matches above 60%
Result
Reranked label above the list
If unavailable
Normal ranking is shown
Best match firstSecond pass.
Local & Private

Your library never leaves your machine

Embeddings are computed by a local Ollama instance running on your own computer. TotalApp's cloud server has no network path to reach it — ranking always happens directly between your browser and your own machine.

  • ✓
    Powered by Ollama, installed and run entirely on your device
  • ✓
    Independent of your Writer Engine (API, Local CLI, Local LLM, Ollama)
  • ✓
    No embedding model configured? Everything still works, just unranked
  • ✓
    No subscription or extra cost — bring your own local model
See All AI Features
Local Ollama instance127.0.0.1:11434
1
My Knowledge library embed · local
Embedded
2
Current topic embed · local
Embedded
3
Cosine similarity compare · local
Ranked
4
Score normalization scale 0–100%
Normalized
5
Ranked suggestions top 5
Shown
6
Attach to draft you confirm
Ready
Model
nomic-embed-text
running on your machine
Never leaves your machineLibrary stays local.

Find what matters, automatically.

Semantic Search is built into TotalApp's AI tools today — starting with the AI Writer suite — and designed to expand as more AI-powered features ship.

Get Started Free Read the Docs