OpenViking (OV) context searching

The ov search command performs context-aware retrieval across all memories and resources in OpenViking — combining semantic understanding with directory recursive retrieval to find the most relevant context for any query.

Table of Content

• When to Use

• Sub-commands for search

• List directories (ov ls )

• Tree view (ov tree )

• Semantic Search (ov find )

• Content Pattern Search (ov grep )

• File Glob Search (ov glob )

• Full content read (ov read )

• Get overview (ov overview )

• Get Abstract (ov abstract )

• Prerequisite

When to Use

• Finding specific information within imported resources or saved memories

• Retrieving context about topics, APIs, or patterns previously added

• Searching across project documentation, code, and learnings

• When an agent needs to reference previously stored knowledge

note: cli command can be outdated, when sees error, use --help to get latest usage

Sub-commands for search

List Contents (ov ls )

Browse directory structure:

List root directory

ov ls

List specific directory

ov ls viking://resources/my-project/docs/

Simple path output (only uris, no metadata)

ov ls viking://resources --simple

Show hidden files

ov ls viking://resources --all

Control output limits (default 256)

ov ls viking://resources --node-limit 50

Control abstract info length limit for each node (default 256)

ov ls viking://resources --abs-limit 128

Tree View (ov tree )

Visualize directory hierarchy:

Show tree structure

ov tree viking://resources

Control depth limits (default 3)

ov tree viking://resources --level-limit 2

Control node limits

ov tree viking://resources --node-limit 100 --abs-limit 128

Show all files including hidden

ov tree viking://resources --all

Semantic find (ov find )

Find method with semantic relevance ranking:

Basic find across all context

ov find "how to handle API rate limits"

Find within specific URI scope

ov find "authentication flow" --uri "viking://resources/my-project"

Limit results and set relevance score threshold

ov find "error handling" --node-limit 5 --threshold 0.3

Content Pattern Search (ov grep )

Literal pattern matching:

Find exact text pattern (Note: this is expensive, and suggest within specific small URI scope)

ov grep "viking://resources" "TODO:" --uri "viking://resources/my-project"

Case-insensitive search

ov grep "viking://resources" "API_KEY" --ignore-case --uri "viking://resources/my-project"

Limit results and set node limit

ov grep "viking://resources" "API_KEY" --node-limit 5 --uri "viking://resources/my-project"

File Glob Search (ov glob )

File path pattern matching:

Find all markdown files (Note: this is expensive, and suggest within specific small URI scope)

ov glob "**/*.md" --uri "viking://resources/my-project"

Limit results and set node limit

ov glob "**/*.md" --uri "viking://resources/my-project" --node-limit 5

Read File Content (ov read )

Retrieve full content (L0-L2 layer):

Read full content

ov read viking://resources/docs/api/api-1.md

Read first 10 lines of api-2.md

ov read viking://resources/docs/api/api-2.md | head -n 10

Read abstract (L0 - quick summary)

ov abstract viking://resources/docs/api/ ov read viking://resources/docs/api/.abstract.md

Read overview (L1 - key points)

ov overview viking://resources/docs/api/ ov read viking://resources/docs/api/.overview.md

Combining Search

Use search results to guide further actions:

ov ls viking://resources/

Search for relevant files

ov search "authentication" --uri "viking://resources/project-A"

Get overview for context

ov overview viking://resources/project-A/backend

Decide to read specific content

ov read viking://resources/project-A/backend/auth.md

Prerequisites

• CLI configured: ~/.openviking/ovcli.conf

• Resources or memories previously added to OpenViking