# Find anything

*Search your whole library from Home, search and filter each screen, find a setting, and sort what you see.*

Online version: https://promptmason.ai/docs/search

PromptMason has a search box on every screen that lists things, and one on Home that looks through everything at once. On Home, Blocks, Build, Prompts, Explorer, Archive and Variables, Ctrl+F puts the cursor in that screen's search box. You can then narrow a list with the sidebar's folder, tag, favorite and rating filters, and with the filters on each column.

Searching is never case-sensitive, and what you type is matched as one phrase: "sales email" finds "Sales email follow-up" but not "Email for sales".

## Search everything from Home

The **Search…** box at the top of Home searches all of these at once: blocks, prompts, Markdown documents, variables, tags, folders, and archived blocks and prompts. It looks in names, descriptions, text, tags, types, kinds and folders, and also in comments and expected output.

1. Click **Home** in the sidebar.
2. Click the **Search…** box (or press Ctrl+F) and type.

    ![The Home search box with "plain" typed in and a list of matching blocks and prompts under it, each saying where the match was found.](https://promptmason.ai/images/docs/search-home-results.webp)

3. Click a result, or use the Up and Down arrow keys to pick one and press Enter.

Results are grouped under **Blocks**, **Prompts**, **Variables**, **Tags**, **Folders** and **Archive**. Names that match come first in each group. Each result says where the words were found, for example "Found in content · tags". A block shows its type, and a prompt shows **Static**, **Dynamic** or **Markdown**. In the **Archive** group, each result shows **Block**, **Prompt** or **Markdown** instead. A tag shows how many items use it, and a folder shows the folder it's in.

What opening a result does:

| Result | Opens |
|---|---|
| Block | The **Blocks** screen, showing the block |
| Prompt or document | The **Prompts** screen, showing it |
| Variable | The **Variables** screen, with the variable open |
| Tag | **Explorer**, showing everything with that tag |
| Folder | **Explorer**, inside that folder |
| Archived item | The **Archive** screen, searching for its name |

Opening a tag or folder clears any other filters you had set, so you see everything in it.

Press Esc once to close the results, and again to clear the box.

Home search only looks at features that are on. For example, with the Variables feature off, variables aren't searched, and with Tags off, tags aren't. Home is a feature too; to turn it on, see [Turn Home on or off](https://promptmason.ai/docs/home#turn-home-on-or-off).

### Messages in Home search

| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| **Searching…** | Wait a moment for the rest of the results. |
| **Nothing matches “…”.** | Try fewer or different words. |
| **Only the first 200 matches of each kind are listed. Type more to narrow them down.** | Add a word or two to your search. |
| **Search couldn’t finish. Try again in a moment.** | Click the search box again, or change what you typed, to search again. |

## Search one screen

**Blocks**, **Prompts**, **Explorer**, **Archive** and **Variables** each have their own search box, above the list. Press Ctrl+F to jump to it, and click the X in the box to clear it.

| Screen | What its search looks in |
|---|---|
| **Blocks** | Name, type, tags, folder, the dates it was created and changed, and the block's text |
| **Prompts** | Name, type, kind, tags, folder, dates, and the text (for a Dynamic prompt, the text of its blocks) |
| **Explorer** | The same as Blocks and Prompts, for both, plus folder names |
| **Archive**, **Archived** tab | Name, type and kind |
| **Archive**, **Recently deleted** tab | Name only |
| **Variables** | Name, value and description |

You can search for a date the way it's written on screen, or in other common forms, for example "Aug 29, 2026", "August", "8/29/26" or "2026-08-29".

The **Build** screen's list of blocks has its own search box too, with a block-type filter. See [Build a prompt](https://promptmason.ai/docs/build-prompt).

The search on **Blocks**, **Prompts** and **Explorer** is cleared when you leave the screen.

## Find a setting

1. Click **Settings** in the sidebar.
2. Type in the search box above the list of Settings sections (on the left, or at the top when the window is narrow), for example "backup" or "dark".
3. Click a result, or press Enter to open the first one.

Each result shows the setting's name and the part of Settings it's in. Settings opens there and highlights the setting for a moment. Search finds a setting by its name, its description, and other words people often use for it.

If a result says **· feature is off**, the setting belongs to a feature you've hidden. Clicking it takes you to that feature's switch, with the note **Turn on [feature] to use this.**

Press Esc to clear the search. If nothing matches, Settings says **Nothing matches “…”.**

## Filter from the sidebar

The sidebar's filters apply to **Blocks**, **Prompts** and **Explorer** together, and stay on as you move between them. The **Build** screen's list of blocks follows the folder, tag, favorite and rating filters (not the library filter).

- **Folder:** click a folder in the sidebar to show only what's directly in that folder (not in its subfolders). See [Folders, moving and copying](https://promptmason.ai/docs/folders#show-whats-in-a-folder).
- **Library:** if you have a team library, the sidebar lists your libraries; click one to show only its items. See [Personal and team libraries](https://promptmason.ai/docs/libraries).
- **Tags:** click a tag to show only items with that tag. Ctrl+click more tags to show items with any of them. See [Tags, favorites and ratings](https://promptmason.ai/docs/tags-favorites-ratings#filter-by-tag).
- **Favorites & Rating:** turn on **Favorites** to show only favorites, or click a star to show items rated that many stars or more. These two also apply to the **Archived** tab of the **Archive** screen. See [Tags, favorites and ratings](https://promptmason.ai/docs/tags-favorites-ratings#filter-by-favorite-or-rating).

The filters add up: a folder and a tag together show items that are in the folder and have the tag.

**Unresolved variables** is not in the sidebar. It is a button in the toolbar of **Blocks**, **Prompts** and **Explorer**, next to the view, sort and column buttons, and it shows when the Variables feature is on. Turn it on to show only blocks and prompts that use a `{{name}}` no variable has. See [Variables](https://promptmason.ai/docs/variables#find-everything-with-an-unresolved-variable).

On **Blocks** and **Prompts**, a bar above the list shows an active folder (**Filtered to** and the folder's path); click a folder name in the bar to widen the filter to that folder. On **Explorer**, the folder's path shows above the list instead. Tags show in a **Filtered to tags:** bar on all three; click the X on a tag to take that tag off.

### Clear every filter

Click the **Clear filters** button in the toolbar (the funnel with an X). It appears whenever a filter is on, and clears the search, the column filters, the sidebar's folder, library, tag, favorite and rating filters, and the unresolved-variables filter at once.

![The toolbar with a search word typed and the Clear filters button visible next to a Filtered to tags bar.](https://promptmason.ai/images/docs/search-clear-filters-button.webp)

## Filter by column, type or kind

In List view, each column heading on **Blocks**, **Prompts**, **Explorer** and **Variables** has a small funnel button, **Filter this column**. Use it to filter by type, kind, location, rating, date and so on.

1. Click **List view** in the toolbar, if the list shows tiles.
2. Click the funnel in a column heading, for example **Kind** or **Type**.
3. Untick the values you don't want, or untick **(Select All)** and tick only the ones you do want.

    ![The Kind column filter menu with a tick box for each kind.](https://promptmason.ai/images/docs/search-column-filter-menu.webp)

When a column has more than 8 values, a search box appears at the top of the list: type, then press Enter to keep only the ticked values that match.

A filtered column's funnel is highlighted. Unticking every value shows everything again. If the column filters leave nothing, click **Clear column filters** under the message.

The **Kind** column tells blocks, Static prompts, Dynamic prompts and Markdown documents apart. On the **Prompts** screen, filter **Kind** to **Markdown** to see only your documents.

On **Blocks**, **Prompts** and **Explorer**, column filters are cleared when you leave the screen.

## Sort a list

On **Blocks**, **Prompts** and **Explorer**:

1. Click the sort list in the toolbar and choose what to sort by, for example **Name**, **Last modified** or **Rating**.
2. Click the arrow button next to it to switch between ascending and descending.

In List view you can also click a column heading to sort by it; click it again to reverse the order. Each screen remembers its sort.

| Screen | Sorted to start with |
|---|---|
| **Blocks** | **Name**, A to Z |
| **Prompts** | **Date created**, newest first |
| **Explorer** | **Last modified**, newest first |

Ties in **Rating** and **Fav** are sorted by name. Unrated items come last when sorting by rating, highest first. When you first turn on the sidebar's star filter, the list switches to sort by rating, highest first; you can change it back.

On **Variables**, click a column heading to sort. The **Archive** lists are always newest first.

## Show fewer or more columns and rows

- **Columns:** click the **Columns** button in the toolbar and tick the columns to show. **Name** always shows. Your choice applies to **Blocks**, **Prompts** and **Explorer** alike.
- **Column width:** drag the right edge of a column heading.
- **Rows per page:** under the list, choose 25, 50, 75 or 100 next to **Show**. Use the arrows to move between pages.
- **Tiles or rows:** click **Tile view** or **List view** in the toolbar.

Some columns only exist while their feature is on: **Fav** and **Rating** (Favorites & ratings) and **Versions** (Version history). **Library** appears once you have a team library.

## Want a hand?

Paste this prompt into Claude, ChatGPT or another AI assistant, together with this guide, to be walked through it step by step:

> I have a lot of blocks and prompts in PromptMason and can't find the one I need. Show me the quickest ways to search, filter and sort to find it.