Search Everywhere

This one’s a big deal for me. Remember when I said developer/artist workflow is my biggest driver? This is what I mean.

Double-tap Shift. A command palette appears. Find anything.

What it finds

It’s a fuzzy-search overlay with three modes:

  • Nodes: type a node name to create it right on the canvas
  • Graph: find existing nodes in your patch by name or type, click and the canvas jumps to it
  • Actions: editor commands (Delete, Select All, Toggle Output, Undo, Redo, Zoom to Fit…)

Four tabs filter by category: All, Nodes, Actions, Graph. Arrow keys to navigate, Enter to select, Escape to close.

No menus to dig through. No panels to open. Just type what you want.

‘Search Everywhere

The fuzzy scorer

I spent time getting this right because bad search is worse than no search. The scorer is tuned for node names:

  • Prefix matches get +20, typing “Lin” matches “LinearSpread” strongly
  • Word boundary matches get +5, typing “rs” matches “RandomSpread”
  • Consecutive character matches get +3
  • Shorter target names get a bonus (prefer specific matches)
  • Gaps between matches cost -1 each (capped at -3)

So “lsp” matches “LinearSpread” but ranks lower than “Lin”. And “circ” finds “Circle” before “CircularSpread” because it’s shorter and more specific.

The result: you learn two or three characters for each node you use often, and finding it becomes instant. Muscle memory kicks in fast.

The node search too

The node-spawn search (Tab key on canvas) got the same treatment. Same fuzzy scorer, same rendering. Matched characters are highlighted in the accent color so you can see exactly which characters hit.

Before: a basic text filter that showed node names in a list. After: a properly scored fuzzy search with highlighted matches, keyboard navigation, and visual hierarchy.

Why this matters

It’s amazing how much better a tool feels when search is fast and smart. I used to scroll through the node browser to find what I needed. Now I double-tap Shift, type two letters, hit Enter. Done.

This is the kind of thing that doesn’t show up in a feature list but completely changes how fast you work. When every action is two keystrokes away, you stop thinking about the tool and start thinking about what you’re making.

That’s the whole point.

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