# How search works

Every docs site ships with search built in. It is fast, matches on meaning as well as exact words, and needs no setup.

## Opening search

Visitors click the search field in the header, or press Cmd+K on Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux. Results update as they type, starting from the second character.

![The search dialog with results and snippets for a query](https://d1fz24v557o32j.cloudfront.net/project-images/0319adcc-8d8c-4b62-8847-5f6ca52a92ff/d5751139-a4b7-4e53-bb25-feec452549b4.png)

## How results are found

Search runs two matchers over your published articles and merges their results:

- Keyword matching finds articles containing the words in the query, tolerant of partial words and small variations
- Semantic matching compares the meaning of the query with the meaning of each article, so "remove a teammate" can surface an article titled "Manage your team members" even with no words in common

Long articles are also matched section by section, so a query can surface an article on the strength of one deep subsection.

Each result shows the article title and a snippet centered on the first match. Visitors get up to ten results, best first.

## Staying current

The index updates when you publish. New articles and edits are searchable moments after going live, and drafts never appear in results.

## When search comes up empty

If nothing matches, pressing Enter hands the query to Ask AI, which answers in plain language from your docs and cites its sources. See [Ask AI on your docs site](/articles/ask-ai).

## Limits

Queries need at least 2 characters, and each visitor can run 30 searches a minute, which ordinary reading never approaches. Full details in [Limits and quotas](/articles/limits-and-quotas).