Find sources with Search

Search helps you find passages in Magisterium AI's source library. Start with a topic or question, then narrow the results until you find something you want to read.

Run your first search

1. Open Search. If you are signed in, you can also select Search at the top of the app. Search is currently available in the English interface; the direct link works while signed out.
2. Enter a topic, name, or question. Try confession, Thomas Aquinas, or the relationship between faith and reason.
3. Press Enter or select the arrow button in the search bar.
4. Look through the titles, authors, passage references, and excerpts. Select a result to read it.

Search can find passages related to the meaning of your query, even when they do not repeat your exact words. You do not need to know a document's title before you start.

Narrow your results

Select the Filters button—the sliders icon beside the search arrow. Choose the filters you need, then select Apply. Closing the panel without applying discards your edits.

• Authors: Limit the search to selected authors. Choose a name from the suggestions rather than leaving it as unselected text.
• Documents: Search within selected documents. For example, select the Catechism of the Catholic Church and search for confession.
• Focus: Choose Magisterial or Scholarly to narrow the collection, or Any to search both.
• Document type: Choose one of the available document types, or leave Any type selected.

To search within a document, open Filters, choose the document, and select Apply. If you already have other filters selected, first select Clear to remove them, then reopen Filters and choose the document. Authors, Focus, and Document type are disabled while a document is selected. To use those filters again, remove the document selection.

To broaden the search, open Filters and select Clear. Applying or clearing filters on an active search runs the search again. Search uses your shared Chat query allowance.

Understand the result cards

A result can show a document title, its author, a year, a reference, and an excerpt. MAGISTERIAL and SCHOLARLY badges identify the library's source categories. These labels help you choose what to read; always consult the full passage and its context when interpreting or quoting it.

Several passages from one document may appear together. Select an indented passage to open that particular reference. Highlighted words help you scan an excerpt; they are not the whole passage.

If the results are not what you expected

• Too many unrelated results: Use a more specific phrase, such as preparing for confession, or select a document or author.
• No results: Clear the filters, check the spelling, and try a broader term. If you switched from other filters to a document, clear the filters and select that document again.
• An error message: Select Retry when offered.
• A query limit message: Search shares your Chat allowance. Check the message for your next step.

Continue with reading and searching within a document, or discover related passages in Explore.