GNO - Local Knowledge Engine

VerifiedSafe

Search your local documents, files and notes with BM25/vector/hybrid indexing. Get AI answers with citations, no cloud or API keys needed.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
Data & AIBeginner
306/2/2026
Claude Code
#local-search#semantic-search#rag#document-indexing

Recommended for

Our review

GNO is a local search engine that indexes documents and enables keyword or semantic search, with AI-powered answers and citations.

Strengths

  • Instant search after indexing, no cloud dependency.
  • Multiple search modes (BM25, vector, hybrid, AI) for different needs.
  • Built-in web UI to browse and query documents.
  • MCP integration for local AI assistants.

Limitations

  • Requires an initial indexing step that can be time-consuming for large datasets.
  • AI answers require local models that need to be downloaded and configured.
  • Only works with files stored on the local machine.
When to use it

Use GNO when you need to quickly find information in local documents without uploading them to the cloud.

When not to use it

Avoid GNO if your files change frequently and require real-time search without reindexing.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score87/100

The skill only uses the 'gno' command, a local document indexing and search tool, with no dangerous operations, network calls, or data exfiltration.

No concerns found

Examples

Search notes for a specific topic
Search my notes for the meeting notes from last week
Index and search research papers
Index my research papers in ~/papers and then search for machine learning methods
Set up a document search system
Set up a local document search system for my project folder

name: gno description: Search local documents, files, notes, and knowledge bases. Index directories, search with BM25/vector/hybrid, get AI answers with citations. Use when user wants to search files, find documents, query notes, look up information in local folders, index a directory, set up document search, build a knowledge base, needs RAG/semantic search, or wants to start a local web UI for their docs. allowed-tools: Bash(gno:*) Read

GNO - Local Knowledge Engine

Fast local semantic search. Index once, search instantly. No cloud, no API keys.

When to Use This Skill

  • User asks to search files, documents, or notes
  • User wants to find information in local folders
  • User needs to index a directory for searching
  • User mentions PDFs, markdown, Word docs, code to search
  • User asks about knowledge base or RAG setup
  • User wants semantic/vector search over their files
  • User needs to set up MCP for document access
  • User wants a web UI to browse/search documents
  • User asks to get AI answers from their documents
  • User wants to tag, categorize, or filter documents

Quick Start

gno init                              # Initialize in current directory
gno collection add ~/docs --name docs # Add folder to index
gno index                             # Build index (ingest + embed)
gno search "your query"               # BM25 keyword search

Command Overview

| Category | Commands | Description | | ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | | Search | search, vsearch, query, ask | Find documents by keywords, meaning, or get AI answers | | Retrieve | get, multi-get, ls | Fetch document content by URI or ID | | Index | init, collection add/list/remove, index, update, embed | Set up and maintain document index | | Tags | tags, tags add, tags rm | Organize and filter documents | | Context | context add/list/rm/check | Add hints to improve search relevance | | Models | models list/use/pull/clear/path | Manage local AI models | | Serve | serve | Web UI for browsing and searching | | MCP | mcp, mcp install/uninstall/status | AI assistant integration | | Skill | skill install/uninstall/show/paths | Install skill for AI agents | | Admin | status, doctor, cleanup, reset, completion | Maintenance and diagnostics |

Search Modes

| Command | Speed | Best For | | ---------------------- | ------- | ---------------------------------- | | gno search | instant | Exact keyword matching | | gno vsearch | ~0.5s | Finding similar concepts | | gno query --fast | ~0.7s | Quick lookups | | gno query | ~2-3s | Balanced (default) | | gno query --thorough | ~5-8s | Best recall, complex queries | | gno ask --answer | ~3-5s | AI-generated answer with citations |

Retry strategy: Use default first. If no results: rephrase query, then try --thorough.

Common Flags

-n <num>              Max results (default: 5)
-c, --collection      Filter to collection
--tags-any <t1,t2>    Has ANY of these tags
--tags-all <t1,t2>    Has ALL of these tags
--json                JSON output
--files               URI list output
--line-numbers        Include line numbers

Global Flags

--index <name>    Alternate index (default: "default")
--config <path>   Override config file
--verbose         Verbose logging
--json            JSON output
--yes             Non-interactive mode
--offline         Use cached models only
--no-color        Disable colors
--no-pager        Disable paging

Reference Documentation

| Topic | File | | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | | Complete CLI reference (all commands, options, flags) | cli-reference.md | | MCP server setup and tools | mcp-reference.md | | Usage examples and patterns | examples.md |

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