Finding things

Search is what the rest of it is for. You want a thing, and you would like to be told where it is.

Search by meaning, not by name#

Bin by Bin runs a semantic search. It compares the meaning of what you typed against the meaning of what is recorded, which is why "the blue camping stove" finds an item filed as a two-burner propane burner, and "something for cutting tile" finds an angle grinder. You do not have to remember the words you used.

Keyword matching still runs alongside it. Exact names, prefixes and part-words all work. Semantic search is added to that, not swapped in for it.

The search text leaves your device. Your query goes to an embedding provider, and so does the text of every bin and item you save: name, description, tags, room and location. Your data covers what that means on cloud and on self-hosted.

Confident results, then "Broader matches"#

Results come in two tiers, separated by a Broader matches divider.

Above the line are confident results: semantic matches plus solid keyword hits. Below it are looser matches: things that share a fragment of what you typed and might be what you meant.

Local and server results are blended#

Each search runs in two places at once: the server, which does the semantic work, and the on-device database, which knows about everything you have entered whether or not it has synced yet.

The two are merged and de-duplicated, semantic results leading each tier. Without it, an item you added two minutes ago on a bad connection would be invisible to search.

Offline, search keeps working against the local database alone. You lose the semantic layer and keep the keyword matching.

Asking out loud#

The mobile search bar has a microphone, and so does the home screen. Ask "where is my passport" and the app runs the search and speaks the answer: "Passport is in Office, in Desk Drawer. 2 more matches."

Only searches you start with the mic are answered aloud, and the count covers the confident tier alone. A bin names its room and stops, because a bin is already a place. The speaker icon in the search bar silences it, mid-sentence if it is already talking; the same switch is in Settings → Voice.

Speaking needs a speech service on the device. Without one the results still appear, they just stay silent.

Tags#

Tags are free text on an item, and they are searchable, which makes them the right tool for anything that cuts across containers: a project, a color, a season, "fragile". Bins do not have them.

When you want a category that spans physical boxes, tag it. A bin has to stay a place you can walk to; a tag has no such obligation. See Rooms, bins and items.

Barcodes#

The mobile app scans barcodes, stores the code on the item, and tries to look the product up. It checks UPCitemdb first and falls back to Open Food Facts, which is the better of the two for groceries.

If either knows the product, the name and description fill themselves in where you have left them blank, and the brand and category join your tags. Anything you have already typed is never overwritten. If neither knows it, the code is still saved, and you name the item yourself.

The lookup leaves your device. The barcode is sent to those two public catalogs, on self-hosted setups as much as on cloud. Nothing else about the item goes with it (not your photos, not the bin, not who you are), but if you would rather nothing left at all, type the code in by hand instead of scanning.

It earns its place with consumables you rebuy by exact specification: the right filament, the right weight, the right cartridge. Scanning the old package beats transcribing a twelve-digit number.

When search comes back empty#

Usually one of three things:

• It was never entered. The most common answer.
• It is inside a bin that was scanned but not reviewed carefully, so the item exists in the photo and not in the list. Open the bin and look at the picture.
• You are searching for the container when you want the contents, or the reverse. Both bins and items are returned, and they are labeled: check which kind of thing came back before concluding it is missing.