Search
birdclaw indexes every tweet and DM in SQLite FTS5. Search runs locally, returns instantly, and works offline.
#Search tweets
2 search tweets 0 1
3 search tweets 0 1 20 2 Every result includes a snippet of the matching FTS5 fragment plus author, timestamp, canonical URL, reply state, and (for live-synced rows) cache freshness.
#Date windows
4 search tweets 0 2020-01-01 1 2021-01-01 2 200 3 --since and --until accept ISO dates and snowflake-encoded tweet IDs.
#Quality filters
4 search tweets 0 1 2 500 3 --originals-only— exclude retweets and pure quote-tweet shells--hide-low-quality— apply the heuristic low-signal filter (mass replies, generic praise patterns, pure emoji, link-only spam)
The same heuristic feeds the Inbox low-signal flag.
#Collection filters
3 search tweets 0 1 20 2
3 search tweets 0 1 20 2
5 search tweets 0 1 2 2024-01-01 3 50 4 --liked and --bookmarked work uniformly across archive imports and live syncs because both feed the same canonical tweets table plus a collection edge.
#Author filter
4 search tweets 0 1 @borderline_handle 2 20 3 --author accepts a handle, @handle, numeric Twitter user id, or local profile id.
#Full flag list
--author <handle-or-id>--since <date>/--until <date>--originals-only--hide-low-quality--liked/--bookmarked--limit <n>--json/--plain
#Search DMs
2 search dms 0 1
5 search dms 0 1 1000 2 120 3 influence 4 DM-specific filters layer follower-count and influence on top of FTS5:
--conversation <id>--participant <handle-or-id>--min-followers <n>/--max-followers <n>--min-influence-score <n>/--max-influence-score <n>--sort recent|influence--replied/--unreplied--since <date>/--until <date>--limit <n>
Influence is a derived score that starts with follower count and combines verified status, prior interaction, and ratio signals. It is not authoritative — use it to bucket noisy inboxes, not to rank conversations you already care about.
#Snippets
FTS5 snippets are returned with <mark> boundaries pre-rendered for the web UI. The CLI prints them as plain text in human mode and as snippet/snippetHtml fields in --json mode.
#Performance
The FTS5 index is incremental. Sync and import runs update it as rows land. If the index ever drifts:
1 db vacuum 0 db vacuum reclaims space, recomputes FTS5 shadow tables, and reports before/after sizes. It's safe to run any time the database is not actively being written to.