How to search through my boards? Using global search

You are welcome to search through all of the boards and tasks that you have been given access to, by clicking the magnifying glass icon:

The search box can also be opened with the standard keyboard short-cut: /

Tasks can be searched for by their name or External ID#.
Important:: searching requires you to use a minimum of 3 characters.

Getting the search results is quick and along with the tasks you were looking for, you will be given a hint of the values you searched by, for instance: when looking for tasks with .png files attached - names of the files will be listed below the found tasks:

Searching for files Please note, that a single search result is limited to 500 tasks.

How to search if I only recall a task name?

When looking for a specific task, i.e. recalling its name but unsure of what board or column it’s in - just enter the task name right into the search box. No quotation marks are needed, regardless of how many words the name consists of: Searching for text

How to search if I only recall some task details?

It’s more likely that you will be looking for a comprehensive view of tasks meeting a specific set of criteria. For that purpose, a significant number of additional queries can be applied to customize the search to specific factors.

The way this works is: you need to give the criteria you want to search by - in other words name the condition, such as assigned to or created by and then the value: assigned to whom, created by whom.

For instance - created_by:@SD - this finds all tasks created by SD, and attachment:? - this finds all tasks with any attachments.

How to search for anything that was assigned to me: tasks & checklist items?

To get this information, just enter your initials with an @, like this: @XY or @xy.
You will see, that an entire task assignment is hinted with initials in a little square, while the checklist item assignment is listed as checklist tick. Searching for assignments

The Search Criteria & the Search Value

To make it easy to understand, we’ll refer to these two as Criteria (LVAL) and Value (RVAL). Between the criteria and value, you need to use an operator - and most of the time, it will simply be “:”.
Note, the search will work both when you separate the LVAL and RVAL with the operator alone, and when you follow the operator with a space.

EXAMPLE assigned_to:@AB as well as assigned_to: @AB
searches for all tasks assigned to AB
EXAMPLE attachment:.doc and attachment: .doc
searches for all tasks with “.doc” attachments.

Explaining LVAL & RVAL

A query such as Description:’this is a task in which’ searches for all tasks that have the phrase “this is a task in which” in their description. In this example, description is the criteria (LVAL), ‘this is a task which’ is the value (RVAL), and the : is the operator (relates the criteria to the value).

Criteria you can search by (LVAL):

Criteria 1: User initials (LVAL)
The accepted formatting is: @XY or @xy - "@" is always necessary.
Criteria 2: Special Criteria (LVAL):
- assigned_to - finds task assignments - checklist assignment is not included
  EXAMPLE assigned_to:@am
- created_by - finds tasks created by particular user
  EXAMPLE created_by:@zp
- type - finds tasks of a specific card type, using card type names as you've named them yourself
  EXAMPLE type:invoices
- board - searches for tasks from a specific board
  EXAMPLE board:"Project X" - this will list all tasks from board named Project X (first 500 of them).
  Note: this query is much more useful when used as 1st criteria of many:
  EXAMPLE board:"Project X" attachment:x1.png
  
  Please note, how for any criteria or value that uses more than 1 word, quotation marks or apostrophes are being used.
- swimlane - searches for tasks in a named swimlane
  EXAMPLE swimlane:"Project 209"
- stage - searches by column name - as you have named them
  EXAMPLE   stage:done Invoices
  EXAMPLE   stage:'to do' Task 1
  To call out a sub-column "to do", nested under "backlog" parent column, please use:
  EXAMPLE   stage:'backlog / to do'
- checklist - searches through checklist items only
  EXAMPLE checklist:deploy
- attachment - searches by attachment name
  EXAMPLE attachment:invoice
- checklist_for - searches for tasks with checklist items assigned to the indicated person
  EXAMPLE @AM checklist_for:?
  You can also check if there are any tasks with checklist assignments, by typing:
  EXAMPLE checklist_for:?
Criteria 3: Task Attributes (LVAL):
- id - task ID, can be read from an open task URL
  EXAMPLE id:11877513
  EXAMPLE id=11877513
- board_id - board ID, can be read from an open board URL
  EXAMPLE board_id=150238)
- recurring_schedule - searches through tasks that are due to recur in a specified time-frame
  EXAMPLE recurring_schedule:2017-03
  EXAMPLE recurring_schedule:2017-03-20 type:invoices
- description - searches through task descriptions
  EXAMPLE description:XYZ
  EXAMPLE @AM description:xyz
  Note, how when wanting to search through tasks assigned to specific user, their initials need to go before any other criteria and value.
- name - looks through task names (titles) only
  EXAMPLE name:XYZ
- priority - defines what task priority to look for. Note, that Kanban Tool sees priorities as:
  0 [normal], 1 [high] and -1 [low]
  EXAMPLE priority:-1 xyz
  EXAMPLE @am priority:1 description:"do it urgently"
- tags - searches by tags found in tasks
  EXAMPLE tags:urgent
  EXAMPLE @XY tags:urgent tags:"external work"
  Note, how when looking for multiple values of the same criteria found in one task, the criteria name needs to be re-entered.
- external_id - searches by tasks's external id
  EXAMPLE external_id:673409
  Searching for the id# alone (e.g., 673409) will find a task using the value for external id too, but the query will not be limited to external id values only. Using external_id:673409 is more specific.
- created_at, updated_at, due_date - these all refer to the time-frame in which a task was either created, updated or for when its due date was set
  EXAMPLE   created_at:2017-02-27
  EXAMPLE   @AM created_at:2016-05 tags:urgent priority:1
  EXAMPLE   due_date:<2017-03-17 (lists tasks with due dates up until 17th of March)
  EXAMPLE   due_date:2017-02-18 (lists tasks with due date exactly on Feb 18th)
  EXAMPLE   due_date:>2017-03-01 (lists tasks with due dates further than or on March 1st)
  EXAMPLE   due_date:>2017-03 (lists tasks with due dates further than or in March)
- comments_count - searches by the number of comments posted for a task
  EXAMPLE   comments_count>10 tags:urgent (all tasks with more than 10 comments and with the "urgent" tag) EXAMPLE   @AM comments_count<3
  EXAMPLE   comments_count=0 (searches for tasks that have no comments made on them)
  EXAMPLE   comments_count:? priority:1 (looks at how many comments are in each card with high priority)
- size_estimate - refers to and searches by the Task Difficulty field
  EXAMPLE size_estimate>=2 board:'Jake LK Board'
- subtasks_count - checks for the number of checklist items
  EXAMPLE subtasks_count>3 board:"KBL project" priority:1
- subtasks_completed_count - this query only looks at the checklist items that have been completed
  EXAMPLE subtasks_completed_count=1 board:"Jameson Bard And Co."
- attachments_count - searches by the number of files attached to the found cards
  EXAMPLE attachments_count>=8 board:"Purchasing Department"
  EXAMPLE attachments_count<20 attachments_count>15 (this will find cards with attached between 15 and 20 files)
- custom_field_1 - (and "custom_field_2" down to "custom_field_15")
  - this search looks for cards with specified values in custom fields.
  EXAMPLE   custom_field_1:XYZ
  EXAMPLE   custom_field_1=30
  Note, that for as long as you know the name that was given to a specific custom field, you can use that name instead of "custom_field_1". For instance: If a "custom_field_1" was called Number of People Invited, you could ask for -
  EXAMPLE   "Number of People Invited">=30
- external_link - a text-based search through the links added to cards
  EXAMPLE external_link:docs.google (will search for all cards that have an external link to Google Drive)
- block_reason - searching through the reasons why tasks are blocked, so refers to blocked tasks only. Of course, what you'd be looking for here are the blocking reasons accepted and most used by your team.
  EXAMPLE   block_reason:"Needs more information"
  EXAMPLE   block_reason:2
  EXAMPLE   block_reason:? - this will list all of the blocked tasks
- time_estimate - searches by the amount of time that was set as in the Estimated Time field.
  EXAMPLE time_estimate>10:12 (searches for tasks with time estimate over 10 hrs. 12 minutes)
  EXAMPLE time_estimate=02:00
  Please note, that this time format is required: HH:MM and using other values may result in finding incorrect information.
- timers_total - will list tasks for time worked via Time Tracking for an amount specified by value
  EXAMPLE board:Orders timers_total>02:30
  EXAMPLE timers_total>06:00 timers_total<08:30
  Please note, "timers_total" value will be 100% accurate only for tasks that are not timed at the time of making the query.
- timers_active_count - searches by how many team members are currently running Time Tracking timers for each task
  EXAMPLE board:"Project GHY" timers_active_count>=1 (will find all tasks on which more than 1 person is currently running a timer)
  EXAMPLE timers_active_count>=3 (will show all tasks on your account, on which there are 3 or more people working at the time of querying)
Criteria 4: Field Name (LVAL)
You are welcome to make queries by the field names that you find in a translated version of Kanban Tool:
EXAMPLE Beschreibung:'Das is'
EXAMPLE Prioridad:1

As you can see - the global search does have some serious superpowers.
It’s been shown by what criteria you can search boards - let’s sum up the values and operators (what relates criteria to values) that are supported.

Values you can search by (RVAL):

As shown in the examples above, values can take form of:

A number
Number of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years, as in: 20.minutes, 3.hours, 7.days, 3.weeks, 2.months, 2.years.
For singular numbers, you can also use minute, hour etc.
- EXAMPLE time_estimate:>15.minutes
- EXAMPLE created_at:>2.hours
- EXAMPLE due_date:=3.days
- Note, that for some queries, you may want to use an additional indicator to specify whether to look in the future or past time, as in:
  EXAMPLE due_date:>2.days.from_now
  vs.
  EXAMPLE due_date:>2.days.ago
A date - this is the supported format: 2015-01-02
Time - this is the supported format: HH:MM
User initials - @XY or @xy
- assigned_to
  EXAMPLE assigned_to:@DC
  EXAMPLE checklist_for example: checklist_for:@DC
- created_by
  EXAMPLE created_by:@DC
- In any other case, you're welcome to add user initials to the beginning of a query, to limit the search results to tasks assigned to this person only
  EXAMPLE @DC description:"XYZ" due_date:2017-03-04 priority:1

Complete list of search operators - what to use between LVAL & RVAL:

: matching value
EXAMPLE description:"Do you know"
:= an exactly equal value
EXAMPLE custom_field_1:=3453
:? shows all tasks that have any value in the given criteria
EXAMPLE checklist_for:? (will list all tasks that have checklist items assigned to anyone)
:! does not include
EXAMPLE priority:!1 (will show all tasks that have a priority other than high)
:!? is an empty field
EXAMPLE   checklist:!? (finds tasks that have no checklist items added)
EXAMPLE   due_date:!? (finds tasks with no due date set)
EXAMPLE   assigned_to:!? (finds unassigned tasks)
:< date-related only earlier than (a date)
EXAMPLE due_date:<2017-03-17 (will list tasks with due dates before 17 March 2017)
:> date-related only later than (a date)
EXAMPLE due_date:>2017-02-18 (will list tasks with dates past 18 Feb 2017)
= for numerical values only equal to
EXAMPLE size_estimate=6 (lists tasks with Difficulty set to 6)
> for numerical values only larger than
EXAMPLE time_estimate>10:00
< for numerical values only less than
EXAMPLE time_estimate<02:00
<= for numerical values only less than or equal to
EXAMPLE subtasks_count<=4
>= for numerical values only larger than or equal to
EXAMPLE subtasks_count>=4

Navigating the search results

After clicking a task from the search results, you can view and edit it on the screen without loading the original board that the card is on.

The narrow bar just below the card title displays the board and column in which the open task is.

When you’ve opened a task from the search results, using the arrows on both sides of the card lets you navigate through the results list, as opposed to navigating through the neighboring tasks on the board - which is how these arrows work when you click a card from the board view and not from search results.

Final Notes

Please note, there should be no spaces used between the criteria, operator and value, like so: LVAL:RVAL

Also, for searches that use multiple queries, simply list one query after another, separating by space, like so:
LVAL:RVAL LVAL>RVAL LVAL=RVAL
EXAMPLE @DV board:”Project D” description:”Casey Toners” due_date>2017-03-20 priority:1
EXAMPLE checklist_for:@hg priority:1 due_date<=2017-03-01

As demonstrated in the above examples, any value that you are searching by (RVAL) that is made of more than 1 word, needs to be placed in quotation marks or apostrophes.

Search in comments and lists

The global search can also be used to reference a specific task inside a comment message window or within an individual checklists item. Just type # to open the search window.

In case you have any problems with using the global search functionality, feel free to contact us for help.

Kanban Tool Support