Using search in Cortex

Cortex offers two ways to search across your data:

• The catalog search bar is found in the upper-right corner of a list, e.g. the catalog list.

• The global search is found at the top of the main sidebar and lets you run a quick search from anywhere in Cortex across names, descriptions, and tags.

Using the catalog search bar

When you need to find a specific entity in Cortex, use the search bar at the top of any catalog. See the available operators below.

1. Navigate to a catalog.

2. In the upper-right corner, enter text into the search bar. Note that you can use plain text for a basic search, or use operators to refine your search.

   

Search suggestions and recent searches

The search bar shows you which fields it can search against, so you don't have to remember the syntax. Click into the search bar to see the available fields:

• Title (entity title)

• Tag

• Group

• Owner

• Member

• Repository

Select a field to add it to your query. Cortex keeps the results open while you keep refining. As you type, the search bar shows which field your query is matching on. By default, a query matches on the entity's name. To match on something else, select a field from the search bar or enter its operator directly. For the full list, see Search index and operators. If you've searched this catalog before, your recent searches appear as a section in the search bar. Select one to run it again. Recent searches drop out of the list as you type, once they no longer match what you've entered.

Query syntax

The catalog search bar supports web search–style syntax:

Syntax	Example	Behavior
Multiple terms	payments api	Implicit AND — returns results matching all terms
or keyword	payments OR billing	OR — returns results matching either term
Quoted phrase	"payment service"	Matches the exact phrase
Negation (-)	payment -legacy	Excludes results containing the term after -
field:value	owner:[e-mail]	Scoped to a specific field (see table below)

You can combine these: owner:[e-mail] tag:payments -deprecated

Search index and operators

Cortex supports field-based specifiers for searching. A prefix:value token is treated as a field filter only when the prefix is a recognized search field (such as owner:, tag:, or repo:). Colons and other special characters in unrecognized positions are treated as plain text, so queries like https://example.com won't break. To search for a multi-word value, wrap it in double quotes (e.g., owner:"Maya Chen").

Search field	Corresponding YAML field	Explanation	Examples (based on sample YAMLs below)
title: or name:	title	Searches for the entity's name as defined in the title field.	• payments api • payments • title:"payments api" • name:"payments api"
tag:	x-cortex-tag	Searches for a Cortex tag as defined in the x-cortex-tag field. If a tag has more than one term separated by a hyphen, you can search for the tag using hyphens or spaces. At least one of these (or a wildcard) must be used for results to be generated.	• payments-api • payments • tag:"payments-api" • tag:"payments"
group:	x-cortex-groups	Searches for entity group names.	• payments • backend • group:"payments" • group:"backend"
owner:	x-cortex-owners	Searches for the owner(s) of an entity. If the owner is a team, Cortex searches team names and team members' names and email addresses. If the owner is an individual, Cortex searches for the user email.	• payments engineering • maya.chen • owner:"payments" • owner:"maya"
member:	x-cortex-team, members	Searches for the name and email address for a team member. This query only returns Team entities.	• maya chen • maya.chen • member:"maya" • member:"chen"
repo: or repository:	x-cortex-git, repository	Searches for a Git repository name.	• acme/payments-api • payments-api • repo:"payments-api" • repo:"acme/payments-api"
cid:	(depends on integration)	Searches for an ID associated with an entity. This usually comes from a third-party integration.	• P1AB2CD • cid:"P1AB2CD"
description:	description	Searches for the supplied term(s) in an entity's description.	• payment processing • transaction management • description:"payment" - description:"transaction"
slack:	x-cortex-slack	Searches for a Slack channel name defined in the x-cortex-slack field.	• payments-alerts • payments-eng • slack:"payments-alerts" • slack:"payments"
microsoft-team:	x-cortex-microsoft-teams	Searches for a Microsoft Teams channel name defined in the x-cortex-microsoft-teams field.	• payments-alerts • Payments Engineering • microsoft-team:"payments-alerts" • microsoft-team:"payments"
repo-basepath: or repository-basepath:	x-cortex-git, basepath	Searches for a Git repo basepath name.	• services/payments • repo-basepath:"services/payments"
link:	x-cortex-link	Searches for link based on name and URL defined under x-cortex-link.	• runbooks.acme.com • payments api runbook • link:"runbook" • link:"runbooks.acme"
Custom data (key:value)	x-cortex-custom-metadata	Searches for custom data imported from APIs, third-party integrations, and/or defined in the x-cortex-metadata block. The key is case-sensitive.	• tier:1 • region:us-east-1
aws-account-id:	Defined in AWS, not in an entity's YAML	Searches for the AWS account ID of an entity.	• aws-account-id:"012345678901"
aws-account-name:	Defined in AWS, not in an entity's YAML	Searches for entities with an AWS account name.	• aws-account-name:"example-aws-account"
aws-region:	Defined in AWS, not in an entity's YAML	Searches for entities in an AWS region.	• aws-region:"us-west-1"
aws-type:	Defined in AWS, not in an entity's YAML	Searches for entities of a given AWS entity type.	• aws-type:"lambda"
aws-name:	Defined in AWS, not in an entity's YAML	Searches for an AWS entity name.	• aws-name:"abc-lambda"
aws-identifier:	Defined in AWS, not in an entity's YAML	Searches for an AWS primary identifier.	• aws-identifier:"value"
aws-secondary-identifier:	Defined in AWS, not in an entity's YAML	Searches for an AWS secondary identifier.	• aws-secondary-identifier:"value"
aws-arn:	Defined in AWS, not in an entity's YAML	Searches for an Amazon Resource Name (ARN). This is not supported for Cloud Control types.	• aws-arn:"arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/johndoe"

Example YAML files

The YAML files below show what an entity might look like based on the examples in the table above:

'Payments API' entity YAML

info:
  title: Payments API
  description: Core service handling payment processing and transaction management.
  x-cortex-tag: payments-api
  x-cortex-type: service
  x-cortex-groups:
    - payments
    - backend
  x-cortex-git:
    github:
      repository: acme/payments-api
      basepath: services/payments
  x-cortex-link:
    - url: https://runbooks.acme.com/payments-api
      name: Payments API runbook
      type: RUNBOOK
  x-cortex-owners:
    - name: payments-engineering
      type: GROUP
      provider: CORTEX
    - type: EMAIL
      email: [e-mail]
  x-cortex-oncall:
    pagerduty:
      id: P1AB2CD
      type: SERVICE
  x-cortex-slack:
    channels:
      - name: payments-alerts
        notificationsEnabled: true
      - name: payments-eng
        notificationsEnabled: true
  x-cortex-microsoft-teams:
    channels:
      - name: payments-alerts
        teamName: Payments Engineering
        description: Alerting channel for the Payments Engineering team.
        notificationsEnabled: true
  x-cortex-metadata:
    tier: "1"
    region: us-east-1

'Payments engineering' team YAML

info:
  title: Payments Engineering
  description: Team responsible for payment processing services and infrastructure.
  x-cortex-type: team
  x-cortex-tag: payments-engineering
  x-cortex-team:
    groups:
      - name: acme/payments-engineering
        provider: GITHUB
    members:
      - name: Maya Chen
        email: [e-mail]
        notificationsEnabled: true

When a search returns no results

When a search returns nothing, Cortex explains why instead of showing an empty list. The empty state tells you what the query matched on and suggests other searches to try, along with the number of results each suggestion would return. Select a suggestion to run it.

A few other things to check when a search comes up empty:

• The term you're looking for might live in a field other than the name, such as the owner or the repository. Try one of the suggested searches, or enter the operator yourself, for example owner:"Maya Chen" or repo:"payments-api".

• Multiple terms are combined with an implicit AND, so payments api only returns entities matching both. Use OR to broaden the search, as in payments OR billing.

• Check for a stray - in your query. Anything after a hyphen is excluded from the results.

• The entity might be archived. Click Display, then turn on the option to show archived entities.

• You might be on the Mine tab, which only covers entities you own or are a member of. Select the All tab to search across every entity.

Using global search

You can search the Cortex platform from any page using the global search function. Global search pulls from names, descriptions, and tags.

In-app quick search (Cmd+K) includes entity type filter chips, letting you narrow results by type—service, domain, resource, and more—without leaving the keyboard-driven flow.

1. From the main sidebar, click Search. The Search window opens.

   
2. Enter text into the search bar.

Cortex global search covers all items by default, with tabs available to filter results by entities, Initiatives, catalogs, plugins, Scorecards, Workflows, or CQL reports. Clicking any result navigates directly to that item.

The first 10 results are displayed in the modal. Click See all to view additional results.

Optionally, in the bottom-right corner of the Search window, toggle on Show archived to include archived items in the search results. Cortex saves your selection and restores it the next time you open this window.

Search AWS details

Additional keys are available for searching AWS details in Cortex. See Searching AWS entities in Cortex for more information.