Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/tobi/qmd/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
QMD provides powerful document retrieval commands that work with paths, docids, and glob patterns.
Single Document Retrieval
Get by Path
Retrieve a document using its path (relative to collection):
Get by Docid
Every document has a unique short identifier (docid) - the first 6 characters of its content hash. Docids appear in search results:
qmd search "authentication"
docs/auth-guide.md:42 #a1b2c3
Title: Authentication Guide
Score: 93%
...
Docids are stable as long as the document content doesn’t change. If content changes, a new hash (and docid) is generated.
Start at Specific Line
Retrieve from a specific line number:
qmd get notes/meeting.md:50
# Get 100 lines starting from line 50
qmd get notes/meeting.md:50 -l 100
Add Line Numbers
qmd get notes/meeting.md --line-numbers
1: # Meeting Notes - 2025-01-15
2:
3: ## Attendees
4: - Alice, Bob, Carol
5:
6: ## Topics
...
Fuzzy Matching
QMD suggests similar files if exact match fails:
Output:
Document not found: meetting.md
Did you mean one of these?
- notes/meeting.md
- notes/meeting-2025-01-14.md
- work/team-meeting.md
Multiple Document Retrieval
Multi-Get by Glob Pattern
Retrieve multiple documents matching a pattern:
qmd multi-get "meetings/2025-01-*.md"
============================================================
File: meetings/2025-01-10.md
============================================================
# Team Standup - Jan 10
## Updates
...
============================================================
File: meetings/2025-01-15.md
============================================================
# Weekly Sync - Jan 15
## Action Items
...
Multi-Get by Comma-Separated List
Retrieve specific files (supports docids):
qmd multi-get "doc1.md, doc2.md, #abc123"
Size Limits
By default, multi-get skips files larger than 10KB. Adjust with --max-bytes:
qmd multi-get "docs/*.md" --max-bytes 20480
[SKIPPED: File too large (45KB > 10KB). Use 'qmd get docs/large-file.md' to retrieve.]
Line Limits
Limit lines per file:
qmd multi-get "journals/2025-*.md" -l 50
...
[... truncated 127 more lines]
multi-get supports the same formats as search:
CLI (default)
JSON
CSV
Markdown
XML
Files List
qmd multi-get "notes/2025-01-*.md"
qmd multi-get --json "journals/2025-05*.md"
[
{
"file": "journals/2025-05-01.md",
"title": "Daily Journal - May 1",
"context": "Personal journals",
"body": "# May 1, 2025\n\nToday I..."
},
{
"file": "journals/large-file.md",
"title": "Archive",
"skipped": true,
"reason": "File too large (45KB > 10KB)"
}
]
qmd multi-get --csv "docs/*.md" > documents.csv
file,title,context,skipped,body
docs/api.md,API Guide,Work documentation,false,"# API Guide..."
qmd multi-get --md "notes/*.md" > combined.md
## notes/meeting.md
**Title:** Team Meeting
**Context:** Work notes
\`\`\`
# Meeting Notes
...
\`\`\`
qmd multi-get --xml "docs/*.md"
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<documents>
<document>
<file>docs/api.md</file>
<title>API Guide</title>
<context>Work documentation</context>
<body># API Guide...</body>
</document>
</documents>
qmd multi-get --files "notes/*.md"
notes/meeting.md,"Work notes"
notes/ideas.md,"Personal notes"
notes/large.md,"Personal notes",[SKIPPED]
Context in Retrieved Documents
Retrieved documents include context metadata when configured:
qmd get notes/work/meeting.md
Folder Context: Work-related notes
---
# Team Meeting - Jan 15
## Attendees
...
Use Cases
Export LLM Context
Gather all relevant documents for an AI agent:
qmd search --files --all --min-score 0.4 "authentication" > files.txt
cat files.txt | cut -d, -f1 | xargs -I {} qmd get {} > context.md
qmd multi-get "docs/auth-*.md" --md --full > llm-context.md
Batch Processing
Process multiple documents with a script:
qmd multi-get --json "journals/2025-*.md" | jq -r '.[] | .file + ": " + .title'
Archive to Single File
Combine all documents in a directory:
qmd multi-get "notes/2024/**/*.md" --md > archive-2024.md
Selective Retrieval
Get only small files for quick processing:
qmd multi-get "docs/*.md" --max-bytes 5120 --json
Working with Docids
In Search Results
Docids appear in all search output formats:
qmd search "API"
# docs/api.md:10 #a1b2c3
In Multi-Get
Mix docids with paths:
qmd multi-get "#a1b2c3, notes/meeting.md, #def456"
Stability
Docids are content-based:
- Unchanged content = same docid across re-indexes
- Modified content = new docid (old one becomes invalid)
- Moved files = same docid (based on content, not path)
Use Glob Patterns
multi-get with globs is faster than individual get calls in a loop.
Set Size Limits
Use --max-bytes to skip large files when you only need metadata or summaries.
Limit Lines
-l 100 retrieves only the first 100 lines, reducing I/O for large documents.
Use Docids for Stability
Docids work even if files are moved or renamed (as long as content is unchanged).
