/mdfind - Attachment Content Search

Search inside PDFs, PowerPoints, images, and other files in Attachments/ using macOS Spotlight (mdfind). This leverages the OS-level content index — no custom indexing needed.

Usage

/mdfind <search query>           # Search all attachment content
/mdfind --type pdf <query>       # Search only PDFs
/mdfind --type pptx <query>      # Search only PowerPoints
/mdfind --type image <query>     # Search only images (OCR-indexed)

Instructions

1. Run mdfind

Execute the appropriate search based on flags:

Default (all attachments)

mdfind -onlyin Attachments/ "<search_query>" 2>/dev/null

Filter by PDF

mdfind -onlyin Attachments/ "kMDItemContentType == 'com.adobe.pdf' && kMDItemTextContent == '*<query>*'" 2>/dev/null

If the above returns nothing, fall back to the simpler form:

mdfind -onlyin Attachments/ -name ".pdf" "<search_query>" 2>/dev/null

Filter by PPTX

mdfind -onlyin Attachments/ "kMDItemContentType == 'org.openxmlformats.presentationml.presentation'" "<search_query>" 2>/dev/null

Filter by Images

mdfind -onlyin Attachments/ "kMDItemContentType == 'public.image'" "<search_query>" 2>/dev/null

2. Present Results

Format results clearly:

## Attachment Search: <query>

Found **N** matching files

| # | File | Type | Size |
|---|------|------|------|
| 1 | [filename](path) | PDF | 2.4 MB |
| 2 | ... | ... | ... |

### Quick Actions

- Read a PDF: `/pdf-to-page <path>`
- Read a PPTX: `/pptx-to-page <path>`
- Full vault search: `/q <query>`

3. Get File Details (Optional)

For each result, get file size and type:

ls -lh "<file_path>" 2>/dev/null

Notes

• mdfind uses macOS Spotlight — files must be indexed (most are by default)
• Works best with text-based PDFs; scanned PDFs need OCR indexing
• For vault note content search, use /q instead
• Results are file paths relative to the vault root