Docs

Query syntax

One syntax for community and web watches. It's Google-like, because you already know Google.

You write	It means
`fernly`	Whole word, case-insensitive. Matches “Fernly” and “Fernly’s”, not “fernlyapp”.
`fernly*`	Prefix. Matches “fernlyapp” and “fernlyhq”. At least 3 characters before the *.
`"invoicing tool"`	Exact phrase, case-insensitive, whitespace- and punctuation-normalized.
`fernly invoicing`	Both terms must appear (AND).
`fernly OR fernlyhq`	Either term. OR must be uppercase.
`(fernly OR fernlyhq) -job`	Grouping, and exclusion with a leading minus. Works on phrases too: -"fernly job".
`title:fernly`	Title only, regardless of the watch's Fields setting. title:"invoicing tool" works too.
`url:fernly.com`	The item's link URL contains this text.

How matching works

Text is compared case-insensitively with accents folded, so “cafe” matches “café”.
Words are split on spaces and punctuation, including apostrophes: fernly matches “Fernly’s”. A word with punctuation inside, like fernly-js or fernly.com, is treated as a phrase, so it also matches “fernly js”.
OR binds tighter than the implicit AND, as in Google: fernly invoicing OR billing means fernly AND (invoicing OR billing). Use parentheses when in doubt.
A comment is matched on its own text. The title of the thread it belongs to is shown for context but isn't searched.
Queries can be up to 500 characters and 20 terms or phrases, and must include at least one word to match (not only exclusions).
Which communities to watch (subreddits, forums, instances, sites, repositories) is set with the watch's scope fields, not in the query.

Web watches

Web watches send your query to a search provider, which can't honor everything: prefix search (word*) and url: aren't available, and exclusions work on single words and phrases rather than groups. The editor tells you before you save instead of silently dropping an operator. Use the Domains fields to include or exclude sites.

Examples

`"ledger lite" OR ledgerlite OR "ledger-lite" -crypto -wallet`	A brand that shares a name with a common word.
`("invoicing tool" OR "invoicing app") (freelance OR freelancer OR contractor)`	People describing the problem you solve.
`"fernly-js" OR fernly-node`	An SDK, across GitHub, Stack Exchange and DEV.