---
title: Your first search
description: One search box takes a verse reference, a keyword, a person, or a theological idea. Here is what to type and what comes back.
---

The search box sits at the top of the app. Its placeholder reads `Search verses, keywords, or topics`, which is the whole instruction: it accepts all three, and it works out which one you meant from what you typed.

1. **Type something specific**

    Try `John 3:16` for a passage, `Nephilim` for a word, or `Trinity` for an idea.

2. **Press Enter**

    Search runs against the local index first — 37,000+ verses and narrations — and returns in well under a second.

3. **Read the verse panel**

    The top result opens above the analysis, with its translations, original-language text, and related material.

4. **Read the analysis below it**

    The scholarly analysis streams in under the verse. See [Reading an analysis](/using/reading-an-analysis).

## What each kind of query does

| You type | TriCanon treats it as | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `John 3:16` | A direct reference | Jumps straight to that verse |
| `Genesis 1:1-3` | A range | The passage, with each verse listed |
| `Nephilim` | A keyword | Every verse containing the term, ranked by relevance |
| `love thy neighbor` | A multi-word phrase | Verses with the highest overlap of those terms |
| `Trinity` | A theological concept | No keyword hits, so the analysis runs and the passages it cites fill the results |
| `14:37` or `Al-Baqarah 2:124` | A Quran reference | The surah and ayah, with Arabic text and tafsir |
| `Bukhari 4:584` | A Hadith reference | The narration, with its Arabic text and authenticity grade |

Searches run across all four sources at once. Results carry a badge telling you where each one comes from — the Tanakh and Old Testament, the New Testament, the Quran, or the Hadith — and results are balanced across the traditions rather than letting one source crowd out the others.

## The concept case is the interesting one

Words like *Trinity*, *Rapture*, or *Original Sin* appear nowhere in scripture, so keyword search returns nothing. TriCanon does not stop there: the analysis runs anyway, identifies the passages that actually carry the idea, and fetches them. The notice above the results says plainly that there were no keyword matches and that everything below came from the analysis.

That behavior is the reason the tool is worth using on doctrinal questions rather than only on word lookups.

## Results are ranked, not scored

The results list shows no numbers. Direct reference matches jump to the verse; verses with several matching terms come first; single strong matches come after. Verses that the analysis cited but the keyword search missed appear in their own tab, in citation order.

## One search, one subject

A search is a single question. When you want a different passage or a different question, start a new session rather than editing the query — the analysis, the sources, and the chat are all bound to the query that produced them. See [Sessions](/using/sessions).