Skip to content

Web Research

Stratum can perform multi-depth web research and automatically integrate findings into your notes.

Prerequisites

You need a running SearXNG instance — a privacy-respecting metasearch engine.

Setting Up SearXNG

# Using Docker
docker run --rm -d -p 8888:8080 searxng/searxng

# Or use docker-compose with custom configuration

Configuration

  1. Open Settings → Research
  2. Set SearXNG Endpoint to your instance URL (default: http://localhost:8888)
  3. Adjust Max Results (1–10) and Research Depth (1–5)
  4. Click Save

Public SearXNG Instances

Settings → Research also lists four community-run public SearXNG instances with per-instance Test instance and Use this instance buttons:

  • https://searx.be
  • https://search.bus-hit.me
  • https://priv.au
  • https://searx.tiekoetter.com

These are static presets — Stratum never auto-detects a public instance, so the list is fixed and not reordered by connectivity. Public instances are community-run and their availability varies, so test one before relying on it. A rate-limited instance (HTTP 429) still counts as reachable for the ping — it is available, just throttled. If you self-host SearXNG, ignore the presets and enter your own URL in the endpoint field, which remains fully supported.

How Research Works

Stratum's research engine performs iterative depth-first search:

  1. Search — query SearXNG for the topic
  2. Read — extract content from the top results
  3. Deeper — follow interesting links from results (configurable depth)
  4. Synthesize — combine findings into a structured report

Performing Research

Use the AI research feature from the slash menu or command palette:

  1. Open any note
  2. Trigger AI → Research
  3. Enter your research question or topic
  4. Stratum searches the web and synthesizes findings

Research Results

Results include:

  • Findings — synthesized summary of what was discovered
  • Sources — list of web pages with titles, URLs, and snippets
  • Citations — each finding references its source

Tips

  • Be specific in your research queries — narrower questions yield better results
  • Depth 1 is sufficient for fact-checking. Depth 2–3 is for in-depth research
  • Research findings can be inserted directly into your notes as block content
  • Combine research with AI rewrite/summarize for polished reference notes