Press ⌘K (or Ctrl+K) anywhere to open search. Type a few words and Doota finds the conversations that match — subject and body — newest first. Word endings are handled for you: searching invoice also turns up invoices and invoicing, so you don’t have to guess the exact form someone used.
Search runs on the server, so it needs a connection — offline, ⌘K tells you it’s unavailable rather than spinning.
Narrowing with filters
Beyond free text, search understands a handful of Gmail-style filters you can mix and match:
| Filter | Finds |
|---|---|
from:alice |
mail from an address (partial is fine) |
to:support |
mail sent to an address (to or cc) |
has:attachment |
messages with a real file attached |
is:unread / is:read |
by whether you’ve read it |
is:starred |
starred conversations |
after:7d · before:2026-08-01 |
a time range — relative (7d = the last 7 days) or an exact date |
Combine them freely: from:alice has:attachment after:30d invoice finds recent
mail from Alice with a file and the word invoice.
Results show the subject and a snippet centred on your match, with the matching words highlighted. The palette shows the top hits; View all results opens the full list.
Private by design
To make search fast, Doota keeps a readable index of your mail’s subjects and body text — this is the one place your message text is stored un-encrypted (the same approach Fastmail takes). Your mail bodies and attachments stay encrypted at rest; the search index is the deliberate exception that makes real full-text search possible.