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Use Keyword Search when you need exact control over terms and exclusions. This reference covers the operators SamSearch actually supports — this syntax only works in Keyword Search (lexical) mode, not Smart Search.
Don’t want to write boolean syntax by hand? Switch to Keyword Search and use the AI helper button in the search bar — see the AI Query Helper walkthrough on the main Search page.

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How SamSearch combines your terms

If you type more than one term without an operator between them, SamSearch requires all of them by default — it’s the same as joining them with AND. SamSearch is also forgiving about malformed queries: if you leave a quote or parenthesis unbalanced, it closes automatically rather than throwing an error.

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Exact phrases

Wrap a phrase in double quotes to match it exactly, word order included:
  • "artificial intelligence" — matches that exact phrase
  • "government contract" — matches that exact phrase
A quoted number followed by an inch mark, like 5" pipe, is recognized as a measurement rather than a broken quote — you don’t need to do anything special to search for it.

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Boolean operators: AND / OR / NOT

  • cybersecurity AND AI — both terms must be present
  • construction OR building — either term can be present
  • software NOT hardware — exclude hardware results
  • (AI OR "artificial intelligence") AND security — grouped conditions
Operators are recognized however you type them — and, AND, and And all work the same way.

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Grouping with parentheses

Use parentheses to control how terms combine, including putting NOT inside a group. This is the exact example shown in the Keyword Search box’s own placeholder text:

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Wildcards and fuzzy matching

  • cyber* — matches cybersecurity, cybernetics, and anything else starting with “cyber”
  • *security* — matches any word containing “security”
  • constru?t — ? stands in for exactly one character
  • construct~ — fuzzy match, catching close misspellings like “construct” or “construkt”
  • governm~1 — fuzzy match with an edit distance of 1

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Not supported

A few things that look like they should work, don’t — SamSearch’s query sanitizer treats { } [ ] : < > + - as literal characters, not operators, before your query ever reaches the search engine:
  • Field-scoped search is not supported. Something like title:cybersecurity will not restrict your search to titles — it searches for the literal text. Use the Filters panel (NAICS, Agency, Set-Aside, and so on) to scope your search by field instead of query syntax.
  • Range syntax is not supported. Something like value:[100000 TO 500000] or due_date:[NOW TO +30DAYS] will not filter by value or date. Use the Contract Value and Due Date filters in the sidebar instead.
  • Lucene +term / -term prefixes are not supported. Use AND / NOT instead.
Because these characters are always treated literally, you also never need to escape them yourself. Typing C++ searches for the literal text “C++” — no backslashes required.

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Worked examples

Back to Search

Return to the main Search guide for sources, filters, and saving searches.