Searching

last updated 2026-08-18

Everything in the search bar is a space-separated list of terms: plain tags, negated tags, and key:value filters. All terms must match (AND) unless you use OR. Searches are case-insensitive.

A few rules that apply everywhere:

Images whose file is missing from disk are hidden unless the query contains missing:true.
Numeric and date filters accept comparisons (>, <, >=, <=, =) and ranges: X..Y (inclusive), ..Y, X...
A key:value term whose key is not a known filter is treated as a category-qualified tag search, so character:midna works even though character is not a filter keyword.
Type system: in the search bar to get this whole reference as a live dropdown, with drill-down hints per filter.

Basics#

Query	Meaning
`tagname`	Images with this tag.
`-tagname`	Exclude images with this tag (`NOT tagname` also works).
`tagA tagB`	Images with both tags (AND).
`tagA OR tagB`	Images with either tag.
`red*`	Wildcard: tags starting with “red” (red_hair, red_eyes, …).
`*hair`	Tags ending in “hair”.
`hair`	Tags containing “hair”.

Tags and categories#

Tags live in categories (general, character, artist, copyright, meta, rating, medium, person, year, species, plus any you create).

Query	Meaning
`character:tagname`	The tag “tagname” in the “character” category specifically.
`cat:character`	Images with any tag in the given category.
`tagged:true` / `tagged:false`	Images with at least one tag / with no tags.
`autotagged:true` / `autotagged:false`	Images with at least one auto-tag / with none.
`stale:any` / `stale:none`	Images that carry any tag a source dropped on its last refresh / none. `stale:tagname` narrows to one dropped tag; `-stale:tagname` excludes it.
`tagcount:>=10`	Number of tags on the image.
`rating:explicit`	Filter by rating: `general`, `sensitive`, `questionable`, `explicit`.

rating:X matches images whose highest rating is exactly X. An image carrying both general and explicit matches rating:explicit only. See Tags for how ratings and the SFW ceiling work.

File filters#

Query	Meaning
`name:vacation`	Substring match against the filename only (folder names do not bleed in).
`size:>=10MB`	File size. Bare bytes or a unit suffix `B`/`KB`/`MB`/`GB`/`TB` (1024-based).
`mime:png`	File type: a bare bucket (`png`, `jpeg`, `webp`, `gif`, `mp4`, `webm`, `cbz`) or `image/...` / `video/...`. Comma-separate for a union.
`type:image` / `type:archive` / `type:animated`	File-type bucket: `image` = jpeg/png/webp, `archive` = cbz/zip, `animated` = gif/mp4/webm. Comma-separate for a union.
`width:>=1920`	Image width in pixels.
`height:<768`	Image height in pixels.
`ratio:>=1.5`	Aspect ratio (width divided by height).
`duration:>=30`	Video duration in seconds. Non-video rows never match.
`pages:>=100`	Page count of a comic archive. Non-archive rows count as 0 pages.
`hash:abcd...`	Exact match on a digest of the file. A 64-character value is read as the SHA-256, a 32-character one as the MD5.
`md5:abcd...`	Exact match on the image’s MD5.
`md5:` / `-md5:`	Has an MD5 computed / does not have one yet.
`id:123`	Exact match on the image id.
`missing:true`	Images whose file is missing from disk.

Folder, source, collection#

Query	Meaning
`folder:path/to`	Images in that folder or any subfolder beneath it.
`folderonly:path/to`	Only images directly in that folder, no subfolders. Bare `folderonly:` means the gallery root alone.
`folder:"path with spaces"`	Quote paths that contain spaces.
`source:"source name"`	Images carrying that source. An image can have several sources; this matches any of them.
`source:none`	Images with no source at all. Bare `source:` means the same; `source:any` matches images carrying at least one.
`collection:"collection name"`	Images filed under that collection. Bare `collection:` matches images in no collection; `collection:any` matches images in at least one.
`via:upload`	How the image was added: `ingest` (watcher or sync), `upload` (web form), `monloader` (pushed by a paired monloader), or any origin an API client supplied.
`lookup:due`	Where the nightly lookup stands with an unsourced image: `due` (queued for the next run), `missed` (waiting out a backoff), `exhausted` (nothing found, given up), `off` (switched off on the image) or `never` (not tried yet).
`upgrade:any`	Images where a source serves a file you do not have, which is what the upgrade action offers. `upgrade:none` is the rest.
`upgrade:bigger`	The candidates whose post is larger than your copy. Only sources that publish their file’s size or dimensions can answer, so this is a subset of `upgrade:any`.
`upgrade:unknown`	Images with a source that never told monbooru which file it holds, so nothing can be compared. Refreshing the source settles them.
`upgrade:sample`	Images whose file looks like a saved preview by its name or size (a booru `sample_` file, a pixiv `master1200`, a 850px or 1200px edge) and that carry a post to check against. A guess, not a verdict.
`upgrade:kept`	Images where you chose keep local on a source.
`upgrade:danbooru`	Any other value reads as a source name: candidates from that source alone.

AI and generation metadata#

See AI metadata for what monbooru extracts.

Query	Meaning
`ai:any`	Any AI-generated image (A1111 and/or ComfyUI metadata present).
`ai:a1111`	Generated with A1111/Forge (`ai:sd` is an alias).
`ai:comfyui`	Generated with ComfyUI.
`ai:none`	No detected generation metadata.
`generated:abcd1234abcd`	Other images sharing the same generation recipe; the hash is shown in the Generation data block on the detail page.
`prompt:cat`	Substring match across the SD or ComfyUI prompt.
`model:sdxl`	Substring match against the SD model or ComfyUI checkpoint name.
`sampler:dpm`	Substring match against the sampler name.
`seed:12345`	Exact seed.

State#

Query	Meaning
`fav:true` / `fav:false`	Favorited / non-favorited.
`inbox:true` / `inbox:false`	In the inbox (untriaged) / archived.
`date:>2024-01-01`	Ingested after a date.
`date:2024-01..2024-06`	Ingested within a range.
`date:2024-03-15`	Ingested on an exact date.
`date:2024-03-15T19:23..2024-03-15T19:30`	Same, with hour (`THH`), minute (`THH:MM`) or second (`THH:MM:SS`) precision.

Dates read in your timezone (the TZ the app displays timestamps in), so date:2024-03-15 means that calendar day where you live, not the UTC day.

Relations and perceptual hash#

See Relations for what these mean.

Query	Meaning
`phash:<16hex>`	Exact perceptual-hash match. There is a copy button on the detail page’s pHash row.
`phash:<16hex>~4`	Within Hamming distance 4 (near-duplicates). Distances 0..64 accepted.
`phash:` / `-phash:`	Has a perceptual hash / does not have one.
`relation:duplicate`	Image is in any duplicate group.
`relation:original`	Image is the chosen original of a duplicate group.
`relation:alternate`	Image is in any alternate group.
`relation:version`	Image is on a version chain (either side).
`relation:derivative`	Image is the derivative end of an edge.
`relation:source`	Image is the source side of at least one derivative edge.
`relation:collection`	Image belongs to a collection.
`relation:any` / `relation:none`	Has any declared relation / none. `any` includes collection membership.

Images with similar tags#

A perceptual hash finds images that look alike. Tags find images that are alike in other ways: a recolour, a redraw, or a piece based on another one shares almost no pixels with its original but plenty of tags.

Query	Meaning
`similar:1042`	Images sharing at least one meaningful tag with image 1042, closest first.
`similar:1042~0.7`	Only the ones scoring 0.7 or better. The score runs 0 to 1.
`-similar:1042`	Everything except those.

The [more like this] link on the detail page runs the first form for you. Each result thumbnail is badged with its match as a whole percent - the same number the ~ suffix takes: a thumbnail badged 70% is exactly what similar:1042~0.7 keeps.

The score asks how much of the two images’ tagging is the same: 1.0 means they carry the same meaningful tags, 0.5 that about half lines up. Meta tags and tags most of your library carries are left out, and both sides are measured, so a picture with three tags cannot beat a well-tagged one just by being small. An image with no tags, or only meta tags, returns nothing.

This is a different score from the relations pair queue’s rare tag similarity: that one looks for the same work under a different file, so it leans on rare tags, and the two report different percentages for the same pair on purpose.

Sort options#

Sort	Meaning
Newest	By ingest date, newest first (the default).
File size	Largest first.
Collection order	Group by collection alphabetically, then by each image’s position in it. When the search pins a single `collection:`, results read in that collection’s own order.
Similarity	Closest tag match first. Appears once a `similar:` search is running, and such a search picks it automatically.

Random order (shortcut R) shuffles the results but stays stable across page turns; clicking again reshuffles. The heart button (shortcut F) filters the current search to favorites.

Saved searches#

To keep a query around, run it and pick Save search in the Actions chooser. Saved searches appear in the sidebar and are per gallery.