# [`silk-guide(1)`](/silk/docs/man/silk-guide.1/) — Search Curated Silk Example Guides > NOTE: This is the Markdown source for the eventual man 1 page for [`silk guide`](/silk/docs/usage/guide-examples/). The roff-formatted manpage should be generated from this content. ## Name `silk-guide` — search curated example guides and show runnable Silk patterns. ## Synopsis - `silk guide [options] ` - `silk guide --show ` - `silk guide --show ` - `silk guide --list` ## Description [`silk guide`](/silk/docs/usage/guide-examples/) queries an installed SQLite guide database generated from the curated catalog at [`examples/guide/catalog.json`](https://github.com/oro-computer/silk/blob/master/examples/guide/catalog.json). The seeded corpus is kept at a floor of `1000` entries and combines runnable examples with documentation-backed reference guides for every canonical language and standard-library page. Each guide entry contains: - a stable guide id, - a title and short summary, - the stored Silk example or reference source, - aliases, - tags, - platforms, - std module references, - environment/runtime requirements, - linked documentation references, - optional diagnostic-code links, - generated public std symbol lookup terms, - related guide ids, - and verification flags. ## Query Modes - Free text: - `silk guide read file` - `silk guide tcp loopback` - `silk guide http request` - `silk guide mime content type` - `silk guide atomic counter` - `silk guide protobuf schema roundtrip` - Exact tag filter: - `silk guide tags:concurrency` - Exact std-module filter: - `silk guide module:std::task` - `silk guide std::task` - `silk guide module:std::mime` - Exact public std symbol lookup: - `silk guide std::http::request` - `silk guide std::mime::content_type_with` - `silk guide std::atomic::AtomicU64.fetch_add` - `silk guide std::dylib::open_self` - `silk guide ByteSlice.find_bytes` - `silk guide std::protobuf::Reader.read_key` - `silk guide GL_TEXTURE_2D` - Documentation-backed references: - `silk guide tags:reference-guide` - `silk guide language types` - `silk guide language atomics` - `silk guide std io overview` - Exact diagnostic-code filter: - `silk guide diag:E2034` - `silk guide E2034` - Exact guide id: - `silk guide fs/file-roundtrip` - `silk guide --show fs/file-roundtrip` - Guide-id prefix expansion for show: - `silk guide --show fs` - `silk guide --show task` - Exact alias match: - `silk guide read file` - `silk guide tcp server` ## Options - `--help`, `-h` — show command help and exit. - `--list` — list seeded guide ids and titles. - `--show ` — print one full guide entry including stored source. - `--printer ` — override the source printer used by `--show` (flag first, then `SILK_GUIDE_PRINTER`, then `bat`, then `cat`). - `--json` — emit structured JSON for search or show output. - `--limit ` — limit list/search results (default: `8`). - `--db ` — override the guide database path. ## Database Resolution By default, [`silk guide`](/silk/docs/usage/guide-examples/) looks for: - `SILK_GUIDE_DB` when set, - `SILK_GUIDE_PRINTER` when set and `--printer` is not provided for `--show`, - otherwise `../share/silk/guide.db` relative to the `silk` executable, - otherwise the staged development path under `build/share/silk/guide.db` when available. ## Notes - Exact tag/module/diagnostic/alias lookups use normalized SQLite metadata tables. - Exact public std symbol lookups use generated metadata from shipped [`std/**/*.slk`](https://github.com/oro-computer/silk/blob/master/std/**/*.slk) modules and route to the matching API guide. - `--show` accepts exact ids and id-prefixes; a prefix like `fs` may render multiple `fs/...` guides. Prefix output collapses generated variants that share the same source body and prefers the canonical overview entry. - Free-text queries use a bundled SQLite FTS5 index over guide titles, summaries, stored Silk source, aliases, keywords, tags, modules, requirements, docs, and diagnostics. - Common filler words are ignored and an intent-routing pass runs before FTS search, so natural queries like `how to read a file`, `how can i open a file and read it`, `read from stdin`, or `how do i make a http request` still resolve. - Non-empty searches that still miss after alias/FTS routing report no matches instead of printing the alphabetical `--list` output. - Text search results print an explicit `matched:` reason so users can see why an example was returned. - Text search results do not print a `source:` metadata line. - `--json` emits structured arrays for aliases/tags/platforms/modules/ requirements/docs/diagnostics/keywords instead of flattening them into presentation strings. - Guide show text does not include `Run:`, `Source:`, or `Verified:` summary fields. - Guide `Docs:` references are rendered as canonical docs URLs. - Guide source is printed via the configured printer path (or direct source fallback) rather than fenced code blocks. - `--show` prints action-first metadata in this order: `What`, `Why`, `Docs`, and the remaining environment/search details, followed by the stored Silk source. - Seeded guide sources are verification-backed by the repo test suite: every distinct source path is checked, fixture-backed entries remain promoted to `verified_build`, entries are built when `verified_build = true`, and they run under a bounded timeout when `verified_run = true`. - The repo test suite also verifies that every canonical language and standard-library documentation page is referenced by at least one guide entry, and that every shipped std `export` declaration and public method (`public fn` or `public async fn`) has generated symbol lookup metadata. - High-traffic diagnostics may point directly at guide lookups such as `silk guide E2030` or `silk guide E2034`. ## See Also - [`silk(1)`](/silk/docs/man/silk.1/) - [`silk-error(1)`](/silk/docs/man/silk-error.1/) - [`silk-man(1)`](/silk/docs/man/silk-man.1/) - [`silk-doc(1)`](/silk/docs/man/silk-doc.1/)