Hub Search, Cmd+K for our internal app

Search is the front door to any internal tool. Ours, inside our operations app Hub, was hard to use. The interface made filters awkward, and the AI search was buried where most people never found it.

I didn't want to rebuild search. I wanted to know whether a better front end alone could fix it, without touching anything underneath.

Hub Search adds a Cmd+K palette anywhere in Hub. Results appear as you type across pages, projects, opportunities, teammates, clients, the handbook and the blog, re-ranked in the browser rather than shown in the order the server returns them.

Ranking with context

Where you are counts. If you're on a project, other projects rank a little higher, since that's usually what you're after. The boost is small enough that it only breaks ties and never lifts a weaker match over a better one. The page you're already on drops out of its own results.

An Explain ranking setting shows the score behind each result. It's the fastest way for someone to tell me the ranking is wrong.

Nothing new to trust

There's no backend and no new database. It uses the session you're already signed into, and nothing you search leaves your browser. Hub holds client and people data, so I think that's the right default for anything built on top of it.

What I learned

• Show something before you finish thinking. The palette felt slow because it waited for saved settings to load. Drawing first and reading settings second made it feel instant.
• Read the source before guessing. Three rounds of guessing at the question-answering endpoint failed. Reading the app's own code settled it in one.

The open question is whether a better front end is enough, or whether the search underneath needs to change too. Usage will tell.