Search & Research
Sentinel makes everything in a matter searchable through one index, and offers several search modes so you can match the way you're searching to what you're looking for.
Search modes
| Mode | Best for | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword | Exact strings, names, Bates numbers, Boolean (AND/OR/NOT, phrases) | Full‑text search over extracted text; fast and precise. |
| Semantic | Conceptual / paraphrased questions ("documents about regulatory pressure") | Matches by meaning using vector embeddings, even when wording differs. |
| Hybrid | Most natural‑language questions | Combines keyword precision with semantic recall — a strong default. |
| Visual | Visual content: signatures, handwriting, diagrams, photos, scanned receipts | Searches the multimodal embeddings of images and scanned pages — things plain text search can't find. |
Results come back ranked, each with a snippet and a link to open the document. Scores are mode‑relative — a higher score is better within a mode, but scores aren't comparable across modes.
Filters
You can narrow results with filters such as custodian, sender email, and document type, on top of any mode. In the Document Review workspace these become faceted filters you can stack and save.
What gets searched
Search spans a matter's indexed content, including:
- Data‑room documents and case files (firm work product).
- Email (including messages and attachments extracted from PST/MBOX/MSG archives), with metadata like sender, recipients, and subject.
- Session transcripts from depositions, interviews, and meetings.
- Court docket filings imported into the matter.
Because all of these flow through the same ingestion pipeline, they're searchable the same way and to the same depth.
Research with Emma (Privileged Chat)
The Privileged Chat / Research surface is the unified place to ask questions in natural language and get answers grounded in your documents. It has two layouts:
- No matter selected — a focused chat with Emma, plus your recent conversations and history.
- Matter selected — a workspace combining the chat, a document viewer, and a Sources panel. When Emma cites a document, you can open it right there and read the passage she relied on.
Emma searches your evidence for you, summarizes what she finds, and answers with verifiable citations — clickable references that open the underlying document. She will tell you plainly when retrieval finds little or nothing rather than filling the gap with general knowledge. See Emma — the AI Assistant for the full picture, including voice and guardrails.
Conversations
Research conversations are matter‑scoped (or global when no matter is selected). You can start new threads, browse and search your history, and export a conversation. You can also ask Emma to save a chat to the matter's case files so it's retained and searchable later.
Tips
- Start broad with hybrid search or a question to Emma; switch to keyword when you know the exact term, name, or Bates number.
- Use visual search when you're looking for something on the page rather than in the text (a signature, a stamp, a diagram).
- Open the Sources panel while researching so you can verify Emma's answers against the documents as you go.