Query Syntax

monq’s simple query mode lets you filter and project in a single query string — no separator needed. Open it with /.

Filters

Equality

Author:Peter                    → { "Author": "Peter" }
Author:Peter State:Closed       → { "Author": "Peter", "State": "Closed" }

Comparisons

age>25                          → { "age": { "$gt": 25 } }
age>=18 age<65                  → { "age": { "$gte": 18, "$lt": 65 } }

Ranges

Use field:lo..hi to express a range with a single token. Either bound can be omitted.

age:18..65                      → { "age": { "$gte": 18, "$lte": 65 } }
age:..65                        → { "age": { "$lte": 65 } }
age:18..                        → { "age": { "$gte": 18 } }
price:10.5..99.99               → { "price": { "$gte": 10.5, "$lte": 99.99 } }

Dates

Date strings are automatically coerced to MongoDB ISODate values. YYYY-MM-DD is treated as start-of-day UTC.

createdAt:2025-01-15            → { "createdAt": ISODate("2025-01-15T00:00:00.000Z") }
createdAt>2025-01-01            → { "createdAt": { "$gt": ISODate("2025-01-01T00:00:00.000Z") } }
createdAt>=2025-01-01T12:00:00Z → { "createdAt": { "$gte": ISODate("2025-01-01T12:00:00.000Z") } }
createdAt!=2025-06-15           → { "createdAt": { "$ne": ISODate("2025-06-15T00:00:00.000Z") } }

Date ranges use the same lo..hi shorthand. The upper bound gets end-of-day (23:59:59.999Z) when written as a date-only string.

createdAt:2025-01-01..2025-12-31  → $gte 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z, $lte 2025-12-31T23:59:59.999Z
createdAt:2025-06-01..            → on or after 2025-06-01

Relative date expressions

Evaluated at query time (UTC). Useful for always-fresh filters.

Expression	Meaning
`now`	Current instant
`today`	Start of current UTC day
`ago(Nd)`	N days ago
`ago(Nw)`	N weeks ago
`ago(Nm)`	N calendar months ago
`ago(Nh)`	N hours ago
`in(Nd)`	N days from now
`in(Nw)`	N weeks from now
`in(Nm)`	N calendar months from now
`in(Nh)`	N hours from now

createdAt>ago(7d)               → created in the last 7 days
createdAt>today                 → created since start of today
createdAt:ago(1m)..today        → last month up to start of today
expiresAt<in(7d)                → expires within the next 7 days
scheduledAt:now..in(1w)         → scheduled between now and 7 days from now

Negation and null

-status:deleted                 → { "status": { "$ne": "deleted" } }
email:null                      → { "email": null }
email:exists                    → { "email": { "$exists": true } }
email:!exists                   → { "email": { "$exists": false } }

Regex

name:/^john/i                   → { "name": { "$regex": "^john", "$options": "i" } }

Arrays

tags:[admin,user]               → { "tags": { "$in": ["admin", "user"] } }
-tags:[spam,bot]                → { "tags": { "$nin": ["spam", "bot"] } }
comments:size:0                 → { "comments": { "$size": 0 } }

Nested fields

address.city:London             → { "address.city": "London" }

Projection tokens

Projection tokens are written inline in the same query string.

Token	Meaning
`+field`	Include field
`-field`	Exclude field (bare, no value)

Author:Peter +name +email       → filter by Author, return only name and email
Author:Peter -_id -tags         → filter by Author, exclude _id and tags
+name +score -_id               → projection only, no filter

Projection tokens carry through automatically when you switch to BSON mode or the pipeline editor.

Mark register tokens

@<letter> resolves to _id: { $in: [...] } from the marks registered for the active collection. The sigil prefix means the token can never collide with a field literally called marks.

@a                              → docs marked with letter a
@a Author:Peter                 → marked-with-a AND Author=Peter
@a +name -_id                   → marked-with-a, projecting only name
@a @b                           → last-write wins (applies @b)

Detail	Behaviour
Single lowercase letter only	`@A`, `@ab`, `@1` are not recognised
Empty register	Resolves to `_id: { $in: [] }` (matches nothing — explicit, not silent)
Conflict with `_id:...`	Last-write wins, like other field tokens
Pipeline editor	`@a` is expanded to literal ids when opening the pipeline (Ctrl+F / Ctrl+E)

The token is live in simple mode — newly-marked documents surface on the next reload, because @<letter> is resolved at every query parse. BSON and pipeline modes snapshot the resolved ids at the moment '<letter> is pressed; press it again to refresh.

Type @ in the simple query bar to see every used register in the active collection, with its doc count and color.

See the Usage guide for the full marking workflow.