Quick Search Through Org Headers using Consult Outline

I’ve been on the lookout for an efficient way to swiftly scan through org headings exclusively for a specified input string, akin to the functionality of isearch. This would enable me to promptly navigate to a past blog post which is typically stored under an org heading.

By default, a standard isearch examines the entire file, a behaviour that in this case I don’t really want. I specifically need to limit the search to org headings only, allowing me to swiftly navigate to an org heading.

The best method I have found is to use consult-outline which I have bound to C-o

I had a play around with various org filtering options like org-goto and org-agenda but they didn’t really quite do what I wanted.

As it turns out leveraging the built-in outline-mode through consult-outline also comes with the additional benefit of being applicable to source code files.

Also in combination with embark-collect it means I can create a separate outline buffer which can simply be isearch’d through to refine my search further.

I seem to be using embark-collect more often these days so I bound a key to the mini-buffer map so I won’t necessarily need to go through the embark despatching mechanism each time I want to redirect the mini-buffer contents to a proper buffer:

(define-key minibuffer-local-map (kbd "C-c e") 'embark-collect)

I have also added consult-imenu to my arsenal of search weapons which I have bound to M-o. For example I have a very clearly defined commenting format in emacs init and sway configuration files so to jump through a file I can use imenu with consult instead.