diff --git a/internal/store/search.go b/internal/store/search.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5fa6e09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/store/search.go
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+package store
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"database/sql"
+	"fmt"
+)
+
+type SearchHit struct {
+	ThreadID    int64  `json:"thread_id"`
+	Number      int    `json:"number"`
+	Kind        string `json:"kind"`
+	State       string `json:"state"`
+	Title       string `json:"title"`
+	HTMLURL     string `json:"html_url"`
+	AuthorLogin string `json:"author_login,omitempty"`
+	Snippet     string `json:"snippet"`
+}
+
+func (s *Store) SearchDocuments(ctx context.Context, repoID int64, query string, limit int) ([]SearchHit, error) {
+	if limit <= 0 {
+		limit = 20
+	}
+	rows, err := s.db.QueryContext(ctx, `
+		select t.id, t.number, t.kind, t.state, t.title, t.html_url, t.author_login,
+			snippet(documents_fts, 3, '[', ']', '...', 18)
+		from documents_fts
+		join documents d on d.id = documents_fts.rowid
+		join threads t on t.id = d.thread_id
+		where t.repo_id = ? and documents_fts match ?
+		order by bm25(documents_fts)
+		limit ?
+	`, repoID, query, limit)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("search documents: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer rows.Close()
+
+	var out []SearchHit
+	for rows.Next() {
+		var hit SearchHit
+		var author sql.NullString
+		if err := rows.Scan(&hit.ThreadID, &hit.Number, &hit.Kind, &hit.State, &hit.Title, &hit.HTMLURL, &author, &hit.Snippet); err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("scan search hit: %w", err)
+		}
+		hit.AuthorLogin = author.String
+		out = append(out, hit)
+	}
+	if err := rows.Err(); err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("iterate search hits: %w", err)
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}
diff --git a/internal/store/search_test.go b/internal/store/search_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4e6ddc4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/store/search_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+package store
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func TestSearchDocuments(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	st, err := Open(ctx, filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "gitcrawl.db"))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("open store: %v", err)
+	}
+	defer st.Close()
+
+	repoID, err := st.UpsertRepository(ctx, Repository{Owner: "openclaw", Name: "gitcrawl", FullName: "openclaw/gitcrawl", RawJSON: "{}", UpdatedAt: "2026-04-26T00:00:00Z"})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("repo: %v", err)
+	}
+	threadID, err := st.UpsertThread(ctx, Thread{
+		RepoID: repoID, GitHubID: "1", Number: 1, Kind: "issue", State: "open",
+		Title: "download stalls", HTMLURL: "https://github.com/openclaw/gitcrawl/issues/1",
+		LabelsJSON: "[]", AssigneesJSON: "[]", RawJSON: "{}", ContentHash: "hash", UpdatedAt: "2026-04-26T00:00:00Z",
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("thread: %v", err)
+	}
+	if _, err := st.UpsertDocument(ctx, Document{ThreadID: threadID, Title: "download stalls", RawText: "artifact download stalls", DedupeText: "artifact download stalls", UpdatedAt: "2026-04-26T00:00:00Z"}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("document: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	hits, err := st.SearchDocuments(ctx, repoID, "artifact", 10)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("search: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(hits) != 1 || hits[0].Number != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected hits: %#v", hits)
+	}
+}