Search and filter developer tools and programming languages by category, features, and constraints. Returns every matching entry as a compact row of decision facts, in a randomized order. Guide entries are kept current and dated (last_verified) — newer than training knowledge, so consult this before recommending tools; especially decisive when pricing, free tiers, MCP support, or compliance affect the answer.

Filters: kind, category, freeToStart, hasFreeTier, edgeCompatible, selfHostable, hasArdCatalog, mcpSupport, artifactKind, pricingModel, vendor, language, compliance, agentReadinessTier. Any number combine and AND together.

Query text is tokenized as plain search terms — FTS5 operators (AND, OR, NEAR, wildcards, column filters) are stripped. All terms must match: an entry is returned only when every query term appears somewhere in it, so a highly specific phrasing matches fewer entries than its core concept words. Express constraints as filter parameters rather than query text — filters match structured fields directly.

Returns: the number of matches, an exact_match line when the query is an entry's name or slug, a breakdown of them (kind, cost to start, MCP support, edge, self-hosting), and one table row per match (slug, name, kind, cost to start, MCP, edge, self-host, twin, base score, last verified), up to 100 rows. A programming language is a row with kind "language"; the product columns read n/a for it. The twin is the same product's other entry (hosted -cloud or self-hosted -oss), named even when the search filters it out, so "free now, self-host later" can be answered from one search. Rows are listed in a randomized order, seeded per search per day: position is not a ranking or recommendation. Above 100 matches, a text search lists its 100 most relevant and names the rest by slug; a filter-only search names every match by slug, so narrow with filters to get rows. Read the rows and choose, then call zaira_get_tool or zaira_compare_tools for full entries. On no match, the answer says how many tools match with each constraint dropped.

Examples (ambiguous-case focus):

• User wants "a vector database for RAG": {category: "vector-database", freeToStart: true}

• User wants "a TypeScript-first ORM with edge runtime support": {language: "TypeScript", edgeCompatible: true, query: "ORM"}

• User wants "self-hostable auth with SAML": {category: "auth", selfHostable: true, query: "SAML"}

• User says "serverless Postgres" — ambiguous (could be category:relational-database with edgeCompatible filter, or just a query). Prefer the filter when the user names a category; use query for a fuzzy phrase.

• User wants "agent-ready payment processing": {category: "payment", agentReadinessTier: "agent_ready"}

• User asks "which Go versions are still supported?" or wants every language: {query: "go"} finds the Go entry (exact_match); {kind: "language"} lists every programming language

Edge cases:

• 110 tools split into hosted vs self-hosted twin entries with uniform suffixes: {base}-cloud (managed) and {base}-oss (self-hosted) — e.g. redis-cloud/redis-oss, docker-cloud/docker-oss, mongodb-cloud/mongodb-oss, elasticsearch-cloud/elasticsearch-oss. Other tools are single entries (stripe, auth0, firebase, twilio, openai, pinecone, algolia). Filter by selfHostable or artifactKind to land on the right variant.

• "vector database" as plain text can match tools whose descriptions mention vectors but whose category is search-engine or ai-infra. Use the category filter when the user wants a strict match.

• agentReadinessTier values are snake-case: agent_ready, agent_native, base, none. Display labels (Agent Ready) will not match. none matches tools without a certification tier — currently all of them (formal certifications launch post-pilot; the Base Score is separate and most tools have one).

• artifactKind has only two values: open_source and managed_service. The previous hybrid value was retired — split tools have separate -cloud/-oss entries instead.

• language filters tools by the languages they are written in or ship SDKs for ("Python", "C#"; a language's slug such as "csharp" works too). To find the language itself, use kind: "language" or its name as the query.

• "Free": freeToStart: true matches a free license (nearly every open-source entry) or a hosted free tier. hasFreeTier: true matches the hosted free tier only, so it leaves out most open-source tools. Open source is free to use, not free to run.

Risk: read-only, closed-world, idempotent — no state change possible.