diff --git a/migrations/005_add_fts5_search.sql b/migrations/005_add_fts5_search.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9518c0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/migrations/005_add_fts5_search.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+-- Migration 005: Add full-text search using FTS5
+--
+-- Creates FTS5 virtual table for full-text search of notes.
+-- Since note content is stored in external files (not in the database),
+-- the FTS index must be maintained by application code, not SQL triggers.
+--
+-- Requirements:
+-- - SQLite compiled with FTS5 support
+-- - Application code handles index synchronization
+--
+-- Features:
+-- - Full-text search on note content
+-- - Porter stemming for better English search results
+-- - Unicode normalization for international characters
+-- - rowid matches notes.id for efficient lookups
+
+-- Create FTS5 virtual table for note search
+-- Using porter stemmer for better English search results
+-- Unicode61 tokenizer for international character support
+-- Note: slug is UNINDEXED (not searchable, just for result display)
+CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE IF NOT EXISTS notes_fts USING fts5(
+    slug UNINDEXED,      -- Slug for result linking (not searchable)
+    title,               -- First line of note (searchable, high weight)
+    content,             -- Full markdown content (searchable)
+    tokenize='porter unicode61'
+);
+
+-- Create delete trigger to remove from FTS when note is deleted
+-- This is the only trigger we can use since deletion doesn't require file access
+CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS notes_fts_delete
+AFTER DELETE ON notes
+BEGIN
+    DELETE FROM notes_fts WHERE rowid = OLD.id;
+END;
+
+-- Note: INSERT and UPDATE triggers cannot be used because they would need
+-- to read content from external files, which SQLite triggers cannot do.
+-- The application code in starpunk/notes.py handles FTS updates for
+-- create and update operations.
+
+-- Initial index population:
+-- After this migration runs, the FTS index must be populated with existing notes.
+-- This happens automatically on application startup via starpunk/search.py:rebuild_fts_index()
+-- or can be triggered manually if needed.
diff --git a/starpunk/notes.py b/starpunk/notes.py
index 57b77d6..0385c76 100644
--- a/starpunk/notes.py
+++ b/starpunk/notes.py
@@ -286,6 +286,17 @@ def create_note(
     # Create Note object
     note = Note.from_row(row, data_dir)
 
+    # 9. UPDATE FTS INDEX (if available)
+    try:
+        from starpunk.search import update_fts_index, has_fts_table
+        db_path = Path(current_app.config["DATABASE_PATH"])
+        if has_fts_table(db_path):
+            update_fts_index(db, note_id, slug, content)
+            db.commit()
+    except Exception as e:
+        # FTS update failure should not prevent note creation
+        current_app.logger.warning(f"Failed to update FTS index for note {slug}: {e}")
+
     return note
 
 
@@ -676,7 +687,19 @@ def update_note(
             f"Failed to update note: {existing_note.slug}",
         )
 
-    # 6. RETURN UPDATED NOTE
+    # 6. UPDATE FTS INDEX (if available and content changed)
+    if content is not None:
+        try:
+            from starpunk.search import update_fts_index, has_fts_table
+            db_path = Path(current_app.config["DATABASE_PATH"])
+            if has_fts_table(db_path):
+                update_fts_index(db, existing_note.id, existing_note.slug, content)
+                db.commit()
+        except Exception as e:
+            # FTS update failure should not prevent note update
+            current_app.logger.warning(f"Failed to update FTS index for note {existing_note.slug}: {e}")
+
+    # 7. RETURN UPDATED NOTE
     updated_note = get_note(slug=existing_note.slug, load_content=True)
 
     return updated_note
diff --git a/starpunk/search.py b/starpunk/search.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..46acf52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/starpunk/search.py
@@ -0,0 +1,246 @@
+"""
+Full-text search functionality for StarPunk
+
+This module provides FTS5-based search capabilities for notes. It handles:
+- Search query execution with relevance ranking
+- FTS index population and maintenance
+- Graceful degradation when FTS5 is unavailable
+
+The FTS index is maintained by application code (not SQL triggers) because
+note content is stored in external files that SQLite cannot access.
+"""
+
+import sqlite3
+import logging
+from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Optional
+from flask import current_app
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+def check_fts5_support(db_path: Path) -> bool:
+    """
+    Check if SQLite was compiled with FTS5 support
+
+    Args:
+        db_path: Path to SQLite database
+
+    Returns:
+        bool: True if FTS5 is available, False otherwise
+    """
+    try:
+        conn = sqlite3.connect(db_path)
+        # Try to create a test FTS5 table
+        conn.execute("CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE IF NOT EXISTS _fts5_test USING fts5(content)")
+        conn.execute("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS _fts5_test")
+        conn.close()
+        return True
+    except sqlite3.OperationalError as e:
+        if "no such module" in str(e).lower():
+            logger.warning(f"FTS5 not available in SQLite: {e}")
+            return False
+        raise
+
+
+def has_fts_table(db_path: Path) -> bool:
+    """
+    Check if FTS table exists in database
+
+    Args:
+        db_path: Path to SQLite database
+
+    Returns:
+        bool: True if notes_fts table exists
+    """
+    try:
+        conn = sqlite3.connect(db_path)
+        cursor = conn.execute(
+            "SELECT name FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table' AND name='notes_fts'"
+        )
+        exists = cursor.fetchone() is not None
+        conn.close()
+        return exists
+    except sqlite3.Error:
+        return False
+
+
+def update_fts_index(conn: sqlite3.Connection, note_id: int, slug: str, content: str):
+    """
+    Update FTS index for a note (insert or replace)
+
+    Extracts title from first line of content and updates the FTS index.
+    Uses REPLACE to handle both new notes and updates.
+
+    Args:
+        conn: SQLite database connection
+        note_id: Note ID (used as FTS rowid)
+        slug: Note slug
+        content: Full markdown content
+
+    Raises:
+        sqlite3.Error: If FTS update fails
+    """
+    # Extract title from first line
+    lines = content.split('\n', 1)
+    title = lines[0].strip() if lines else ''
+
+    # Remove markdown heading syntax (# ## ###)
+    if title.startswith('#'):
+        title = title.lstrip('#').strip()
+
+    # Limit title length
+    if len(title) > 100:
+        title = title[:100] + '...'
+
+    # Use REPLACE to handle both insert and update
+    # rowid explicitly set to match note ID for efficient lookups
+    conn.execute(
+        "REPLACE INTO notes_fts (rowid, slug, title, content) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?)",
+        (note_id, slug, title, content)
+    )
+
+
+def delete_from_fts_index(conn: sqlite3.Connection, note_id: int):
+    """
+    Remove note from FTS index
+
+    Args:
+        conn: SQLite database connection
+        note_id: Note ID to remove
+    """
+    conn.execute("DELETE FROM notes_fts WHERE rowid = ?", (note_id,))
+
+
+def rebuild_fts_index(db_path: Path, data_dir: Path):
+    """
+    Rebuild entire FTS index from existing notes
+
+    This is used during migration and can be run manually if the index
+    becomes corrupted. Reads all notes and re-indexes them.
+
+    Args:
+        db_path: Path to SQLite database
+        data_dir: Path to data directory containing note files
+
+    Raises:
+        sqlite3.Error: If rebuild fails
+    """
+    logger.info("Rebuilding FTS index from existing notes")
+
+    conn = sqlite3.connect(db_path)
+    conn.row_factory = sqlite3.Row
+
+    try:
+        # Clear existing index
+        conn.execute("DELETE FROM notes_fts")
+
+        # Get all non-deleted notes
+        cursor = conn.execute(
+            "SELECT id, slug, file_path FROM notes WHERE deleted_at IS NULL"
+        )
+
+        indexed_count = 0
+        error_count = 0
+
+        for row in cursor:
+            try:
+                # Read note content from file
+                note_path = data_dir / row['file_path']
+                if not note_path.exists():
+                    logger.warning(f"Note file not found: {note_path}")
+                    error_count += 1
+                    continue
+
+                content = note_path.read_text(encoding='utf-8')
+
+                # Update FTS index
+                update_fts_index(conn, row['id'], row['slug'], content)
+                indexed_count += 1
+
+            except Exception as e:
+                logger.error(f"Failed to index note {row['slug']}: {e}")
+                error_count += 1
+
+        conn.commit()
+        logger.info(f"FTS index rebuilt: {indexed_count} notes indexed, {error_count} errors")
+
+    except Exception as e:
+        conn.rollback()
+        logger.error(f"Failed to rebuild FTS index: {e}")
+        raise
+    finally:
+        conn.close()
+
+
+def search_notes(
+    query: str,
+    db_path: Path,
+    published_only: bool = True,
+    limit: int = 50,
+    offset: int = 0
+) -> list[dict]:
+    """
+    Search notes using FTS5
+
+    Args:
+        query: Search query (FTS5 query syntax supported)
+        db_path: Path to SQLite database
+        published_only: If True, only return published notes
+        limit: Maximum number of results
+        offset: Number of results to skip (for pagination)
+
+    Returns:
+        List of dicts with keys: id, slug, title, rank, snippet
+
+    Raises:
+        sqlite3.Error: If search fails
+    """
+    conn = sqlite3.connect(db_path)
+    conn.row_factory = sqlite3.Row
+
+    try:
+        # Build query
+        # FTS5 returns results ordered by relevance (rank)
+        # Lower rank = better match
+        sql = """
+            SELECT
+                notes.id,
+                notes.slug,
+                notes_fts.title,
+                notes.published,
+                notes.created_at,
+                rank AS relevance,
+                snippet(notes_fts, 2, '<mark>', '</mark>', '...', 40) AS snippet
+            FROM notes_fts
+            INNER JOIN notes ON notes_fts.rowid = notes.id
+            WHERE notes_fts MATCH ?
+              AND notes.deleted_at IS NULL
+        """
+
+        params = [query]
+
+        if published_only:
+            sql += " AND notes.published = 1"
+
+        sql += " ORDER BY rank LIMIT ? OFFSET ?"
+        params.extend([limit, offset])
+
+        cursor = conn.execute(sql, params)
+
+        results = []
+        for row in cursor:
+            results.append({
+                'id': row['id'],
+                'slug': row['slug'],
+                'title': row['title'],
+                'snippet': row['snippet'],
+                'relevance': row['relevance'],
+                'published': bool(row['published']),
+                'created_at': row['created_at'],
+            })
+
+        return results
+
+    finally:
+        conn.close()