diff --git a/src/terminal/search.zig b/src/terminal/search.zig
index 96a7b56a7..f35249ab2 100644
--- a/src/terminal/search.zig
+++ b/src/terminal/search.zig
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 const std = @import("std");
 const Allocator = std.mem.Allocator;
 const assert = std.debug.assert;
+const CircBuf = @import("../datastruct/main.zig").CircBuf;
 const terminal = @import("main.zig");
 const point = terminal.point;
 const Page = terminal.Page;
@@ -8,6 +9,211 @@ const PageList = terminal.PageList;
 const Selection = terminal.Selection;
 const Screen = terminal.Screen;
 
+pub const PageListSearch = struct {
+    alloc: Allocator,
+
+    /// The list we're searching.
+    list: *PageList,
+
+    /// The search term we're searching for.
+    needle: []const u8,
+
+    /// The window is our sliding window of pages that we're searching so
+    /// we can handle boundary cases where a needle is partially on the end
+    /// of one page and the beginning of the next.
+    ///
+    /// Note that we're not guaranteed to straddle exactly two pages. If
+    /// the needle is large enough and/or the pages are small enough then
+    /// the needle can straddle N pages. Additionally, pages aren't guaranteed
+    /// to be equal size so we can't precompute the window size.
+    window: SlidingWindow,
+
+    pub fn init(
+        alloc: Allocator,
+        list: *PageList,
+        needle: []const u8,
+    ) !PageListSearch {
+        var window = try CircBuf.init(alloc, 0);
+        errdefer window.deinit();
+
+        return .{
+            .alloc = alloc,
+            .list = list,
+            .current = list.pages.first,
+            .needle = needle,
+            .window = window,
+        };
+    }
+
+    pub fn deinit(self: *PageListSearch) void {
+        _ = self;
+
+        // TODO: deinit window
+    }
+};
+
+/// The sliding window of the pages we're searching. The window is always
+/// big enough so that the needle can fit in it.
+const SlidingWindow = struct {
+    /// The data buffer is a circular buffer of u8 that contains the
+    /// encoded page text that we can use to search for the needle.
+    data: DataBuf,
+
+    /// The meta buffer is a circular buffer that contains the metadata
+    /// about the pages we're searching. This usually isn't that large
+    /// so callers must iterate through it to find the offset to map
+    /// data to meta.
+    meta: MetaBuf,
+
+    const DataBuf = CircBuf(u8, 0);
+    const MetaBuf = CircBuf(Meta, undefined);
+    const Meta = struct {
+        node: *PageList.List.Node,
+        cell_map: Page.CellMap,
+
+        pub fn deinit(self: *Meta) void {
+            self.cell_map.deinit();
+        }
+    };
+
+    pub fn initEmpty(alloc: Allocator) Allocator.Error!SlidingWindow {
+        var data = try DataBuf.init(alloc, 0);
+        errdefer data.deinit(alloc);
+
+        var meta = try MetaBuf.init(alloc, 0);
+        errdefer meta.deinit(alloc);
+
+        return .{
+            .data = data,
+            .meta = meta,
+        };
+    }
+
+    pub fn deinit(self: *SlidingWindow, alloc: Allocator) void {
+        self.data.deinit(alloc);
+
+        var meta_it = self.meta.iterator(.forward);
+        while (meta_it.next()) |meta| meta.deinit();
+        self.meta.deinit(alloc);
+    }
+
+    /// Add a new node to the sliding window.
+    ///
+    /// The window will prune itself if it can while always maintaining
+    /// the invariant that the `fixed_size` always fits within the window.
+    ///
+    /// Note it is possible for the window to be smaller than `fixed_size`
+    /// if not enough nodes have been added yet or the screen is just
+    /// smaller than the needle.
+    pub fn append(
+        self: *SlidingWindow,
+        alloc: Allocator,
+        node: *PageList.List.Node,
+        required_size: usize,
+    ) Allocator.Error!void {
+        // Initialize our metadata for the node.
+        var meta: Meta = .{
+            .node = node,
+            .cell_map = Page.CellMap.init(alloc),
+        };
+        errdefer meta.deinit();
+
+        // This is suboptimal but we need to encode the page once to
+        // temporary memory, and then copy it into our circular buffer.
+        // In the future, we should benchmark and see if we can encode
+        // directly into the circular buffer.
+        var encoded: std.ArrayListUnmanaged(u8) = .{};
+        defer encoded.deinit(alloc);
+
+        // Encode the page into the buffer.
+        const page: *const Page = &meta.node.data;
+        _ = page.encodeUtf8(
+            encoded.writer(alloc),
+            .{ .cell_map = &meta.cell_map },
+        ) catch {
+            // writer uses anyerror but the only realistic error on
+            // an ArrayList is out of memory.
+            return error.OutOfMemory;
+        };
+        assert(meta.cell_map.items.len == encoded.items.len);
+
+        // Now that we know our buffer length, we can consider if we can
+        // prune our circular buffer or if we need to grow it.
+        prune: {
+            // Our buffer size after adding the new node.
+            const before_size: usize = self.data.len() + encoded.items.len;
+
+            // Prune as long as removing the first (oldest) node retains
+            // our required size invariant.
+            var after_size: usize = before_size;
+            while (self.meta.first()) |oldest_meta| {
+                const new_size = after_size - oldest_meta.cell_map.items.len;
+                if (new_size < required_size) break :prune;
+
+                // We can prune this node and retain our invariant.
+                // Update our new size, deinitialize the memory, and
+                // remove from the circular buffer.
+                after_size = new_size;
+                oldest_meta.deinit();
+                self.meta.deleteOldest(1);
+            }
+            assert(after_size <= before_size);
+
+            // If we didn't prune anything then we're done.
+            if (after_size == before_size) break :prune;
+
+            // We need to prune our data buffer as well.
+            self.data.deleteOldest(before_size - after_size);
+        }
+
+        // Ensure our buffers are big enough to store what we need.
+        try self.data.ensureUnusedCapacity(alloc, encoded.items.len);
+        try self.meta.ensureUnusedCapacity(alloc, 1);
+
+        // Append our new node to the circular buffer.
+        try self.data.appendSlice(encoded.items);
+        try self.meta.append(meta);
+
+        // Integrity check: verify our data matches our metadata exactly.
+        if (comptime std.debug.runtime_safety) {
+            var meta_it = self.meta.iterator(.forward);
+            var data_len: usize = 0;
+            while (meta_it.next()) |m| data_len += m.cell_map.items.len;
+            assert(data_len == self.data.len());
+        }
+    }
+};
+
+test "SlidingWindow empty on init" {
+    const testing = std.testing;
+    const alloc = testing.allocator;
+
+    var w = try SlidingWindow.initEmpty(alloc);
+    defer w.deinit(alloc);
+    try testing.expectEqual(0, w.data.len());
+    try testing.expectEqual(0, w.meta.len());
+}
+
+test "SlidingWindow single append" {
+    const testing = std.testing;
+    const alloc = testing.allocator;
+
+    var w = try SlidingWindow.initEmpty(alloc);
+    defer w.deinit(alloc);
+
+    var s = try Screen.init(alloc, 80, 24, 0);
+    defer s.deinit();
+    try s.testWriteString("hello. boo! hello. boo!");
+
+    // Imaginary needle for search
+    const needle = "boo!";
+
+    // We want to test single-page cases.
+    try testing.expect(s.pages.pages.first == s.pages.pages.last);
+    const node: *PageList.List.Node = s.pages.pages.first.?;
+    try w.append(alloc, node, needle.len);
+}
+
 pub const PageSearch = struct {
     alloc: Allocator,
     node: *PageList.List.Node,