Search an Outlook mailbox for messages matching keyword or property-based criteria (sender, subject, attachment name, date range) using Microsoft Graph's $search query parameter with KQL syntax.

Documented steps

1. Acquire an access token with delegated scope Mail.Read (or Mail.ReadWrite) for /me, or Mail.Read.All-style application permission for /users/{id}.
2. Basic search: GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/messages?$search="pizza" searches the default properties (from, subject, body).
3. Property-scoped search uses KQL inside $search, e.g. $search="from:randiw", $search="subject:has", $search="hasAttachments:true", $search="size:1..500000", $search="attachment:api-catalog.md". Searchable properties include attachment, bcc, body, cc, from, hasAttachments, importance, kind, participants, received, recipients, sent, size, subject, to.
4. Combine boolean operators inside one $search expression, e.g. $search="from:adelev OR from:alexw".
5. Add $select to trim the payload, e.g. GET /me/messages?$search="from:randiw"&$select=subject,from.
6. Read results: up to 1,000 messages are returned per $search request, sorted by the date/time the message was sent (not by relevance).
7. When using $filter with $orderby instead of $search, properties in $orderby must also appear in $filter, in the same order, or the API returns error code InefficientFilter ('The restriction or sort order is too complex for this operation').
8. Docs: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/search-query-parameter ; https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/user-list-messages ; https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/query-parameters