diff --git a/src/docs.jl b/src/docs.jl
index 88160273..6cf2d5d1 100644
--- a/src/docs.jl
+++ b/src/docs.jl
@@ -2,11 +2,42 @@ using DocSeeker
 import Markdown
 
 handle("searchdocs") do data
-  @destruct [mod || Main, nameOnly || false, exportedOnly || false, allPackages || false, query] = data
-  items = @errs DocSeeker.searchdocs(query, mod = mod, exportedonly = exportedOnly,
-                                     loaded = !allPackages, name_only = nameOnly)
+  @destruct [
+    needle = query,
+    mod || "Main",
+    name_only = nameOnly || false,
+    exportedonly = exportedOnly || false,
+    allPackages || false
+  ] = data
+  searchdocs′(
+    needle;
+    # kwargs to be passed to `DocSeeker.searchdocs`:
+    # TODO: configuration for `maxreturns`
+    loaded = !allPackages, mod = getmodule(mod), exportedonly = exportedonly, name_only = name_only
+  )
+end
+
+function searchdocs′(needle; kwargs...)
+  items = _searchdocs(needle; kwargs...)
+  return processdocs(items)
+end
+
+function _searchdocs(needle; kwargs...)
+  identifiers = split(needle, '.')
+  head = string(identifiers[1])
+  mod = get(kwargs, :mod, Main)
+  if head ≠ needle && (nextmod = getfield′(mod, head)) isa Module
+    # if `head` is a module, update `needle` and `mod`
+    nextneedle = join(identifiers[2:end], '.')
+    nextkwargs = Dict(k => (k === :mod ? nextmod : v) for (k, v) in kwargs)
+    return _searchdocs(nextneedle; nextkwargs...)
+  end
+
+  return @errs searchdocs(needle; kwargs...)
+end
 
-  if items isa EvalError
+function processdocs(items)
+  return if items isa EvalError
     errstr = sprint(showerror, items.err)
     err = startswith(errstr, "Please regenerate the") ?
             """
@@ -45,12 +76,16 @@ end
 
 handle("moduleinfo") do data
   @destruct [mod] = data
+  moduleinfo(mod)
+end
+
+function moduleinfo(mod)
   d, items = getmoduleinfo(mod)
   items = [renderitem(i) for i in items]
   Dict(:doc => view(d), :items => items)
 end
 
-getmoduleinfo(mod) = ispackage(mod) ? packageinfo(mod) : moduleinfo(mod)
+getmoduleinfo(mod) = ispackage(mod) ? packageinfo(mod) : modinfo(mod)
 ispackage(mod) = Base.find_package(mod) ≠ nothing
 
 function packageinfo(mod)
@@ -64,14 +99,21 @@ function packageinfo(mod)
           ), modulesymbols(mod)
 end
 
-function moduleinfo(mod)
-  header = if mod ∈ ("Core", "Base", "Main") || first(split(mod, '.')) == "Base"
-    "## Standard module `$(mod)`"
+function modinfo(mod)
+  header = "## "
+  header *= if mod in ("Core", "Base", "Main")
+    "Toplevel module:"
+  elseif first(split(mod, '.')) == "Core"
+    "Core sub module:"
+  elseif first(split(mod, '.')) == "Base"
+    "Base sub module:"
   else
-    "## Module `$mod`"
-  end * "\n---\n## Defined symbols:" |> renderMD
+    "Module:"
+  end
+  header *= " `$(mod)`"
+  header *= "\n---\n## Defined symbols:"
 
-  header, modulesymbols(mod)
+  return renderMD(header), modulesymbols(mod)
 end
 
 function modulesymbols(mod)
@@ -82,7 +124,8 @@ end
 using Logging: with_logger
 using .Progress: JunoProgressLogger
 
-handle("regeneratedocs") do
+handle(() -> regeneratedocs(), "regeneratedocs")
+function regeneratedocs()
   with_logger(JunoProgressLogger()) do
     @errs DocSeeker.createdocsdb()
   end
diff --git a/test/docs.jl b/test/docs.jl
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..88afe7ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/docs.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+@testset "docs" begin
+  @testset "searchdocs" begin
+    using Atom: searchdocs′, _searchdocs
+
+    @test !searchdocs′("sin")[:error]
+        # module awareness
+    @test all(_searchdocs("getfield′"; mod = "Atom")) do (score, docobj)
+      docobj.mod == "Atom"
+    end
+        # strip module accessor
+    @test all(_searchdocs("Atom.getfield′"; mod = "Main")) do (score, docobj)
+      docobj.mod == "Atom"
+    end
+  end
+
+  @testset "moduleinfo" begin
+    using Atom: moduleinfo
+
+    @test_nowarn moduleinfo("Main")
+    @test all(moduleinfo("Atom")[:items]) do item
+      item[:mod] == "Atom"
+    end
+  end
+end