> Thus, my question is whether there’s a way for me to get "at most 5 results" in a single query?

No, it cannot be done in a single query.


If you want to loop through a given count downwards then the following _example_ **AppleScript** _code_ is how I'd do it:

<!-- language: lang-applescript --> 

    set maxNumber to 5
    set searchString to "a"
    
    set matches to missing value
    repeat with i from maxNumber to 1 by -1
    	if matches is equal to missing value then
    		try
    			tell application "Notes"
    				set matches to id of ¬
    					(notes 1 thru i in default account ¬
    						whose name contains searchString)
    			end tell
    		end try
    	end if
    end repeat
    
    return matches