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Search

Introduced 1.0

The Search API operation lets you execute a search request to search your cluster for data.

Example

GET /movies/_search
{
  "query": {
    "match": {
      "text_entry": "I am the night"
    }
  }
}

Path and HTTP Methods

GET /<target-index>/_search
GET /_search

POST /<target-index>/_search
POST /_search

URL Parameters

All URL parameters are optional.

Parameter Type Description
allow_no_indices Boolean Whether to ignore wildcards that don’t match any indexes. Default is true.
allow_partial_search_results Boolean Whether to return partial results if the request runs into an error or times out. Default is true.
analyzer String Analyzer to use in the query string.
analyze_wildcard Boolean Whether the update operation should include wildcard and prefix queries in the analysis. Default is false.
batched_reduce_size Integer How many shard results to reduce on a node. Default is 512.
cancel_after_time_interval Time The time after which the search request will be canceled. Request-level parameter takes precedence over cancel_after_time_interval cluster setting. Default is -1.
ccs_minimize_roundtrips Boolean Whether to minimize roundtrips between a node and remote clusters. Default is true.
default_operator String Indicates whether the default operator for a string query should be AND or OR. Default is OR.
df String The default field in case a field prefix is not provided in the query string.
docvalue_fields String The fields that OpenSearch should return using their docvalue forms.
expand_wildcards String Specifies the type of index that wildcard expressions can match. Supports comma-separated values. Valid values are all (match any index), open (match open, non-hidden indexes), closed (match closed, non-hidden indexes), hidden (match hidden indexes), and none (deny wildcard expressions). Default is open.
explain Boolean Whether to return details about how OpenSearch computed the document’s score. Default is false.
from Integer The starting index to search from. Default is 0.
ignore_throttled Boolean Whether to ignore concrete, expanded, or indexes with aliases if indexes are frozen. Default is true.
ignore_unavailable Boolean Specifies whether to include missing or closed indexes in the response. Default is false.
lenient Boolean Specifies whether OpenSearch should accept requests if queries have format errors (for example, querying a text field for an integer). Default is false.
max_concurrent_shard_requests Integer How many concurrent shard requests this request should execute on each node. Default is 5.
phase_took Boolean Whether to return phase-level took time values in the response. Default is false.
pre_filter_shard_size Integer A prefilter size threshold that triggers a prefilter operation if the request exceeds the threshold. Default is 128 shards.
preference String Specifies the shards or nodes on which OpenSearch should perform the search. For valid values, see The preference query parameter.
q String Lucene query string’s query.
request_cache Boolean Specifies whether OpenSearch should use the request cache. Default is whether it’s enabled in the index’s settings.
rest_total_hits_as_int Boolean Whether to return hits.total as an integer. Returns an object otherwise. Default is false.
routing String Value used to route the update by query operation to a specific shard.
scroll Time How long to keep the search context open.
search_type String Whether OpenSearch should use global term and document frequencies when calculating relevance scores. Valid choices are query_then_fetch and dfs_query_then_fetch. query_then_fetch scores documents using local term and document frequencies for the shard. It’s usually faster but less accurate. dfs_query_then_fetch scores documents using global term and document frequencies across all shards. It’s usually slower but more accurate. Default is query_then_fetch.
seq_no_primary_term Boolean Whether to return sequence number and primary term of the last operation of each document hit.
size Integer How many results to include in the response.
sort List A comma-separated list of <field> : <direction> pairs to sort by.
_source String Whether to include the _source field in the response.
_source_excludes List A comma-separated list of source fields to exclude from the response.
_source_includes List A comma-separated list of source fields to include in the response.
stats String Value to associate with the request for additional logging.
stored_fields Boolean Whether the get operation should retrieve fields stored in the index. Default is false.
suggest_field String Fields OpenSearch can use to look for similar terms.
suggest_mode String The mode to use when searching. Available options are always (use suggestions based on the provided terms), popular (use suggestions that have more occurrences), and missing (use suggestions for terms not in the index).
suggest_size Integer How many suggestions to return.
suggest_text String The source that suggestions should be based off of.
terminate_after Integer The maximum number of documents OpenSearch should process before terminating the request. Default is 0.
timeout Time How long the operation should wait for a response from active shards. Default is 1m.
track_scores Boolean Whether to return document scores. Default is false.
track_total_hits Boolean or Integer Whether to return how many documents matched the query.
typed_keys Boolean Whether returned aggregations and suggested terms should include their types in the response. Default is true.
version Boolean Whether to include the document version as a match.
include_named_queries_score Boolean Whether to return scores with named queries. Default is false.

The preference query parameter

The preference query parameter specifies the shards or nodes on which OpenSearch should perform the search. The following are valid values:

  • _primary: Perform the search only on primary shards.
  • _replica: Perform the search only on replica shards.
  • _primary_first: Perform the search on primary shards but fail over to other available shards if primary shards are not available.
  • _replica_first: Perform the search on replica shards but fail over to other available shards if replica shards are not available.
  • _local: If possible, perform the search on the local node’s shards.
  • _prefer_nodes:<node-id-1>,<node-id-2>: If possible, perform the search on the specified nodes. Use a comma-separated list to specify multiple nodes.
  • _shards:<shard-id-1>,<shard-id-2>: Perform the search only on the specified shards. Use a comma-separated list to specify multiple shards. When combined with other preferences, the _shards preference must be listed first. For example, _shards:1,2|_replica.
  • _only_nodes:<node-id-1>,<node-id-2>: Perform the search only on the specified nodes. Use a comma-separated list to specify multiple nodes.
  • <string>: Specifies a custom string to use for the search. The string cannot start with an underscore character (_). Searches with the same custom string are routed to the same shards.

Request body

All fields are optional.

Field Type Description
aggs Object In the optional aggs parameter, you can define any number of aggregations. Each aggregation is defined by its name and one of the types of aggregations that OpenSearch supports. For more information, see Aggregations.
docvalue_fields Array of objects The fields that OpenSearch should return using their docvalue forms. Specify a format to return results in a certain format, such as date and time.
fields Array The fields to search for in the request. Specify a format to return results in a certain format, such as date and time.
explain String Whether to return details about how OpenSearch computed the document’s score. Default is false.
from Integer The starting index to search from. Default is 0.
indices_boost Array of objects Values used to boost the score of specified indexes. Specify in the format of <index> : <boost-multiplier>
min_score Integer Specify a score threshold to return only documents above the threshold.
query Object The DSL query to use in the request.
seq_no_primary_term Boolean Whether to return sequence number and primary term of the last operation of each document hit.
size Integer How many results to return. Default is 10.
_source   Whether to include the _source field in the response.
stats String Value to associate with the request for additional logging.
terminate_after Integer The maximum number of documents OpenSearch should process before terminating the request. Default is 0.
timeout Time How long to wait for a response. Default is no timeout.
version Boolean Whether to include the document version in the response.

Response body

{
  "took": 3,
  "timed_out": false,
  "_shards": {
    "total": 1,
    "successful": 1,
    "skipped": 0,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "hits": {
    "total": {
      "value": 1,
      "relation": "eq"
    },
    "max_score": 1.0,
    "hits": [
      {
        "_index": "superheroes",
        "_id": "1",
        "_score": 1.0,
        "_source": {
          "superheroes": [
            {
              "Hero name": "Superman",
              "Real identity": "Clark Kent",
              "Age": 28
            },
            {
              "Hero name": "Batman",
              "Real identity": "Bruce Wayne",
              "Age": 26
            },
            {
              "Hero name": "Flash",
              "Real identity": "Barry Allen",
              "Age": 28
            },
            {
              "Hero name": "Robin",
              "Real identity": "Dick Grayson",
              "Age": 15
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

The ext object

Starting with OpenSearch 2.10, plugin authors can add an ext object to the search response. The purpose of the ext object is to contain plugin-specific response fields. For example, in conversational search, the result of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) is a single “hit” (answer). Plugin authors can include this answer in the search response as part of the ext object so that it is separate from the search hits. In the following example response, the RAG result is in the ext.retrieval_augmented_generation.answer field:

{
  "took": 3,
  "timed_out": false,
  "_shards": {
    "total": 3,
    "successful": 3,
    "skipped": 0,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "hits": {
    "total": {
      "value": 110,
      "relation": "eq"
    },
    "max_score": 0.55129033,
    "hits": [
      {
       "_index": "...",
        "_id": "...",
        "_score": 0.55129033,
        "_source": {
          "text": "...",
          "title": "..."
        }
      },
      {
      ...
      }
      ...
      {
      ...
      }
    ],
  }, // end of hits
  "ext": {
    "retrieval_augmented_generation": { // a search response processor
      "answer": "RAG answer"
    }
  }
} 
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