Search API
editSearch API
editReturns search hits that match the query defined in the request.
GET /my-index-000001/_search
Prerequisites
edit-
If the Elasticsearch security features are enabled, you must have the
read
index privilege for the target data stream, index, or index alias. For cross-cluster search, see Cross cluster search and security.
Description
editAllows you to execute a search query and get back search hits that match the
query. You can provide search queries using the q
query string parameter or request body.
Path parameters
edit-
<target>
-
(Optional, string) Comma-separated list of data streams, indices, and index aliases to search. Wildcard (
*
) expressions are supported.To search all data streams and indices in a cluster, omit this parameter or use
_all
or*
.
Query parameters
editSeveral options for this API can be specified using a query parameter or a request body parameter. If both parameters are specified, only the query parameter is used.
-
allow_no_indices
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
false
, the request returns an error if any wildcard expression, index alias, or_all
value targets only missing or closed indices. This behavior applies even if the request targets other open indices. For example, a request targetingfoo*,bar*
returns an error if an index starts withfoo
but no index starts withbar
.Defaults to
true
.
-
allow_partial_search_results
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, returns partial results if there are request timeouts or shard failures. Iffalse
, returns an error with no partial results. Defaults totrue
.To override the default for this field, set the
search.default_allow_partial_results
cluster setting tofalse
. -
analyzer
-
(Optional, string) Analyzer to use for the query string.
This parameter can only be used when the
q
query string parameter is specified. -
analyze_wildcard
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, wildcard and prefix queries are analyzed. Defaults tofalse
.This parameter can only be used when the
q
query string parameter is specified. -
batched_reduce_size
-
(Optional, integer) The number of shard results that should be reduced at once
on the coordinating node. This value should be used as a protection mechanism
to reduce the memory overhead per search request if the potential number of
shards in the request can be large. Defaults to
512
.
-
ccs_minimize_roundtrips
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, network round-trips between the coordinating node and the remote clusters are minimized when executing cross-cluster search (CCS) requests. See How cross-cluster search handles network delays. Defaults totrue
. -
default_operator
-
(Optional, string) The default operator for query string query: AND or OR. Defaults to
OR
.This parameter can only be used when the
q
query string parameter is specified. -
df
-
(Optional, string) Field to use as default where no field prefix is given in the query string.
This parameter can only be used when the
q
query string parameter is specified. -
docvalue_fields
- (Optional, string) A comma-separated list of fields to return as the docvalue representation of a field for each hit.
-
expand_wildcards
-
(Optional, string) Controls what kind of indices that wildcard expressions can expand to. Multiple values are accepted when separated by a comma, as in
open,hidden
. Valid values are:-
all
- Expand to open and closed indices, including hidden indices.
-
open
- Expand only to open indices.
-
closed
- Expand only to closed indices.
-
hidden
-
Expansion of wildcards will include hidden indices.
Must be combined with
open
,closed
, or both. -
none
- Wildcard expressions are not accepted.
Defaults to
open
. -
-
explain
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, returns detailed information about score computation as part of a hit. Defaults tofalse
. -
from
-
(Optional, integer) Starting document offset. Defaults to
0
.By default, you cannot page through more than 10,000 hits using the
from
andsize
parameters. To page through more hits, use thesearch_after
parameter. -
ignore_throttled
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, concrete, expanded or aliased indices will be ignored when frozen. Defaults totrue
. -
ignore_unavailable
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
false
, the request returns an error if it targets a missing or closed index. Defaults tofalse
. -
lenient
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, format-based query failures (such as providing text to a numeric field) in the query string will be ignored. Defaults tofalse
.This parameter can only be used when the
q
query string parameter is specified. -
max_concurrent_shard_requests
-
(Optional, integer) Defines the number of concurrent shard requests per node
this search executes concurrently. This value should be used to limit the
impact of the search on the cluster in order to limit the number of concurrent
shard requests. Defaults to
5
. -
pre_filter_shard_size
-
(Optional, integer) Defines a threshold that enforces a pre-filter roundtrip to prefilter search shards based on query rewriting if the number of shards the search request expands to exceeds the threshold. This filter roundtrip can limit the number of shards significantly if for instance a shard can not match any documents based on its rewrite method ie. if date filters are mandatory to match but the shard bounds and the query are disjoint. When unspecified, the pre-filter phase is executed if any of these conditions is met:
-
The request targets more than
128
shards. - The request targets one or more read-only index.
- The primary sort of the query targets an indexed field.
-
The request targets more than
-
preference
-
(Optional, string) Nodes and shards used for the search. By default, Elasticsearch selects from eligible nodes and shards using adaptive replica selection, accounting for allocation awareness.
Valid values for
preference
-
_only_local
- Run the search only on shards on the local node.
-
_local
- If possible, run the search on shards on the local node. If not, select shards using the default method.
-
_only_nodes:<node-id>,<node-id>
- Run the search on only the specified nodes IDs. If suitable shards exist on more than one selected nodes, use shards on those nodes using the default method. If none of the specified nodes are available, select shards from any available node using the default method.
-
_prefer_nodes:<node-id>,<node-id>
- If possible, run the search on the specified nodes IDs. If not, select shards using the default method.
-
_shards:<shard>,<shard>
-
Run the search only on the specified shards. You can combine this value with
other
preference
values, excluding<custom-string>
. However, the_shards
value must come first. For example:_shards:2,3|_local
. -
<custom-string>
-
Any string that does not start with
_
. If the cluster state and selected shards do not change, searches using the same<custom-string>
value are routed to the same shards in the same order.
-
-
q
-
(Optional, string) Query in the Lucene query string syntax.
You can use the
q
parameter to run a query parameter search. Query parameter searches do not support the full Elasticsearch Query DSL but are handy for testing.The
q
parameter overrides thequery
parameter in the request body. If both parameters are specified, documents matching thequery
request body parameter are not returned. -
request_cache
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, the caching of search results is enabled for requests wheresize
is0
. See Shard request cache settings. Defaults to index level settings. -
rest_total_hits_as_int
-
(Optional, Boolean) Indicates whether hits.total should be rendered as an
integer or an object in the rest search response. Defaults to
false
. -
routing
- (Optional, string) Target the specified primary shard.
-
scroll
-
(Optional, time value) Period to retain the search context for scrolling. See Scroll search results.
By default, this value cannot exceed
1d
(24 hours). You can change this limit using thesearch.max_keep_alive
cluster-level setting.
-
search_type
-
(Optional, string) How distributed term frequencies are calculated for relevance scoring.
Valid values for
search_type
-
query_then_fetch
- (Default) Distributed term frequencies are calculated locally for each shard running the search. We recommend this option for faster searches with potentially less accurate scoring.
-
-
seq_no_primary_term
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, returns sequence number and primary term of the last modification of each hit. See Optimistic concurrency control. -
size
-
(Optional, integer) Defines the number of hits to return. Defaults to
10
.By default, you cannot page through more than 10,000 hits using the
from
andsize
parameters. To page through more hits, use thesearch_after
parameter. -
sort
- (Optional, string) A comma-separated list of <field>:<direction> pairs.
-
_source
-
(Optional) Indicates which source fields are returned for matching documents. These fields are returned in the
hits._source
property of the search response. Defaults totrue
.Valid values for
_source
-
true
- (Boolean) The entire document source is returned.
-
false
- (Boolean) The document source is not returned.
-
<string>
-
(string)
Comma-separated list of source fields to return.
Wildcard (
*
) patterns are supported.
-
-
_source_excludes
-
(Optional, string) A comma-separated list of source fields to exclude from the response.
You can also use this parameter to exclude fields from the subset specified in
_source_includes
query parameter.If the
_source
parameter isfalse
, this parameter is ignored. -
_source_includes
-
(Optional, string) A comma-separated list of source fields to include in the response.
If this parameter is specified, only these source fields are returned. You can exclude fields from this subset using the
_source_excludes
query parameter.If the
_source
parameter isfalse
, this parameter is ignored. -
stats
-
(Optional, string) Specific
tag
of the request for logging and statistical purposes. -
stored_fields
-
(Optional, string) A comma-separated list of stored fields to return as part of a hit. If no fields are specified, no stored fields are included in the response.
If this field is specified, the
_source
parameter defaults tofalse
. You can pass_source: true
to return both source fields and stored fields in the search response. -
suggest_field
- (Optional, string) Specifies which field to use for suggestions.
-
suggest_mode
-
(Optional, string) Specifies the suggest mode. Defaults to
missing
. Available options:-
always
-
missing
-
popular
This parameter can only be used when the
suggest_field
andsuggest_text
query string parameters are specified. -
-
suggest_size
-
(Optional, integer) Number of suggestions to return.
This parameter can only be used when the
suggest_field
andsuggest_text
query string parameters are specified. -
suggest_text
-
(Optional, string) The source text for which the suggestions should be returned.
This parameter can only be used when the
suggest_field
query string parameter is specified. -
terminate_after
-
(Optional, integer) The maximum number of documents to collect for each shard, upon reaching which the query execution will terminate early.
Defaults to
0
, which does not terminate query execution early. -
timeout
- (Optional, time units) Specifies the period of time to wait for a response. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error. Defaults to no timeout.
-
track_scores
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, calculate and return document scores, even if the scores are not used for sorting. Defaults tofalse
. -
track_total_hits
-
(Optional, integer or Boolean) Number of hits matching the query to count accurately. Defaults to
10000
.If
true
, the exact number of hits is returned at the cost of some performance. Iffalse
, the response does not include the total number of hits matching the query. -
typed_keys
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, aggregation and suggester names are be prefixed by their respective types in the response. Defaults totrue
. -
version
-
(Optional, Boolean)
If
true
, returns document version as part of a hit. Defaults tofalse
.
Request body
edit-
docvalue_fields
-
(Optional, array of strings and objects) Array of wildcard (
*
) patterns. The request returns doc values for field names matching these patterns in thehits.fields
property of the response.You can specify items in the array as a string or object. See Doc value fields.
Properties of
docvalue_fields
objects-
field
- (Required, string) Wildcard pattern. The request returns doc values for field names matching this pattern.
-
format
-
(Optional, string) Format in which the doc values are returned.
For date fields, you can specify a date date
format
. For numeric fields fields, you can specify a DecimalFormat pattern.For other field data types, this parameter is not supported.
-
-
fields
-
(Optional, array of strings and objects) Array of wildcard (
*
) patterns. The request returns values for field names matching these patterns in thehits.fields
property of the response.You can specify items in the array as a string or object. See Fields for more details.
Properties of
fields
objects-
field
- (Required, string) Wildcard pattern. The request returns values for field names matching this pattern.
-
format
-
(Optional, string) Format in which the values are returned.
The date fields
date
anddate_nanos
accept a date format. Spatial fields accept eithergeojson
for GeoJSON (the default) orwkt
for Well Known Text.For other field data types, this parameter is not supported.
-
-
explain
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, returns detailed information about score computation as part of a hit. Defaults tofalse
. -
from
-
(Optional, integer) Starting document offset. Defaults to
0
.By default, you cannot page through more than 10,000 hits using the
from
andsize
parameters. To page through more hits, use thesearch_after
parameter. -
indices_boost
-
(Optional, array of objects) Boosts the
_score
of documents from specified indices.Properties of
indices_boost
objects-
<index>: <boost-value>
-
(Required, float)
<index>
is the name of the index or index alias. Wildcard (*
) expressions are supported.<boost-value>
is the factor by which scores are multiplied.A boost value greater than
1.0
increases the score. A boost value between0
and1.0
decreases the score.
-
-
min_score
-
(Optional, float)
Minimum
_score
for matching documents. Documents with a lower_score
are not included in the search results.
-
query
- (Optional, query object) Defines the search definition using the Query DSL.
-
seq_no_primary_term
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, returns sequence number and primary term of the last modification of each hit. See Optimistic concurrency control. -
size
-
(Optional, integer) The number of hits to return. Defaults to
10
.By default, you cannot page through more than 10,000 hits using the
from
andsize
parameters. To page through more hits, use thesearch_after
parameter. -
_source
-
(Optional) Indicates which source fields are returned for matching documents. These fields are returned in the
hits._source
property of the search response. Defaults totrue
.Valid values for
_source
-
true
- (Boolean) The entire document source is returned.
-
false
- (Boolean) The document source is not returned.
-
<wildcard_pattern>
-
(string or array of strings)
Wildcard (
*
) pattern or array of patterns containing source fields to return. -
<object>
-
(object) Object containing a list of source fields to include or exclude.
Properties for
<object>
-
excludes
-
(string or array of strings) Wildcard (
*
) pattern or array of patterns containing source fields to exclude from the response.You can also use this property to exclude fields from the subset specified in
includes
property. -
includes
-
(string or array of strings) Wildcard (
*
) pattern or array of patterns containing source fields to return.If this property is specified, only these source fields are returned. You can exclude fields from this subset using the
excludes
property.
-
-
-
stats
- (Optional, array of strings) Stats groups to associate with the search. Each group maintains a statistics aggregation for its associated searches. You can retrieve these stats using the indices stats API.
-
terminate_after
-
(Optional, integer) The maximum number of documents to collect for each shard, upon reaching which the query execution will terminate early.
Defaults to
0
, which does not terminate query execution early. -
timeout
- (Optional, time units) Specifies the period of time to wait for a response. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error. Defaults to no timeout.
Response body
edit-
_scroll_id
-
(string) Identifier for the search and its search context.
You can use this scroll ID with the scroll API to retrieve the next batch of search results for the request. See Scroll search results.
This parameter is only returned if the
scroll
query parameter is specified in the request. -
took
-
(integer) Milliseconds it took Elasticsearch to execute the request.
This value is calculated by measuring the time elapsed between receipt of a request on the coordinating node and the time at which the coordinating node is ready to send the response.
Took time includes:
- Communication time between the coordinating node and data nodes
-
Time the request spends in the
search
thread pool, queued for execution - Actual execution time
Took time does not include:
- Time needed to send the request to Elasticsearch
- Time needed to serialize the JSON response
- Time needed to send the response to a client
-
timed_out
-
(Boolean)
If
true
, the request timed out before completion; returned results may be partial or empty. -
_shards
-
(object) Contains a count of shards used for the request.
Properties of
_shards
-
total
- (integer) Total number of shards that require querying, including unallocated shards.
-
successful
- (integer) Number of shards that executed the request successfully.
-
skipped
- (integer) Number of shards that skipped the request because a lightweight check helped realize that no documents could possibly match on this shard. This typically happens when a search request includes a range filter and the shard only has values that fall outside of that range.
-
failed
-
(integer)
Number of shards that failed to execute the request. Note that shards
that are not allocated will be considered neither successful nor failed.
Having
failed+successful
less thantotal
is thus an indication that some of the shards were not allocated.
-
-
hits
-
(object) Contains returned documents and metadata.
Properties of
hits
-
total
-
(object) Metadata about the number of returned documents.
Properties of
total
-
value
- (integer) Total number of returned documents.
-
relation
-
(string) Indicates whether the number of returned documents in the
value
parameter is accurate or a lower bound.Values of
relation
:-
eq
- Accurate
-
gte
- Lower bound, including returned documents
-
-
-
max_score
-
(float) Highest returned document
_score
.This value is
null
for requests that do not sort by_score
.
-
hits
-
(array of objects) Array of returned document objects.
Properties of
hits
objects-
_index
- (string) Name of the index containing the returned document.
-
_type
- [6.0.0] Deprecated in 6.0.0. Mapping types are deprecated and will be removed in 8.0. See Removal of mapping types. (string) Mapping type of the returned document.
-
_id
- (string) Unique identifier for the returned document. This ID is only unique within the returned index.
-
_score
- (float) Positive 32-bit floating point number used to determine the relevance of the returned document.
-
_source
-
(object) Original JSON body passed for the document at index time.
You can use the
_source
parameter to exclude this property from the response or specify which source fields to return. -
fields
-
(object) Contains field values for the documents. These fields must be specified in the request using one or more of the following request parameters:
This property is returned only if one or more of these parameters are set.
Properties of
fields
-
<field>
- (array) Key is the field name. Value is the value for the field.
-
-
-
Examples
editGET /my-index-000001/_search { "query": { "term": { "user.id": "kimchy" } } }
The API returns the following response:
{ "took": 5, "timed_out": false, "_shards": { "total": 1, "successful": 1, "skipped": 0, "failed": 0 }, "hits": { "total": { "value": 1, "relation": "eq" }, "max_score": 1.3862942, "hits": [ { "_index": "my-index-000001", "_type" : "_doc", "_id": "0", "_score": 1.3862942, "_source": { "@timestamp": "2099-11-15T14:12:12", "http": { "request": { "method": "get" }, "response": { "status_code": 200, "bytes": 1070000 }, "version": "1.1" }, "source": { "ip": "127.0.0.1" }, "message": "GET /search HTTP/1.1 200 1070000", "user": { "id": "kimchy" } } } ] } }