How To Use Wiki Search

Wiki search is your primary tool for discovering information across a project’s documentation, codebase, and team knowledge. Use it when you need to find a configuration key, locate a code sample, understand a system’s flow, or resolve a recurring production issue—before opening a code file or asking a teammate. It’s the first place you turn when you’re unsure, and the last place you check when you’re confident.

Finding a Single Page

When you know the title or a key phrase from a page you’ve seen before, use the search bar at the top of every wiki page. Enter the query and press Enter or click the magnifying glass icon.

The search results appear in a list below the bar, ordered by relevance. The default search is case-insensitive and matches words across titles, headings, and content.

Search Terms and Operators

Use the following operators to refine your query:

• title:, content:, section:, and tag: to restrict the search scope.
• in:, from:, and since: to filter by metadata.
• AND, OR, and NOT to combine terms.

For example:

title:database connection pool AND tag:production

This returns only pages where the title includes "database connection pool" and the production tag is set.

You can also use wildcards:

tag:api* 

Matches pages with tags like api, api-client, api-gateway, api-registry.

Search Result Details

Each result shows:

• The page title
• A snippet of the content, highlighting the matched terms
• The page’s metadata: last updated date, author, and tags

Click any result to navigate to that page. Hover over the snippet to see the full content in a tooltip.

Navigating Search Results

After a search, the results are paginated. Use the pagination controls at the bottom to move between pages. Each page holds up to 20 results.

Filtering and Sorting

Below the results, use filters to narrow the list:

• Tag filter: click any tag to show only pages with that tag.
• Date range: select a period (e.g., “Last 7 days”) to limit results.
• Author filter: click an author’s name to see all pages they’ve written.

Sort results by:

• Relevance (default)
• Date updated (newest first)
• Date created (oldest first)
• Title (alphabetical)

Sorting is persistent across sessions: your next search remembers the sort order.

Refining Your Search

Click the “Advanced” button to open a form with all available search fields. This form lets you:

• Add multiple tags with AND logic
• Specify exact phrases with quotes
• Set a minimum word count
• Include or exclude specific sections

For example, to find pages with a section titled “Troubleshooting” that contain at least three occurrences of “timeout”:

"timeout" AND section:troubleshooting AND min_words:3

Searching Across Multiple Wikis

When your team maintains multiple wikis (e.g., engineering, operations, product), use the multi-wiki search feature.

Enable it by clicking the “All Wikis” checkbox in the search bar. The query runs across all configured wikis simultaneously.

Results are grouped by wiki, with a header for each. You can:

• Click the wiki name to filter results to just that wiki
• Click a result to open the page in its original wiki

Cross-Wiki Search Tips

• The search bar remembers your multi-wiki preference across sessions.
• When searching across wikis, the relevance score includes the number of wikis the page appears in.
• Pages that appear in more than one wiki are marked with a “shared” badge.

Use this when you’re investigating a topic that spans domains—e.g., “how do we deploy services?”—and you want to see how engineering, operations, and product teams approach the same problem.

Searching for Code and Configuration

You often need to find a code snippet, configuration file, or environment variable. Use the code search mode.

Code Search Query

Enter a query in the search bar and select “Code” mode from a dropdown or use the code: prefix.

For example:

code:postgresql connection string

This returns pages containing code blocks that include the phrase “postgresql connection string”.

You can also search within specific languages:

code:yaml db-config.yaml

This finds all YAML code blocks that mention db-config.yaml.

Code Search Features

• Matches across code, pre, and highlight blocks.
• Highlights the matched text in the code block.
• Shows the language and file name (if available) in the snippet.

To search for a specific configuration key, use:

code:config key:database.pool.max-size

This finds any code block where the configuration key database.pool.max-size appears, regardless of format.

You can also search for entire files:

code:file:docker-compose.yml

This matches any page with a code block containing docker-compose.yml.

Using Search in the Context of a Page

On any page, use the inline search feature to search only within that page’s content.

Click the magnifying glass icon in the page header. A small search bar appears at the top of the page.

Enter a query, and the page highlights all matches. The results are displayed in a panel on the right, showing:

• The matched text
• The heading containing the match
• A link to jump to the match

Click any result to scroll to that location in the page.

Use this when you’re reading a long guide and need to locate a specific term, such as “caching strategy” or “error boundary”.

Search Context and Navigation

When you click a search result, the page scrolls to the match and highlights it. The search panel remains open, so you can:

• Click another result to jump to it
• Scroll through the page while keeping the search panel visible
• Close the panel by clicking the “X” icon

You can also navigate between matches using Next and Previous buttons in the panel.

Troubleshooting Search Failures

Silent Failures

• No results when you expect them: the query is case-sensitive but the search is configured to be case-insensitive. Verify the search engine’s case-sensitivity setting.
• Results appear but don’t match: the search index is stale. The last update was 12 hours ago, and new pages aren’t showing up. Check the index status in the admin dashboard.
• Filters don’t apply: the filter state is not preserved between searches. The page reloads, and the filters reset. Confirm that the search URL includes all filter parameters.

Common Misconfigurations

• Search does not index code blocks: the wiki’s indexing pipeline does not process code blocks. Check the indexing configuration key:

indexing:
  include:
    - markdown
    - code
    - tables
    - headers
  exclude:
    - metadata

If code is missing, code blocks are not searchable.

• Search results are outdated: the search index is built periodically, but the interval is too long. Adjust the indexing.interval setting:

indexing:
  interval: 1h

This rebuilds the index every hour.

Search Performance

When searching across a large wiki, the results take time to load. The search engine returns a partial result set while building the full index.

Use the “Load More” button to fetch additional results. The results are paginated, and each page includes up to 20 items.

If a search takes longer than 3 seconds, the user sees a “Loading…” indicator. The search bar becomes unresponsive during this time.

Search Error Messages

When the search engine fails, it returns a status code and error message in the search results.

Common errors:

• 503 Service Unavailable: the search index is offline. Check the search.service.status endpoint:

GET /api/search/status

Response:

{
  "status": "down",
  "message": "Search index not available",
  "last_rebuild": "2024-06-15T10:02:00Z"
}

• 400 Bad Request: invalid query syntax.

Example:

GET /api/search?q=bad+query+syntax

Response:

{
  "error": "Invalid query syntax",
  "details": [
    "Expected 'AND', 'OR', 'NOT', but found 'and'",
    "Unknown operator: 'tag:'"
  ]
}

Use this to debug search queries before sharing them with others.

Saving and Sharing Search Queries

After crafting a complex query, save it for future use.

Click the “Save Search” button in the search results. A form appears:

• Enter a name for the search
• Optionally, add a description
• Choose a visibility: public, team-only, or private

The saved search appears in the Search History panel. You can:

• Click a saved search to reopen it
• Edit the query
• Delete it
• Share a direct link

Sharing a search generates a URL with all query parameters embedded:

https://wiki.example.com/search?q=api+gateway+performance&type=page&tag=production&sort=updated

This URL can be bookmarked, embedded in a documentation page, or shared in a Slack channel.

Use saved searches for recurring tasks—e.g., “Daily Production Issue Triage” or “Onboarding New Engineers”.

Advanced Search: Query Builder

For complex searches, use the query builder.

Click the “Query Builder” button in the search bar. A visual editor appears with:

• A list of filters (tag, date, author, etc.)
• A drag-and-drop interface for combining conditions
• A preview of the generated query string

Each filter is a card. Drag one card onto another to combine them with AND, OR, or NOT.

Click a card to edit its parameters. For example, to find all pages with:

• A production tag
• Created in the last 30 days
• And at least one section titled “Deployment”

The builder generates:

tag:production AND since:30d AND section:deployment

You can also save this query as a template for reuse.

Search in the Admin Dashboard

Admins can monitor and tune the search system through the Search Dashboard.

Access it via /admin/search.

Key metrics:

• Index size: total number of documents in the index
• Query latency: average time to return results
• Top queries: most frequently searched terms
• Missed queries: queries that returned no results

Use the Query Log to investigate why a search failed:

• View the raw query
• See the time it took to execute
• View the error logs from the search engine

From here, admins can:

• Rebuild the index manually
• Adjust the indexing interval
• Enable or disable features like fuzzy matching and autocomplete

Fuzzy matching allows partial matches:

q=connecion

Returns pages with “connection”, “connect”, “connecion”, and “conection”.

Use this to improve the user experience when people type variations of a term.

This page was rewritten on 18 October 2026. It replaced a templated version that was not specific to its own title. How these pages are written and checked. If anything here is wrong, tell us at [email protected] and we will correct it.