Search rules

Search rules give you direct control over your search results. You decide which documents to promote or remove, for which queries, and for how long. Every result a rule does not touch stays organic.

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What a search rule can do

Pinning targets a single document and always places it at the position you choose, even if the document does not match the query text. Boosting, deboosting, and hiding target one document, a list of documents, or every document matching a filter. For example, you can boost all products with stock > 0, or hide all articles with status = "archived".

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When a rule applies

A rule runs only when all of its conditions are true at the same time. You can combine three of them:

• Query: run the rule on every query, only on the queries containing specific words, or only on empty queries, when the user has not typed anything yet.
• Time: run the rule during a period only, such as a sale weekend, or keep it active with no time limit.
• Filter: run the rule only on the searches using a given filter value, for example when users browse the “Kitchen” category.

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Use cases

• E-commerce: Pin a campaign page during a sale, boost products that are in stock, and hide products that are not.
• Help centers: Pin the right article when the query contains a known keyword, so users get the answer first.
• Content platforms: Curate the list users see when they open search with an empty query.
• Marketplaces: Deboost listings from low-rated sellers.

Search rules work with full-text search, hybrid search, federated search, and network search.

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Pricing

Every Meilisearch Cloud project includes 3 search rules for free. To create more, subscribe to the Search Rules add-on, then add extra rule packs if you need them. See search rules pricing for the current limits and prices.

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Next steps