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Multi search template API

Runs multiple templated searches with a single request.

GET my-index/_msearch/template
{ }
{ "id": "my-search-template", "params": { "query_string": "hello world", "from": 0, "size": 10 }}
{ }
{ "id": "my-other-search-template", "params": { "query_type": "match_all" }}

Request

GET <target>/_msearch/template

GET _msearch/template

POST <target>/_msearch/template

POST _msearch/template

Prerequisites

If the Elasticsearch security features are enabled, you must have the read index privilege for the target data stream, index, or alias. For cross-cluster search, see Configure remote clusters with security.

Path parameters

<target>: (Optional, string) Comma-separated list of data streams, indices, and aliases to search. Supports wildcards (*). To search all data streams and indices, omit this parameter or use *.

Query parameters

ccs_minimize_roundtrips

(Optional, Boolean) If true, network round-trips are minimized for cross-cluster search requests. Defaults to true.

max_concurrent_searches

(Optional, integer) Maximum number of concurrent searches the API can run. Defaults to

max(1, (# of data nodes *
min(search thread pool size, 10)))

rest_total_hits_as_int

(Optional, Boolean) If true, the response returns hits.total as an integer. If false, it returns hits.total as an object. Defaults to false.

search_type

(Optional, string) The type of the search operation. Available options:

query_then_fetch
dfs_query_then_fetch

typed_keys

(Optional, Boolean) If true, the response prefixes aggregation and suggester names with their respective types. Defaults to false.

Request body

The request body must be newline-delimited JSON (NDJSON) in the following format:

<header>\n
<body>\n
<header>\n
<body>\n

Each <header> and <body> pair represents a search request.

The <header> supports the same parameters as the multi search API's <header>. The <body> supports the same parameters as the search template API's request body.

<header>

(Required, object) Parameters used to limit or change the search.

This object is required for each search body but can be empty ({}) or a blank line.

Properties of <header> objects

allow_no_indices

(Optional, Boolean) If true, the request does not return an error if a wildcard expression or _all value retrieves only missing or closed indices.

This parameter also applies to aliases that point to a missing or closed index.

expand_wildcards

(Optional, string) Type of index that wildcard patterns can match. If the request can target data streams, this argument determines whether wildcard expressions match hidden data streams. Supports comma-separated values, such as open,hidden. Valid values are:

all: Match any data stream or index, including hidden ones.
open: Match open, non-hidden indices. Also matches any non-hidden data stream.
closed: Match closed, non-hidden indices. Also matches any non-hidden data stream. Data streams cannot be closed.
hidden: Match hidden data streams and hidden indices. Must be combined with open, closed, or both.
none: Wildcard patterns are not accepted.

Defaults to open.

ignore_unavailable

(Optional, Boolean) If true, documents from missing or closed indices are not included in the response. Defaults to false.

index

(Optional, string or array of strings) Data streams, indices, and aliases to search. Supports wildcards (*). Specify multiple targets as an array.

If this parameter is not specified, the <target> request path parameter is used as a fallback.

preference

(Optional, string) Node or shard used to perform the search. Random by default.

request_cache

(Optional, Boolean) If true, the request cache can be used for this search. Defaults to index-level settings. See Shard request cache settings.

routing

(Optional, string) Custom routing value used to route search operations to a specific shard.

search_type

(Optional, string) Indicates whether global term and document frequencies should be used when scoring returned documents.

Options are:

query_then_fetch: (default) Documents are scored using local term and document frequencies for the shard. This is usually faster but less accurate.
dfs_query_then_fetch: Documents are scored using global term and document frequencies across all shards. This is usually slower but more accurate.

<body>

(Request, object) Parameters for the search.

explain

(Optional, Boolean) If true, returns detailed information about score calculation as part of each hit. Defaults to false.

id

(Required*, string) ID of the search template to use. If no source is specified, this parameter is required.

params

(Optional, object) Key-value pairs used to replace Mustache variables in the template. The key is the variable name. The value is the variable value.

profile

(Optional, Boolean) If true, the query execution is profiled. Defaults to false.

source

(Required*, object) An inline search template. Supports the same parameters as the search API's request body. Also supports Mustache variables.

If no id is specified, this parameter is required.

Response codes

The API returns a 400 status code only if the request itself fails. If one or more searches in the request fail, the API returns a 200 status code with an error object for each failed search in the response.

Response body

responses

(array of objects) Results for each search, returned in the order submitted. Each object uses the same properties as the search API's response.

If a search fails, the response includes an error object containing an error message.

curl requests

If a providing text file or text input to curl, use the --data-binary flag instead of -d to preserve newlines.

$ cat requests
{ "index": "my-index" }
{ "id": "my-search-template", "params": { "query_string": "hello world", "from": 0, "size": 10 }}
{ "index": "my-other-index" }
{ "id": "my-other-search-template", "params": { "query_type": "match_all" }}

$ curl -H "Content-Type: application/x-ndjson" -XGET localhost:9200/_msearch/template --data-binary "@requests"; echo

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https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.17/multi-search-template.html