Meilisearch

Index Configuration Traps

• filterableAttributes and sortableAttributes must be declared BEFORE adding documents — adding later triggers full reindex
• Changing any index setting triggers reindex — batch all setting changes together
• Order of searchableAttributes affects ranking — put most important fields first, not alphabetical
• displayedAttributes defaults to all — explicitly limit to reduce response size

Indexing Pitfalls

• Document updates are async — the API returns taskUid, must poll /tasks/{uid} for actual completion
• Primary key inference fails on nested or array fields — always set primaryKey explicitly
• Batch size affects indexing speed — 10-50MB batches optimal, not one document at a time
• Updating one field requires sending the whole document — no true partial updates

Typo Tolerance Issues

• First character is never typo-tolerant — "tset" won't match "test", by design
• Typo tolerance on IDs/codes causes false matches — disable per attribute with typoTolerance.disableOnAttributes
• Min word length defaults: 1 typo at 5 chars, 2 typos at 9 chars — adjust if matching too aggressively