Redis Query Engine

Guidance for using the Redis Query Engine (RQE) to index and search Hash or JSON documents. Covers schema design with FT.CREATE, field-type choices, query syntax, index lifecycle management, and the most common performance pitfalls.

When to apply

• Creating, modifying, or reviewing an RQE index (FT.CREATE, FT.ALTER).
• Writing or optimizing FT.SEARCH / FT.AGGREGATE queries.
• Deciding between TEXT, TAG, NUMERIC, GEO, GEOSHAPE, or VECTOR for a field.
• Rolling out a new index schema without downtime.
• Spinning up an index that should only cover newly written keys.

1. Use DIALECT 2 (the modern default)

DIALECT 2 is the baseline. Other dialects (1, 3, 4) are deprecated as of Redis 8. Most modern client libraries already default to it — but specify it explicitly in raw commands for portability.

FT.SEARCH idx:products "@name:laptop" DIALECT 2