Experimental features overview

This article covers how to activate activate and configure Meilisearch experimental features.

Meilisearch periodically introduces new experimental features. Experimental features are not always ready for production, but offer functionality that might benefit some users.

An experimental feature’s API can change significantly and become incompatible between releases. Keep this in mind when using experimental features in a production environment.

Meilisearch makes experimental features available expecting they will become stable in a future release, but this is not guaranteed.

Activating experimental features

Experimental features fall into two groups based on how they are activated or deactivated:

1. Those that are activated at launch with a command-line flag or environment variable
2. Those that are activated with the /experimental-features API route.

Activating experimental features at launch

Some experimental features can be activated at launch, for example with a command-line flag:

./meilisearch --experimental-enable-metrics

Flags and environment variables for experimental features are not included in the regular configuration options list. Instead, consult the specific documentation page for the feature you are interested in, which can be found in the experimental section.

Command-line flags for experimental features are always prefixed with --experimental. Environment variables for experimental features are always prefixed with MEILI_EXPERIMENTAL.

Activating or deactivating experimental features this way requires you to relaunch Meilisearch.

Activating experimental features during runtime

Some experimental features can be activated via an HTTP call using the /experimental-features API route:

cURL

curl \
  -X PATCH 'MEILISEARCH_URL/experimental-features/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json'  \
  --data-binary '{
    "metrics": true
  }'

Activating or deactivating experimental features this way does not require you to relaunch Meilisearch.

Current experimental features

Name	Description	How to configure
Limit task batch size	Limits number of tasks processed in a single batch	CLI flag or environment variable
Log customization	Customize log output and set up log streams	CLI flag or environment variable, API route
Metrics API	Exposes Prometheus-compatible analytics data	CLI flag or environment variable, API route
Reduce indexing memory usage	Optimizes indexing performance	CLI flag or environment variable
Replication parameters	Alters task processing for clustering compatibility	CLI flag or environment variable
Search queue size	Configure maximum number of concurrent search requests	CLI flag or environment variable
CONTAINS filter operator	Enables usage of CONTAINS with the filter search parameter	API route
Edit documents with function	Use a RHAI function to edit documents directly in the Meilisearch database	API route
/network route	Enable /network route	API route
Dumpless upgrade	Upgrade Meilisearch without generating a dump	API route
Composite embedders	Enable composite embedders	API route
Search query embedding cache	Enable a cache for search query embeddings	CLI flag or environment variable
Uncompressed snapshots	Disable snapshot compaction	CLI flag or environment variable
Maximum batch payload size	Limit batch payload size	CLI flag or environment variable
Multimodal search	Enable multimodal search	API route
Disable new indexer	Use previous settings indexer	CLI flag or environment variable
Experimental vector store	Enables index setting to use experimental vector store	API route