Docs: expand search section with custom field, notes, and tokenization examples

Adds word-order, accent-insensitivity, and separator-agnostic notes to the
intro, then new subsections covering custom_fields.name/value query syntax
with tokenization examples and a limitation note for custom date fields, plus
a notes.user/notes.note subsection.

Also prefetch document versions during index_reindex.

Co-Authored-By: Antoine Mérino <3023499+Merinorus@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Trenton H
2026-03-30 14:26:03 -07:00
parent 8107b7d209
commit 6699679c29
2 changed files with 54 additions and 6 deletions
+53 -5
View File
@@ -804,13 +804,20 @@ contract you signed 8 years ago).
When you search paperless for a document, it tries to match this query
against your documents. Paperless will look for matching documents by
inspecting their content, title, correspondent, type and tags. Paperless
returns a scored list of results, so that documents matching your query
better will appear further up in the search results.
inspecting their content, title, correspondent, type, tags, notes, and
custom field values. Paperless returns a scored list of results, so that
documents matching your query better will appear further up in the search
results.
By default, paperless returns only documents which contain all words
typed in the search bar. However, paperless also offers advanced search
syntax if you want to drill down the results further.
typed in the search bar. A few things to know about how matching works:
- **Word-order-independent**: "invoice unpaid" and "unpaid invoice" return the same results.
- **Accent-insensitive**: searching `resume` also finds `résumé`, `cafe` finds `café`.
- **Separator-agnostic**: punctuation and separators are stripped during indexing, so
searching a partial number like `1312` finds documents containing `A-1312/B`.
Paperless also offers advanced search syntax if you want to drill down further.
Matching documents with logical expressions:
@@ -852,6 +859,47 @@ modified:this_year
Supported date keywords: `today`, `yesterday`, `this_week`, `last_week`,
`this_month`, `last_month`, `this_year`, `last_year`.
#### Searching custom fields
Custom field values are included in the full-text index, so a plain search
already matches documents whose custom field values contain your search terms.
To narrow by field name or value specifically:
```
custom_fields.value:policy
custom_fields.name:"Contract Number"
custom_fields.name:Insurance custom_fields.value:policy
```
- `custom_fields.value` matches against the value of any custom field.
- `custom_fields.name` matches the name of the field (use quotes for multi-word names).
- Combine both to find documents where a specific named field contains a specific value.
Because separators are stripped during indexing, individual parts of formatted
codes are searchable on their own. A value stored as `A-1312/99.50` produces the
tokens `a`, `1312`, `99`, `50` — each searchable independently:
```
custom_fields.value:1312
custom_fields.name:"Contract Number" custom_fields.value:1312
```
!!! note
Custom date fields do not support relative date syntax (e.g. `[now to 2 weeks]`).
For date ranges on custom date fields, use the document list filters in the web UI.
#### Searching notes
Notes content is included in full-text search automatically. To search
by note author or content specifically:
```
notes.user:alice
notes.note:reminder
notes.user:alice notes.note:insurance
```
All of these constructs can be combined as you see fit. If you want to
learn more about the query language used by paperless, see the
[Tantivy query language documentation](https://docs.rs/tantivy/latest/tantivy/query/struct.QueryParser.html).
+1 -1
View File
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ def index_reindex(*, iter_wrapper: IterWrapper[Document] = _identity) -> None:
"document_type",
"storage_path",
"owner",
).prefetch_related("tags", "notes", "custom_fields")
).prefetch_related("tags", "notes", "custom_fields", "versions")
get_backend().rebuild(documents, iter_wrapper=iter_wrapper)
reset_backend()