Reindexing

Fastest ways to rebuild with schema changes.

Related: Schema, Indexer, CLI, Schema + Indexer E2E

Use this page when you need to reindex a collection with schema changes.

Examples assume the SearchEngine::Book model from Model configuration.

Fastest ways to reindex

1. CLI (safe blue/green)

   rails 'search_engine:schema:apply[books]'
   rails 'search_engine:schema:rollback[books]'
   
2. Ruby (auto fix drift)

   SearchEngine::Book.index_collection(pre: :index)
   SearchEngine::Bulk.index_collections(:books, :publishers)
   

reindex_collection! and Bulk.reindex_all! drop the active physical collection. Use only when destructive reindexing is safe.

Destructive reindex (only if safe)

SearchEngine::Book.reindex_collection!
SearchEngine::Bulk.reindex_all!

Retention settings

Keep a limited number of old physical collections after swaps:

class SearchEngine::Book < SearchEngine::Base
  schema_retention keep_last: 2
end

Next steps

• See Schema for diff rules and retention behavior.
• Use Observability to track schema apply and reindex events.