Searching for content effectively

Documentation Using Discourse
1

:bookmark: This guide provides a comprehensive overview of Discourse’s search capabilities, including filters, options, and advanced techniques.

:person_raising_hand: Required user level: All users

Discourse offers a powerful search functionality with numerous filters and criteria. When you use the advanced search form, it automatically appends the relevant syntax to your query. For example, selecting [x] In my messages will add in:personal to your search query.

This guide covers all available search options and features in Discourse, and provides useful tips and tricks for using the search function.

Filters

Discourse provides a wide range of filters to help you refine your search results. Here’s a comprehensive list of available filters:

Search Scope Filters

Syntax Description
in:title Returns topics with the search term in the title
in:first Returns only first posts in topics
in:replies Returns only posts that are replies, excludes topic OPs
in:all-posts Returns every post that matches the query, even when multiple posts match within the same topic
in:all Returns posts from public topics and personal messages
in:personal Searches within your personal messages
in:personal-direct Returns posts in personal messages between two users only
in:all-pms :information_source: For Admins only
Returns posts from all personal messages, including those you’re not a part of
topic:topic_id Returns posts within a specific topic
include:unlisted :information_source: For Trust Level 4 and staff only
Returns posts, including those from unlisted topics

Post Type Filters

Syntax Description
in:regular Returns regular posts only (excludes whispers, small action posts, and staff-colored posts)
in:whisper :information_source: For users with whisper access only
Returns whisper posts
in:pinned Returns posts from pinned topics
in:wiki Returns wiki posts
with:images Returns posts containing images
in:bot Returns posts by bot users
in:human Returns posts by human users

User and Group Filters

Syntax Description
@username Returns posts by username
user:username Returns posts by username
created:@username Returns posts from topics created by username
group:group_name Returns posts from users within the group_name group
group_messages:group_name Returns posts from personal messages sent to the group_name group
personal_messages:username :information_source: For Admins only
Returns posts from personal messages of the specified user
badge:name_or_id Returns posts linked to a specific badge grant

User-Specific Filters (Logged-In)

Syntax Description
in:seen Returns posts you’ve seen
in:unseen Returns posts you haven’t seen
in:watching Returns posts from topics you’re watching
in:tracking Returns posts from topics you’re tracking
in:bookmarks Returns posts you’ve bookmarked
in:likes Returns posts you’ve liked
in:posted Returns your posts
in:created Returns first posts of topics you created

Category and Tag Filters

Syntax Description
categories:category1,category2 Returns posts from the categories category1 and category2
#slug Searches by category slug or tag name, depending on context
tags:tag1,tag2,tag3 Returns posts tagged with tag1, tag2, or tag3 (comma = OR)
tags:tag1+tag2+tag3 Returns posts tagged with all of tag1, tag2, and tag3 (plus = AND)
-tags:tag1,tag2,tag3 Returns posts not tagged with tag1, tag2, or tag3
in:tagged Returns posts from topics that have at least one tag
in:untagged Returns posts from topics with no tags

Post and View Count Filters

Syntax Description
posts_count:X Returns posts from topics that have exactly X posts
min_posts:X Returns posts from topics with at least X posts
max_posts:X Returns posts from topics with at most X posts
min_views:X Returns posts from topics with at least X views
max_views:X Returns posts from topics with at most X views

Date Filters

Syntax Description
before:YYYY-MM-DD Returns posts created before the specified date
after:YYYY-MM-DD Returns posts created after the specified date
before:YYYY-MM Returns posts created before the specified month
after:YYYY-MM Returns posts created within and after the specified month
before:YYYY Returns posts created before the specified year
after:YYYY Returns posts created within and after the specified year
before:X Returns posts created more than X days ago (X = 1–999)
after:X Returns posts created within the last X days (X = 1–999)
before:day_of_week Returns posts created before the start of the specified day of the week
after:day_of_week Returns posts created on and after the start of the specified day of the week
before:month_name Returns posts created before the specified month (e.g. before:january or before:jan)
after:month_name Returns posts created within and after the specified month
before:yesterday Returns posts created before yesterday
after:yesterday Returns posts created after yesterday

Status Filters

Syntax Description
status:open Returns posts from topics that are not closed or archived
status:closed Returns posts from closed topics
status:archived Returns posts from archived topics
status:noreplies Returns posts from topics with no replies
status:single_user Returns posts from topics with posts from only one user
status:public Returns posts from topics in public categories

File Type Filters

Syntax Description
filetypes:ext1,ext2,ext3 Returns posts with uploads of ext1, ext2, or ext3 file extensions

Language Filters

Syntax Description
locale:language_code Returns posts written in that language, e.g. locale:en, locale:en_US, locale:en-gb
locale:any Returns posts that have a locale set
locale:none Returns posts without a locale

Order

You can sort your search results using the following order options:

Syntax Description
order:latest Sorts results from newest to oldest
order:oldest Sorts results from oldest to newest
order:latest_topic Sorts results by topic creation date, from newest to oldest
order:oldest_topic Sorts results by topic creation date, from oldest to newest
order:views Sorts results by number of views
order:likes Sorts results by number of likes
order:read (logged in only) Sorts by date you last visited the topic

Aliases

Discourse provides several aliases to make searching easier:

Syntax Equivalent
l order:latest
r order:read
f in:first
t in:title
in:personal in:messages
in:mine in:created
min_post_count: min_posts:
category: categories:
tag: tags:
filetype: filetypes:
# Can be used for both categories and tags, depending on context
user: @
@me @your_own_username

Searching for Exact Words

Discourse uses a technique called Stemming to find related words. While this is often helpful, there may be times when you want to search for an exact word. You can do this by enclosing your word with spaces and double quotes, like so: " term ".

This ensures that it will search only for the word “term” and exclude other related words.

:information_source: Note that because the spaces are considered part of the search term, it will not return “term” if it’s the first or the last word of a post since it won’t be preceded or followed by a space.

Example: Searching for @mentions

Currently, searching for @mentions is not directly supported. However, you can achieve this using the exact word search method:

https://meta.discourse.org/search?q=“%20%40username%20”

:information_source: This works because %20 is how spaces are encoded in URLs and %40 is how the @ symbol is encoded.

This query will look specifically for @username (enclosed in spaces).

Combining Search Options

You can combine multiple search options to create more specific queries. For example:

  • status:open category:support tag:urgent after:2023-01-01 order:latest
    This will search for open support topics tagged as urgent, created after January 1, 2023, and sort the results by the latest post.

  • @jane_doe in:watching min_posts:5 with:images
    This will search for posts by Jane Doe in topics you’re watching, with at least 5 posts, and containing images.

Permissions and Limitations

Some advanced search options may require certain user permissions or may be limited to specific user roles. For example:

  • in:all-pms is only available to administrators, not to regular users or moderators.
  • personal_messages:username is only available to administrators.
  • in:whisper requires whisper access.
  • include:unlisted is only available to Trust Level 4 users and staff.

Always consider your user role and permissions when using advanced search options.

Search Alternative: Topic List Filter

A /filter feature is available that supports many filter types. You can learn more on the official topic: Topics list filter feature

Source Files

For a more technical look at these options, all search filters and parameters can be found in search.rb - look for the advanced_filter methods.

Additional Tips

  1. You can also search for mentions of tags like #bug: https://meta.discourse.org/search?q=“%20%23bug”

  2. Some filters may be added by plugins. For example, the Solved plugin adds:

    • status:solved: Returns posts from solved topics
    • status:unsolved: Returns posts from unsolved topics in categories allowing solved marking

  3. The Topic Voting plugin adds:

    • order:votes: Sort results by number of votes on the topic containing the post
    • min_vote_count:X: Returns posts from topics with at least X votes

  4. The Assign plugin adds:

    • in:assigned: Returns posts from topics assigned to someone
    • in:unassigned: Returns posts from topics not assigned to anyone
    • assigned:username: Returns posts from topics assigned to username

  5. The Poll plugin adds:

    • in:polls: Returns posts containing polls

:bulb: Take some time to experiment with different combinations of filters and options to find the most effective search strategy for your needs.

Last edited by @ToddZ 2026-03-26T22:56:08Z

Last checked by @hugh 2024-07-25T01:14:19Z

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13 Likes
Documentation: Tips & tricks how to use search?
How do you add negative tags?
Option to search for images (or PDFs or other attachment types)
Order/Filter searched topics by latest update to First Post
Is there a user level explanation of how to use search?
Filtering topic lists in Discourse
How to perform "More robust site search"?
Searching public topics and PMs simultaneously and set this option as the default
Ordering search results by the date you last visited topics
Documentation: Tips & tricks how to use search?
Is there a user level explanation of how to use search?
Can you build a search that includes the parameter of No Tags?
Search doesn't return any topic but google search does
Searching for image urls in topics
Filtering topic lists in Discourse
Surface in:all as an option in the Advanced Search UI
`personal_messages:username` search filter doesn't work