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Command-line options

Quickwit command line tool lets you start a Quickwit server and manage indexes (create, delete, ingest), splits and sources (create, delete, toggle). To start a server, quickwit needs a node config file path that you can specify with QW_CONFIG environment variable: export QW_CONFIG=./config/quickwit.yaml. To manage indexes, splits and sources, you need to specify the endpoint of a Quickwit node with the --endpoint argument.

This page documents all the available commands, related options, and environment variables.

caution

Before using Quickwit with object storage, consult our guidelines for deploying on AWS S3 to avoid surprises on your next bill.

Commands​

Command-line synopsis syntax

Help​

quickwit or quickwit --help displays the list of available commands.

quickwit <command name> --help displays the documentation for the command and a usage example.

Version​

quickwit --version displays the version. It is helpful for reporting bugs.

Syntax​

The CLI is structured into high-level commands with subcommands. quickwit [command] [subcommand] [args].

  • command: run, index, split, source and tool.

run​

Starts Quickwit server with all services by default: indexer, searcher, metastore, control_plane and janitor.

Indexer service​

The indexer service runs indexing pipelines assigned by the control plane.

Searcher service​

Starts a web server at rest_listing_address:rest_list_port that exposes the Quickwit REST API where rest_listing_address and rest_list_port are defined in Quickwit config file (quickwit.yaml). The node can optionally join a cluster using the peer_seeds parameter. This list of node addresses is used to discover the remaining peer nodes in the cluster through a gossip protocol, see chitchat.

Metastore service​

The metastore service exposes Quickwit metastore over the network. This is a core internal service that is needed to operate Quickwit. As such, at least one running instance of this service is required for other services to work.

Control plane service​

The control plane service schedules indexing tasks to indexers. It listens to metastore events such as an source create, delete, toggle, or index delete and reacts accordingly to update the indexing plan.

Janitor service​

The Janitor service runs maintenance tasks on indexes: garbage collection, documents delete, and retention policy tasks.

note

Quickwit needs to open the following port for cluster formation and workload distribution:

TCP port (default is 7280) for REST API
TCP and UDP port (default is 7280) for cluster membership protocol
TCP port + 1 (default is 7281) for gRPC address for the distributed search

If ports are already taken, the serve command will fail.

quickwit run [args]

Synopsis

quickwit run
    [--config <config>]
    [--service <service>]

Options

--config Config file location (default: config/quickwit.yaml) \ --service Services (indexer|searcher|janitor|metastore|control_plane) to run. If unspecified, all the supported services are started. \

Examples

Starts an indexer and a metastore services

quickwit run --service indexer --service metastore --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280

Start a control plane, metastore and janitor services

quickwit run --service control_plane --service metastore --service janitor --config=./config/quickwit.yaml

Make a search request on a wikipedia index

# To create wikipedia index and ingest data, go to our tutorials https://quickwit.io/docs/get-started/.
# Start a searcher.
quickwit run --service searcher --service metastore --config=./config/quickwit.yaml
# Make a request.
curl "http://127.0.0.1:7280/api/v1/wikipedia/search?query=barack+obama"

index​

Manages indexes: creates, deletes, ingests, searches, describes...

index create​

Creates an index of ID index at index-uri configured by a YAML config file located at index-config. The index config lets you define the mapping of your document on the index and how each field is stored and indexed. If index-uri is omitted, index-uri will be set to {default_index_root_uri}/{index}, more info on Quickwit config docs. The command fails if an index already exists unless overwrite is passed. When overwrite is enabled, the command deletes all the files stored at index-uri before creating a new index.

quickwit index create [args]

Synopsis

quickwit index create
    --index-config <index-config>
    [--overwrite]

Options

--index-config Location of the index config file. \ --overwrite Overwrites pre-existing index. This will delete all existing data stored at index-uri before creating a new index. \

Examples

Create a new index.

# Start a Quickwit server.
quickwit run --config=./config/quickwit.yaml
# Open a new terminal and run:
curl -o wikipedia_index_config.yaml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/quickwit-oss/quickwit/main/config/tutorials/wikipedia/index-config.yaml
quickwit index create --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280 --index-config wikipedia_index_config.yaml

index clear​

Clears an index: deletes all splits and resets checkpoint.
quickwit index clear [args] quickwit index clr [args]

Synopsis

quickwit index clear
    --index <index>

Options

--index Index ID \

index delete​

Deletes an index.
quickwit index delete [args] quickwit index del [args]

Synopsis

quickwit index delete
    --index <index>
    [--dry-run]

Options

--index ID of the target index \ --dry-run Executes the command in dry run mode and only displays the list of splits candidates for deletion. \

Examples

Delete your index

# Start a Quickwit server.
quickwit run --service metastore --config=./config/quickwit.yaml
# Open a new terminal and run:
quickwit index delete --index wikipedia --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280

index describe​

Displays descriptive statistics of an index.
quickwit index describe [args]

Synopsis

quickwit index describe
    --index <index>

Options

--index ID of the target index \

Examples

Displays descriptive statistics of your index

# Start a Quickwit server.
quickwit run --service metastore --config=./config/quickwit.yaml
# Open a new terminal and run:
quickwit index describe --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280 --index wikipedia

1. General infos
---------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------
Index ID:                                    | wikipedia
Index URI:                                   | file:///home/quickwit-indices/qwdata/indexes/wikipedia
Number of published documents:               | 300000
Size of published documents (uncompressed):  | 33.73 MB 
Number of published splits:                  | 1
Size of published splits:                    | 24.07 MB
Timestamp field:                             | Field does not exist for the index.                                     
Timestamp range:                             | Range does not exist for the index. 

Document count stats (published)                                                                                        
Mean ± σ in [min … max]:                     | 15000 ± 5000 in [10000 … 20000]                                         
Quantiles [1%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 99%]:          | [10100, 15000, 15000, 17500, 17500]                                     
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                        
Size in MB stats (published)                                                                                            
Mean ± σ in [min … max]:                     | 12.037121 ± 3.802938 in [8 … 15]                                        
Quantiles [1%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 99%]:          | [8.310242, 12.037121, 12.037121, 13.93859, 13.93859]

index list​

List indexes.
quickwit index list [args] quickwit index ls [args]

Synopsis

quickwit index list
    [--endpoint <endpoint>]

Options

--endpoint Quickwit cluster endpoint. (default: http://127.0.0.1:7280) \

Examples

List indexes

# Start a Quickwit server.
quickwit run --config=./config/quickwit.yaml
# Open a new terminal and run:
quickwit index list --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280
# Or with alias.
quickwit index ls --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280

                                    Indexes                                     
+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Index ID  |                       Index URI                        |
+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| hdfs-logs | file:///home/quickwit-indices/qwdata/indexes/hdfs-logs |
+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| wikipedia | file:///home/quickwit-indices/qwdata/indexes/wikipedia |
+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+


index ingest​

Indexes a dataset consisting of newline-delimited JSON objects located at input-path or read from stdin. The data is appended to the target index of ID index unless overwrite is passed. input-path can be a file or another command output piped into stdin. Currently, only local datasets are supported. By default, Quickwit's indexer will work with a heap of 2 GiB of memory. Learn how to change heap-size in the index config doc page.

quickwit index ingest [args]

Synopsis

quickwit index ingest
    --index <index>
    [--input-path <input-path>]
    [--batch-size-limit <batch-size-limit>]
    [--wait]
    [--force]

Options

--index ID of the target index \ --input-path Location of the input file. \ --batch-size-limit Size limit of each submitted document batch. \ --wait Wait for all documents to be commited and available for search before exiting \ --force Force a commit after the last document is sent, and wait for all documents to be committed and available for search before exiting \

Examples

Indexing a dataset from a file

# Start a Quickwit server.
quickwit run --config=./config/quickwit.yaml
# Open a new terminal and run:
curl -o wiki-articles-10000.json https://quickwit-datasets-public.s3.amazonaws.com/wiki-articles-10000.json
quickwit index ingest --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280 --index wikipedia --input-path wiki-articles-10000.json

Indexing a dataset from stdin

# Start a Quickwit server.
quickwit run --config=./config/quickwit.yaml
# Open a new terminal and run:
cat wiki-articles-10000.json | quickwit index ingest --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280 --index wikipedia

Searches an index with ID --index and returns the documents matching the query specified with --query. More details on the query language page. The offset of the first hit returned and the number of hits returned can be set with the start-offset and max-hits options. It's possible to override the default search fields search-fields option to define the list of fields that Quickwit will search into if the user query does not explicitly target a field in the query. Quickwit will return snippets of the matching content when requested via the snippet-fields options. Search can also be limited to a time range using the start-timestamp and end-timestamp options. These timestamp options are useful for boosting query performance when using a time series dataset.

danger

The start_timestamp and end_timestamp should be specified in seconds regardless of the timestamp field precision. The timestamp field precision only affects the way it's stored as fast-fields, whereas the document filtering is always performed in seconds.

quickwit index search [args]

Synopsis

quickwit index search
    --index <index>
    --query <query>
    [--aggregation <aggregation>]
    [--max-hits <max-hits>]
    [--start-offset <start-offset>]
    [--search-fields <search-fields>]
    [--snippet-fields <snippet-fields>]
    [--start-timestamp <start-timestamp>]
    [--end-timestamp <end-timestamp>]
    [--sort-by-score]

Options

--index ID of the target index \ --query Query expressed in natural query language ((barack AND obama) OR "president of united states"). Learn more on https://quickwit.io/docs/reference/search-language. \ --aggregation JSON serialized aggregation request in tantivy/elasticsearch format. \ --max-hits Maximum number of hits returned. (default: 20) \ --start-offset Offset in the global result set of the first hit returned. (default: 0) \ --search-fields List of fields that Quickwit will search into if the user query does not explicitly target a field in the query. It overrides the default search fields defined in the index config. Space-separated list, e.g. "field1 field2". \ --snippet-fields List of fields that Quickwit will return snippet highlight on. Space-separated list, e.g. "field1 field2". \ --start-timestamp Filters out documents before that timestamp (time-series indexes only). \ --end-timestamp Filters out documents after that timestamp (time-series indexes only). \ --sort-by-score Setting this flag calculates and sorts documents by their BM25 score. \

Examples

Searching a index

# Start a Quickwit server.
quickwit run --config=./config/quickwit.yaml
# Open a new terminal and run:
quickwit index search --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280 --index wikipedia --query "Barack Obama"
# If you have jq installed.
quickwit index search --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280 --index wikipedia --query "Barack Obama" | jq '.hits[].title'

Sorting documents by their BM25 score

# Start a Quickwit server.
quickwit run --config=./config/quickwit.yaml
# Open a new terminal and run:
quickwit index search --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280 --index wikipedia --query "obama" --sort-by-score

Limiting the result set to 50 hits

# Start a Quickwit server.
quickwit run --config=./config/quickwit.yaml
# Open a new terminal and run:
quickwit index search --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280 --index wikipedia --query "Barack Obama" --max-hits 50
# If you have jq installed.
quickwit index search --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280 --index wikipedia --query "Barack Obama" --max-hits 50 | jq '.num_hits'

Looking for matches in the title only

# Start a Quickwit server.
quickwit run --config=./config/quickwit.yaml
# Open a new terminal and run:
quickwit index search --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280 --index wikipedia --query "obama" --search-fields body
# If you have jq installed.
quickwit index search --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280 --index wikipedia --query "obama" --search-fields body | jq '.hits[].title'

source​

Manages sources: creates, updates, deletes sources...

source create​

Adds a new source to an index.
quickwit source create [args]

Synopsis

quickwit source create
    --index <index>
    --source-config <source-config>

Options

--index ID of the target index \ --source-config Path to source config file. Please, refer to the documentation for more details. \

source enable​

Enables a source for an index.
quickwit source enable [args]

Synopsis

quickwit source enable
    --index <index>
    --source <source>

Options

--index ID of the target index \ --source ID of the source. \

source disable​

Disables a source for an index.
quickwit source disable [args]

Synopsis

quickwit source disable
    --index <index>
    --source <source>

Options

--index ID of the target index \ --source ID of the source. \

source ingest-api​

Enables/disables the ingest API of an index.
quickwit source ingest-api [args]

Synopsis

quickwit source ingest-api
    --index <index>
    --enable
    [--disable]

Options

--index ID of the target index \ --enable Enables the ingest API. \ --disable Disables the ingest API. \

source delete​

Deletes a source from an index.
quickwit source delete [args] quickwit source del [args]

Synopsis

quickwit source delete
    --index <index>
    --source <source>

Options

--index ID of the target index \ --source ID of the source. \

Examples

Delete a wikipedia-source source

# Start a Quickwit server.
quickwit run --service metastore --config=./config/quickwit.yaml
# Open a new terminal and run:
quickwit source delete --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280 --index wikipedia --source wikipedia-source

source describe​

Describes a source.
quickwit source describe [args] quickwit source desc [args]

Synopsis

quickwit source describe
    --index <index>
    --source <source>

Options

--index ID of the target index \ --source ID of the source. \

source list​

Lists the sources of an index.
quickwit source list [args] quickwit source ls [args]

Synopsis

quickwit source list
    --index <index>

Options

--index ID of the target index \

Examples

List wikipedia index sources

# Start a Quickwit server.
quickwit run --service metastore --config=./config/quickwit.yaml
# Open a new terminal and run:
quickwit source list --endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:7280 --index wikipedia

source reset-checkpoint​

Resets a source checkpoint.
quickwit source reset-checkpoint [args] quickwit source reset [args]

Synopsis

quickwit source reset-checkpoint
    --index <index>
    --source <source>

Options

--index Index ID \ --source Source ID \

split​

Manages splits: lists, describes, marks for deletion...

split list​

Lists the splits of an index.
quickwit split list [args] quickwit split ls [args]

Synopsis

quickwit split list
    --index <index>
    [--states <states>]
    [--create-date <create-date>]
    [--start-date <start-date>]
    [--end-date <end-date>]
    [--output-format <output-format>]

Options

--index Target index ID \ --states Selects the splits whose states are included in this comma-separated list of states. Possible values are staged, published, and marked. \ --create-date Selects the splits whose creation dates are before this date. \ --start-date Selects the splits that contain documents after this date (time-series indexes only). \ --end-date Selects the splits that contain documents before this date (time-series indexes only). \ --output-format Output format. Possible values are table, json, and pretty_json. \

split describe​

Displays metadata about a split.
quickwit split describe [args] quickwit split desc [args]

Synopsis

quickwit split describe
    --index <index>
    --split <split>
    [--verbose]

Options

--index ID of the target index \ --split ID of the target split \ --verbose Displays additional metadata about the hotcache. \

split mark-for-deletion​

Marks one or multiple splits of an index for deletion.
quickwit split mark-for-deletion [args] quickwit split mark [args]

Synopsis

quickwit split mark-for-deletion
    --index <index>
    --splits <splits>
    [--yes]

Options

--index Target index ID \ --splits Comma-separated list of split IDs \ --yes Assume "yes" as an answer to all prompts and run non-interactively. \

tool​

Performs utility operations. Requires a node config.

tool local-ingest​

Indexes NDJSON documents locally.
quickwit tool local-ingest [args]

Synopsis

quickwit tool local-ingest
    --index <index>
    [--input-path <input-path>]
    [--input-format <input-format>]
    [--overwrite]
    [--transform-script <transform-script>]
    [--keep-cache]

Options

--index ID of the target index \ --input-path Location of the input file. \ --input-format Format of the input data. \ --overwrite Overwrites pre-existing index. \ --transform-script VRL program to transform docs before ingesting. \ --keep-cache Does not clear local cache directory upon completion. \

tool extract-split​

Downloads and extracts a split to a directory.
quickwit tool extract-split [args]

Synopsis

quickwit tool extract-split
    --index <index>
    --split <split>
    --target-dir <target-dir>

Options

--index ID of the target index \ --split ID of the target split \ --target-dir Directory to extract the split to. \

tool gc​

Garbage collects stale staged splits and splits marked for deletion.

note

Intermediate files are created while executing Quickwit commands. These intermediate files are always cleaned at the end of each successfully executed command. However, failed or interrupted commands can leave behind intermediate files that need to be removed. Also, note that using a very short grace period (like seconds) can cause the removal of intermediate files being operated on, especially when using Quickwit concurrently on the same index. In practice, you can settle with the default value (1 hour) and only specify a lower value if you really know what you are doing.

quickwit tool gc [args]

Synopsis

quickwit tool gc
    --index <index>
    [--grace-period <grace-period>]
    [--dry-run]

Options

--index ID of the target index \ --grace-period Threshold period after which stale staged splits are garbage collected. (default: 1h) \ --dry-run Executes the command in dry run mode and only displays the list of splits candidates for garbage collection. \

Environment Variables​

QW_CLUSTER_ENDPOINT​

Specifies the address of the cluster to connect to. Management commands index, split and source require the cluster_endpoint, which you can set once and for all with the QW_CLUSTER_ENDPOINT environment variable.

QW_CONFIG​

Specifies the path to the quickwit config. Commands run and tools require the config, which you can set once and for all with the QW_CONFIG environment variable.

Example

export QW_CONFIG=config/quickwit.yaml

QW_DISABLE_TELEMETRY​

Disables telemetry when set to any non-empty value.

Example

QW_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 quickwit help