When search is the right tool
Search is the right fit when you need:- low-latency retrieval
- result ranking for application search
- grounding material for answer generation
- collection-scoped access to existing content
Request examples
Node.js and Python examples use the Bulkgrid SDKs. SetBULKGRID_API_KEY in your backend environment; cURL examples also use BULKGRID_BASE_URL=https://bulkgrid.com.
Ranking controls
Bulkgrid currently exposes three main ranking controls:fullTextWeightsemanticWeightrrfK
Practical tuning guidance
- increase
fullTextWeightwhen exact keyword matches matter more - increase
semanticWeightfor natural-language search behavior - leave
rrfKalone unless you are actively testing ranking behavior
Query expansion
queryMode defaults to auto. Set it to none to disable automatic query expansion. You can provide up to three additional strings in queries as query variants. Use the original query for the main user request.
Response handling
Search returns:queryscoringresultscount
Common product patterns
Search UI
Show:titleurl- trimmed
text_content
score available for debugging and ranking analysis.
RAG or answer generation
Pass the top results into your answer-generation step with source URLs attached so the model can be grounded and the UI can cite sources.Scoped retrieval
UsecollectionId to narrow retrieval within the collections allowed by the credential. Enforce user access with scoped credentials and backend authorization; a client-supplied filter is not an access grant.
Failure handling
400: invalid payload or out-of-range values401: invalid or missing API key429: back off and retry with jitter