Experimental features

Meilisearch periodically introduces new experimental features. Experimental features are not always ready for production, but offer functionality that might benefit some users.

An experimental feature's API can change significantly and become incompatible between releases. Keep this in mind when using experimental features in a production environment.

Meilisearch makes experimental features available expecting they will become stable in a future release, but this is not guaranteed.

Experimental features fall into two groups based on how they are activated or deactivated:

1. Those that are activated at launch with a command-line flag or environment variable
2. Those that are activated with the /experimental-features API route.

Some experimental features can be activated at launch, for example with a command-line flag:

./meilisearch --experimental-enable-metrics

Flags and environment variables for experimental features are not included in the regular configuration options list. Instead, consult the specific documentation page for the feature you are interested in, which can be found in the experimental section.

Command-line flags for experimental features are always prefixed with --experimental. Environment variables for experimental features are always prefixed with MEILI_EXPERIMENTAL.

Activating or deactivating experimental features this way requires you to relaunch Meilisearch.

Some experimental features can be activated via an HTTP call using the /experimental-features API route:

curl \
  -X PATCH 'http://localhost:7700/experimental-features/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json'  \
  --data-binary '{
    "metrics": true
  }'

Activating or deactivating experimental features this way does not require you to relaunch Meilisearch.