finder-frontend: Search APIs
Finder Frontend can use either "v1" search-api or search-api-v2
depending on the finder in use and the parameters of a user's search.
Note that v2 is not (yet) able to handle all the use cases of v1, and the extent to which v1 use cases will be migrated is still under discussion.
Forcing the use of a specific API
The use_v1 and use_v2 query parameters are available on the finders#show action and take
precedence over any other logic. These are useful for comparing results and debugging.
Using v1 as a backup in case of v2 issues
In the event of a major issue with search-api-v2 or its underlying SaaS search product (Google
Vertex AI Search), a feature flag FORCE_USE_V1_SEARCH_API is available and will force all search
traffic to use the v1 API.
The v1 API provides pure keyword search and lacks the "smart" semantic search of v2, leading to significantly poorer result quality for more complex searches. Consider whether the issue with v2 is uncontained, escalating, or has significant user impact before enabling the fallback.