# Query and search

Use these **query and search** how-to guides to find the data you want.

::::card-grid
:::card{title="Query basics" href="/guides/how-to-query-search-basics" icon="book-open"}
Learn fundamental search syntax and how to retrieve specific object properties.
:::

:::card{title="Query Agent (natural language)" href="/guides/how-to-query-search-query-agent" icon="messages-square"}
Ask questions in plain English - automatically translates to optimized Weaviate queries.
:::

:::card{title="Vector similarity search" href="/guides/how-to-query-search-similarity" icon="activity"}
Find objects based on vector embedding similarity using `nearVector`, `nearObject`, etc.
:::

:::card{title="Image search" href="/guides/how-to-query-search-image" icon="image"}
Perform vector similarity searches using images as the query input.
:::

:::card{title="Multimedia search" href="/guides/how-to-query-search-near-media" icon="circle-play"}
Search using audio or video files as query inputs with multimedia search.
:::

:::card{title="Keyword search (BM25F)" href="/guides/how-to-query-search-bm25" icon="type"}
Execute keyword searches ranked relevance using the BM25F algorithm.
:::

:::card{title="Hybrid search" href="/guides/how-to-query-search-hybrid" icon="layers"}
Combine keyword (BM25F) and vector similarity search results with fusion algorithms.
:::

:::card{title="Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)" href="/guides/how-to-query-search-generative" icon="bot"}
Use search results to provide context and augment prompts for Large Language Models.
:::

:::card{title="Reranking" href="/guides/how-to-query-search-rerank" icon="arrow-down-wide-narrow"}
Refine and re-order search results using integrated reranker modules.
:::

:::card{title="Aggregation" href="/guides/how-to-query-search-aggregate" icon="calculator"}
Perform aggregate operations like count, mean, sum, etc., on search result sets.
:::

:::card{title="Filters" href="/guides/how-to-query-search-filters" icon="filter"}
Apply conditional filters, such as `where` clauses, to narrow down search results.
:::
::::

## Questions and feedback

Have a question or feedback? Here's how to reach us.

::::card-grid
:::card{title="Community Forum" href="https://forum.weaviate.io/c/support" icon="messages-square"}
Ask questions and connect with other developers on our **Community forum**.
:::

:::card{title="Support" href="/guides/support-overview" icon="life-buoy"}
Weaviate Cloud user or customer? Find the right channel on the **Support page**.
:::
::::

## Related pages

- [Agents](./agents-index.md)
- [AI-assisted Weaviate code generation](./ai-assisted-vibe-coding-index.md)
- [APIs](./apis-index.md)
- [Authorization and authentication](./authorization-and-authentication-index.md)
- [Benchmarks](./benchmarks-index.md)
- [Best practices](./best-practices-index.md)
- [Client libraries](./clients-index.md)
- [Client Libraries / SDKs](./client-libraries-index.md)
- [Cloud](./cloud-index.md)
- [Cloud account management](./cloud-account-management-index.md)

# Agent Instructions

This portal answers questions programmatically. To receive a synthesized,
source-cited answer instead of crawling page by page, append the `?ask=`
query parameter to any page URL on this site:

    /guides/quickstart?ask=how+do+I+authenticate

Optional parameters:

- `&goal=<what-you-are-trying-to-do>` steers the answer toward your
  objective (e.g. `&goal=write+a+python+client`).
- `&version=<label>` scopes the answer to a mounted version when the
  portal publishes more than one.

The response is `text/markdown`: the answer followed by a `# Sources` list
of the portal pages it was grounded in. Status codes are the contract:

- `200` — the answer; `402` — the portal owner’s plan or answer credits are
  exhausted (surface this to your operator; do NOT retry); `429` — you are
  rate-limited; back off for the `Retry-After` seconds; `503` — the answer
  lane is temporarily unavailable; fall back to crawling the `.md` pages.

For the full corpus map read `llms.txt` at the site root; for the tool
surface (search + page fetch as MCP tools) see `/mcp`.