Metadata Filters

vectlite supports MongoDB-style metadata filtering on search queries.

Metadata Types

Records can store rich metadata values:

• str / string
• int / number
• float / number
• bool / boolean
• None / null
• list / array
• dict / object

Comparison Operators

Operator	Description
$eq	Equal to (default when using direct value)
$ne	Not equal to
$gt	Greater than
$gte	Greater than or equal to
$lt	Less than
$lte	Less than or equal to

# Implicit $eq
results = db.search(query, k=10, filter={"source": "blog"})

# Explicit operators
results = db.search(query, k=10, filter={"price": {"$gte": 10, "$lt": 100}})

const results = db.search(query, { k: 10, filter: { price: { $gte: 10, $lt: 100 } } })

Set Operators

Operator	Description
$in	Value is in the given list
$nin	Value is not in the given list
$contains	Array field contains the value
$exists	Field exists (true) or does not exist (false)

results = db.search(query, k=10, filter={
    "category": {"$in": ["docs", "blog"]},
    "tags": {"$contains": "python"},
    "deprecated": {"$exists": False},
})

Logical Operators

Operator	Description
$and	All conditions must match
$or	At least one condition must match
$not	Negates a condition

results = db.search(query, k=10, filter={
    "$or": [
        {"source": "docs"},
        {"priority": {"$gte": 5}},
    ]
})

Nested Access

Use dot notation to access nested fields:

results = db.search(query, k=10, filter={
    "author.name": "Alice",
    "metadata.tags": {"$contains": "python"},
})

Array Operators

Operator	Description
$elemMatch	Array element matches a condition
$size	Array has exactly N elements

results = db.search(query, k=10, filter={
    "reviews": {"$elemMatch": {"$gte": 4}},
    "tags": {"$size": 3},
})