> Fetch clean Markdown by appending `.md` to any page URL under https://signalwire.com/docs or requesting it with the HTTP header `Accept: text/markdown`. The root index at https://signalwire.com/docs/llms.txt lists the available documentation indexes.

# SearchService

> HTTP API service for serving search queries with authentication and caching.

[searchengine]: /docs/server-sdks/reference/python/agents/search/search-engine

[start]: /docs/server-sdks/reference/python/agents/search/search-service/start

[searchdirect]: /docs/server-sdks/reference/python/agents/search/search-service/search-direct

[stop]: /docs/server-sdks/reference/python/agents/search/search-service/stop

`SearchService` wraps one or more search indexes behind a FastAPI HTTP service
with basic authentication, CORS, query caching, and optional HTTPS support.
It can serve both SQLite and pgvector backends simultaneously.

```python
from signalwire.search import SearchService
```

> **Warning**
>
> Requires FastAPI and uvicorn in addition to search dependencies:
> `pip install signalwire-sdk[search]`.

## **Properties**

**`app`** `FastAPI | None` — default: None

The FastAPI application instance. `None` if FastAPI is not installed.

---

**`indexes`** `dict[str, str]`

Mapping of index names to file paths (SQLite) or collection names (pgvector).

---

**`search_engines`** `dict[str, SearchEngine]`

Mapping of index names to loaded
[`SearchEngine`][searchengine] instances.

---

**`backend`** `str`

Storage backend in use. `"sqlite"` or `"pgvector"`.

---

**`port`** `int`

Port the service listens on.

---

## **Methods**

#### [start](/docs/server-sdks/reference/python/agents/search/search-service/start)

Start the HTTP service. Blocks until the server is shut down.

#### [search\_direct](/docs/server-sdks/reference/python/agents/search/search-service/search-direct)

Perform a search programmatically without going through the HTTP API.

#### [stop](/docs/server-sdks/reference/python/agents/search/search-service/stop)

Stop the service and perform cleanup.

## **HTTP Endpoints**

When running, the service exposes the following endpoints:

| Endpoint        | Method | Auth     | Description                                                                                                                 |
| --------------- | ------ | -------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `/search`       | POST   | Required | Submit a search query. Request body accepts `query`, `index_name`, `count`, `similarity_threshold`, `tags`, and `language`. |
| `/health`       | GET    | None     | Health check. Returns backend type, loaded indexes, and SSL status.                                                         |
| `/reload_index` | POST   | Required | Reload or add a new index at runtime.                                                                                       |

> HTTP API service for serving search queries with authentication and caching.

## Docs

- [search_direct](https://signalwire.com/docs/server-sdks/reference/python/agents/search/search-service/search-direct.md): Perform a search programmatically without going through the HTTP API.
- [start](https://signalwire.com/docs/server-sdks/reference/python/agents/search/search-service/start.md): Start the HTTP search service.
- [stop](https://signalwire.com/docs/server-sdks/reference/python/agents/search/search-service/stop.md): Placeholder for stopping the search service (not yet implemented).