> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://sourcebot-jminnetian-askskills.mintlify.site/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Search contexts export const feature_0 = "Search contexts" export const verb_0 = "are" {feature_0} {verb_0 ?? "is"} only available in a paid plan. Please activate a [license key](/docs/activating-a-subscription) to use this feature. A **search context** is a user-defined grouping of repositories that helps focus searches on specific areas of your codebase, like frontend, backend, or infrastructure code. Some example queries using search contexts: * `context:data_engineering userId` - search for `userId` across all repos related to Data Engineering. * `context:k8s ingress` - search for anything related to ingresses in your k8's configs. * `( context:project1 or context:project2 ) logger\.debug` - search for debug log calls in project1 and project2 Search contexts are defined in the `context` object inside of a [declarative config](/docs/configuration/declarative-config). Repositories can be included / excluded from a search context by specifying the repo's URL in either the `include` array or `exclude` array. Glob patterns are supported. ## Example Let's assume we have a GitLab instance hosted at `https://gitlab.example.com` with three top-level groups, `web`, `backend`, and `shared`: ```sh theme={null} web/ ├─ admin_panel/ ├─ customer_portal/ ├─ pipelines/ ├─ ... backend/ ├─ billing_server/ ├─ auth_server/ ├─ db_migrations/ ├─ pipelines/ ├─ ... shared/ ├─ protobufs/ ├─ react/ ├─ pipelines/ ├─ ... ``` To make searching easier, we can create three search contexts in our [config.json](/docs/configuration/declarative-config): * `web`: For all frontend-related code * `backend`: For backend services and shared APIs * `pipelines`: For all CI/CD configurations ```json theme={null} { "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/main/schemas/v3/index.json", "contexts": { "web": { // To include repositories in a search context, // you can reference them... "include": [ // ... individually by specifying the repo URL. "gitlab.example.com/web/admin_panel/core", // ... or as groups using glob patterns. This is // particularly useful for including entire "sub-folders" // of repositories in one go. "gitlab.example.com/web/customer_portal/**", "gitlab.example.com/shared/react/**", "gitlab.example.com/shared/protobufs/**" ], // Same with excluding repositories. "exclude": [ "gitlab.example.com/web/customer_portal/pipelines", "gitlab.example.com/shared/react/hooks/**", ], // Optional description of the search context // that surfaces in the UI. "description": "Web related repos." }, "backend": { /* ... specifies backend replated repos ... */}, "pipelines": { /* ... specifies pipeline related repos ... */ } }, "connections": { /* ...connection definitions... */ } } ``` Repo URLs are expected to be formatted without the leading http(s):// prefix. For example: * `github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot` ([link](https://github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot)) * `gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab` ([link](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab)) * `chromium.googlesource.com/chromium` ([link](https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/admin/repos/chromium,general)) Once configured, you can use these contexts in the search bar by prefixing your query with the context name. For example: * `context:web login form` searches for login form code in frontend repositories * `context:backend auth` searches for authentication code in backend services * `context:pipelines deploy` searches for deployment configurations Example Like other prefixes, contexts can be negated using `-` or combined using `or`: * `-context:web` excludes frontend repositories from results * `( context:web or context:backend )` searches across both frontend and backend code See [this doc](/docs/features/search/syntax-reference) for more details on the search query syntax. ## Filtering by topic If your repositories are tagged with topics on [GitHub](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/managing-your-repositorys-settings-and-features/customizing-your-repository/classifying-your-repository-with-topics) or [GitLab](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/topics.html), you can use `includeTopics` and `excludeTopics` to filter repositories by topic instead of (or in addition to) specifying individual repo URLs. Glob patterns are supported. ```json theme={null} { "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/main/schemas/v3/index.json", "contexts": { "backend": { "includeTopics": ["backend", "core-*"], "excludeTopics": ["deprecated", "archived-*"], "description": "Active backend services." } }, "connections": { /* ...connection definitions... */ } } ``` `includeTopics` and `excludeTopics` follow the same additive semantics as `include` and `exclude`: * `includeTopics` adds all repos tagged with a matching topic to the context. * `excludeTopics` removes repos tagged with a matching topic from the context. * Both can be freely combined with `include`, `includeConnections`, `exclude`, and `excludeConnections`. Topic matching is case-insensitive, so `"Backend"` matches the pattern `"backend"`. Topics are populated when a connection syncs. If you add topics to your repositories after the last sync, trigger a re-sync for the new topics to take effect. ## Schema reference [schemas/v3/searchContext.json](https://github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/blob/main/schemas/v3/searchContext.json) ```json theme={null} { "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#", "type": "object", "title": "SearchContext", "description": "Search context", "properties": { "include": { "type": "array", "description": "List of repositories to include in the search context. Expected to be formatted as a URL without any leading http(s):// prefix (e.g., 'github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot'). Glob patterns are supported.", "items": { "type": "string" }, "examples": [ [ "github.com/sourcebot-dev/**", "gerrit.example.org/sub/path/**" ] ] }, "includeConnections": { "type": "array", "description": "List of connections to include in the search context.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "exclude": { "type": "array", "description": "List of repositories to exclude from the search context. Expected to be formatted as a URL without any leading http(s):// prefix (e.g., 'github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot'). Glob patterns are supported.", "items": { "type": "string" }, "examples": [ [ "github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot", "gerrit.example.org/sub/path/**" ] ] }, "excludeConnections": { "type": "array", "description": "List of connections to exclude from the search context.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "includeTopics": { "type": "array", "description": "List of repository topics to include in the search context. Only repositories matching at least one topic are included. Glob patterns are supported.", "items": { "type": "string" }, "examples": [ [ "backend", "core-*" ] ] }, "excludeTopics": { "type": "array", "description": "List of repository topics to exclude from the search context. Repositories matching any of these topics are excluded. Glob patterns are supported.", "items": { "type": "string" }, "examples": [ [ "deprecated", "archived-*" ] ] }, "description": { "type": "string", "description": "Optional description of the search context that surfaces in the UI." } }, "additionalProperties": false } ```