Search Architecture: Zero to Scale
Build production search from Postgres full-text to Elasticsearch at scale
Search Architecture: Zero to Scale is a 180-page engineering guide covering every layer of search — from Postgres tsvector to Elasticsearch clusters, query analysis, ranking tuning, and zero-downtime re-indexing.
Inside the guide
What You'll Learn
180-Page Deep Dive
From Postgres full-text search through Typesense, Meilisearch, and Elasticsearch with code examples in Python and TypeScript.
Architecture Decision Trees
Decision trees for choosing the right search engine at each scale tier based on latency, budget, and team size.
Ranking & Relevance Chapter
BM25 tuning, semantic re-ranking with embeddings, and A/B testing search quality with NDCG metrics.
Production Runbooks
Zero-downtime re-indexing, shard allocation strategies, and incident runbooks for common search outages.
Table of Contents
Who This Is For
Written by engineers, for engineers
Senior Engineer
Building production systems and tired of re-inventing the wheel on every project.
Software Architect
Needs battle-tested patterns to back architectural decisions with evidence.
Startup CTO
Must ship fast without accumulating technical debt that kills you later.
The Problem
Engineering teams ship basic LIKE queries that fail at 100K records and then panic-migrate
Elasticsearch documentation is vast but lacks opinionated guidance on mapping design and shard strategy
Search quality degrades silently — teams have no framework for measuring and improving relevance
Get Instant Access
One-time payment. Instant PDF download.
Guide
- 180-page PDF
- Code examples
- Architecture diagrams
Guide + Templates
- Everything in Guide
- Terraform modules
- Docker Compose stacks
- Slack community access
Frequently Asked Questions
What experience level is this for?
Mid to senior engineers who have shipped at least one production database-backed app. Basics are not covered.
Is the code in a specific language?
Primary examples use Python (FastAPI) and TypeScript (Node.js). Concepts and configs apply to any language.