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BE-017 — Implement Search & Discovery API #282

Description

@dDevAhmed

BE-017 — Implement Search & Discovery API

📚 Overview

The Search & Discovery API provides a unified search layer across the TruthBounty ecosystem, enabling contributors to quickly locate claims, users, verifications, disputes, governance proposals, rewards, documentation, and protocol activity.

As the protocol grows to thousands of contributors and millions of records, efficient search becomes a core platform capability. Rather than requiring each backend module to implement its own search logic, this service centralises indexing, filtering, ranking, and pagination.

The Search & Discovery API will become the dependency for:

  • Frontend Search Interface
  • Mobile Application
  • AI Assistant
  • Governance Dashboard
  • Moderator Console
  • Analytics Platform
  • Documentation Portal

Every downstream service assumes search results are accurate, performant, and permission-aware.


🧠 Background

TruthBounty V2 consists of numerous interconnected datasets, including:

  • claims
  • users
  • verifications
  • disputes
  • governance proposals
  • rewards
  • reputation
  • protocol events
  • documentation

Searching across these independently would be slow and inconsistent.

A dedicated Search API enables contributors to discover relevant information quickly while maintaining access controls and consistent ranking.

The Search API does not own protocol data—it indexes and exposes searchable representations of existing resources.


🎯 Objectives

Implement a production-ready Search & Discovery API that:

  • indexes protocol resources
  • supports full-text search
  • provides advanced filtering
  • ranks results by relevance
  • supports pagination
  • exposes autocomplete
  • supports future semantic search
  • returns standardised API responses

🧩 Technical Scope

1. Global Search Endpoint

Implement a unified search endpoint capable of querying:

  • claims
  • contributors
  • governance proposals
  • disputes
  • rewards
  • documentation
  • protocol events

Support searching multiple resource types simultaneously.


2. Full-Text Search

Support searching using:

  • titles
  • descriptions
  • usernames
  • proposal titles
  • evidence metadata
  • documentation headings
  • tags

Results should be ranked by relevance.


3. Advanced Filtering

Support filtering by:

  • resource type
  • status
  • category
  • reputation level
  • verification outcome
  • governance status
  • creation date
  • contributor
  • blockchain network

Multiple filters should be combinable.


4. Autocomplete

Provide autocomplete suggestions for:

  • claims
  • contributors
  • governance proposals
  • documentation
  • protocol modules

Suggestions should return quickly with minimal payload.


5. Search Ranking

Implement ranking using:

  • keyword relevance
  • recency
  • contributor reputation
  • popularity
  • governance activity
  • verification confidence

Ranking should remain configurable.


6. Pagination

Support:

  • page-based pagination
  • cursor pagination
  • configurable page size
  • sorting

Large datasets must remain performant.


7. Permission Filtering

Ensure search respects:

  • user permissions
  • moderator visibility
  • administrator visibility
  • private resources
  • embargoed governance proposals

Restricted resources must never appear in results.


8. Performance

Implement:

  • Redis caching
  • indexed queries
  • query optimisation
  • asynchronous indexing
  • incremental updates

Search latency should remain low under heavy load.


9. Monitoring

Expose metrics including:

  • search requests
  • average latency
  • cache hit ratio
  • popular searches
  • failed queries
  • indexing performance

10. Future Extensibility

Design the architecture to support:

  • semantic search
  • vector search
  • AI-assisted discovery
  • multilingual search
  • personalised recommendations
  • hybrid keyword/vector retrieval

✅ Acceptance Criteria

  • Global search returns relevant results.
  • Full-text search functions correctly.
  • Filters operate correctly.
  • Autocomplete is available.
  • Permission filtering is enforced.
  • Search performance meets targets.
  • Monitoring metrics are available.
  • Unit and integration tests pass.

🧪 Testing Requirements

Implement tests covering:

  • full-text search
  • autocomplete
  • filtering
  • ranking
  • pagination
  • permission filtering
  • concurrent searches
  • cache behaviour
  • indexing updates
  • performance benchmarking

📚 Documentation

Update:

  • Backend API Documentation
  • Search Architecture
  • OpenAPI Specification
  • Indexing Documentation
  • Operational Runbook

🔗 Dependencies

Depends on:

  • BE-002 — Implement PostgreSQL Database Infrastructure
  • BE-003 — Implement Blockchain Indexing Service
  • BE-004 — Implement Redis Cache & Distributed Session Layer
  • BE-010 — Implement Reputation API
  • BE-012 — Implement Analytics API
  • BE-016 — Implement Protocol Health & System Monitoring API

Blocks:

  • Frontend Search Interface
  • Mobile Search
  • AI Assistant
  • Governance Dashboard
  • Moderator Console
  • Documentation Portal

🏷 Labels

  • backend
  • architecture
  • database
  • protocol-critical
  • complexity-medium
  • stellar-wave

📊 Complexity

Medium

The Search & Discovery API unifies access to protocol resources through efficient indexing, filtering, and ranking. It provides fast, permission-aware discovery across the TruthBounty ecosystem while remaining independent of protocol state and supporting future AI-powered search capabilities.


⏱ Estimated Effort

5–6 days


🚀 Definition of Done

  • Global search endpoint implemented.
  • Full-text search operational.
  • Advanced filtering available.
  • Autocomplete implemented.
  • Permission-aware search enforced.
  • Search indexing integrated.
  • Monitoring enabled.
  • Tests passing.
  • Documentation updated.
  • Ready for integration with the Frontend Search Interface, Mobile Application, AI Assistant, Governance Dashboard, Moderator Console, and Documentation Portal.

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