Configure field settings
This page shows you how to configure the schema fields to set up an app for structureddata, for unstructured data with metadata, or for website data with custom, structuredattributes.
Field settings help determine how Vertex AI Search uses fields inits results. You can use theSchema tab in theGoogle Cloud console to configure field settings.
Configuring field settings is available only for apps with data stores containingeither structured data or unstructured data with metadata.
Field settings
The following field settings are available for many field types in yoursearch or recommendations data, but not for all data types. A schema contains multiple field settings for individual fields, and the next table contains settings which can be applied to a field within a schema. Using structured data is highly recommended for these field settings:
| Setting | Definition | Purpose | Use case example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indexable | Setting fields to indexable allows for operations like filtering, boosting, and faceting on structured fields within a document. Fields of type | Marking a field as Note that marking a field as | In a hotel data store, you can set a field, such ashotel_chain, as indexable. This lets you apply ranking, filtering, and boosting operations onhotel_chain. For example, you can apply a filter so that the search will turn up only search results containing the filtered hotel chain. |
| Searchable | Fields that are most likely to be related to searches are designated as Only fields with text values can be marked searchable. Thus, a numeric price field can be indexable (for filtering or faceting) but cannot be searchable as full text. | Setting a field toSearchable improves recall for that field in search queries, allowing users to find content, such as web pages, by querying the text within these fields. Marking a field as searchable allows ranking to be applied. Consequently, marking an excessive number of fields as searchable can negatively affect search precision by oversaturating the ranking algorithm and returning too many results. This could lead to irrelevant search returns. | An internet service provider's support ticket system stores each ticket as a structured document. If these documents contain Searchable text fields, such as |
| Dynamic facetable | Provides context-aware filters to better target searches for users. Setting a field asDynamic Facetable allows the system to automatically generate interactive filters (facets) based on the unique values present in the field. | Setting a field toDynamic facetable enables users to dynamically refine search results by selecting categories or attributes directly derived from your ingested data, without having to manually pre-define every possible filter option. This allows the user to narrow down their search to highly specific web content.UseDynamic Facetable withSearchable to achieve better results, which improves both the recall of your search and the quality of the facets offered to the user. | Pages in an internal corporate knowledge base, such as HR policies, are ingested with data likedepartment,document_type, orlast_modified_date. If these fields are tagged asdynamic facetable, an employee search for a term likeexpense reimbursement dynamically generates interactive filters based on the relevant results found. In such case, the web interface could display facets forDepartment: Finance, Travel,Document Type: Policy, FAQ, orLast Modified Date: This Quarter, Last Year. |
| Retrievable | When a search query hits matching content, the search engine can pull the values of retrievable fields to display or for use in the application, meaning that information from the original document is displayed as part of the search results. Key fields (unique identifiers for documents) are set up as retrievable. | Retrievable fields provide search context by distinguishing fields whose values can be displayed from those that are only to be used in the search logic but whose raw values are not meant to be shown to the end-user. | For a product search on a merchant site,product_id,name,price, and animage_url are typical fields that you want to set as retrievable. On the other hand, theinternal_tracking_code can be indexed and filterable for administrative purposes only, but not retrievable in public search results. |
| Completable | Allows a field's contents to used for search query suggestions. For more information, seeConfigure autocomplete. | This setting enables values within that field to be used for providing real-time query suggestions as users type. This feature helps guide your users to relevant content and accelerates the search process. Certain factors such as use of natural language filtering can impact this performance. | If thecompletable field is set forproduct_name,brand, andcategory, when the user typesTech, the autocomplete suggestions can show:
|
| Filterable | Allows recommendations to use a field to filter recommended results, determining which search results your users see. For information about filtering recommendations, seeFilter recommendations. | Setting a field toFilterable helps customize recommendations for users. Note thatfiltering limits apply. | A filter setting by language and drama could look like:language_code: ANY("en", "fr") OR categories: ANY("drama"). |
Differences between commonly used settings
There are key differences between the indexable, searchable, and retrievable field settings. The table summarizes these differences.
| Feature | Indexable | Searchable | Retrievable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Role | Makes field content available to search engine | Allows full-text querying against field content | Allows field's value to be returned in search results |
| Analysis | Content is processed and put into an index. | Typically undergoes extensive lexical analysis. | Value is stored as-is for display. |
| Can it be... | |||
| ...Searchable? | Yes (often a prerequisite) | N/A | Not necessarily (can be retrievable without being searchable) |
| ...Retrievable? | Not necessarily | Not necessarily | N/A |
| ...Filterable/Sortable/Facetable? | Yes (generally a prerequisite for these too) | Not directly; these are separate attributes often built on an indexable field. | Not directly; these attributes relate to how the field is indexed and queried, not just displayed. |
In practice, many fields that are crucial for user experience (such as titles, descriptions, and identifying information) are often set to beindexable,searchable, andretrievable.
Limitations
Field settings have the following limitations:
- You can configure up to 50 fields as indexable, searchable, retrievable, ordynamic facetable.
- To configure a field as dynamic facetable, it must first be configured asindexable.
- Changing the indexable setting requires re-indexing the data, which can takehours, especially for large data stores.
If you are configuring fields for a media search app and want detailedinformation about the fields in the schema, seeAbout media documents and datastores.
Update field settings
To update field settings:
In the Google Cloud console, go to theAI Applications page.
Click the name of the app that you want to edit.
ClickData.
Click theSchema tab. This tab shows current field settings.
You won't see theSchema tab if your data store containsbasic websitedata orunstructured datawithout metadata.
ClickEdit.
Select or clear field settings that you need to update. Some fieldsettings are not supported. For example, numerical fields cannot be set toSearchable.
ClickSave to apply your changes.
What's next
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Last updated 2026-02-19 UTC.