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Overview

Haystack provides powerful semantic search that goes beyond simple keyword matching. Users can search using natural language questions, and Haystack understands meaning and context to return the most relevant results.

Search API

No Authentication Required: The search endpoint uses your church-specific Search API URL and does not require authentication. Never include your API token when calling search from public-facing applications.
Find your Search API Base URL in the Haystack Dashboard under DeveloperAPI.
Advanced Feature: Add ?stream=true to receive a Server-Sent Events stream with an AI-generated overview of search results. Perfect for creating rich search experiences with AI summaries. Learn more

Search Response

Search Result Types

Haystack returns three types of results:

Item Results

Individual content items with highlights showing relevant sections.
Key Fields:
  • score - Overall relevance (0-1, higher is better)
  • highlights - Most relevant segments with timestamps
  • thumbnailUrl - Visual preview of the segment (only available when using Haystack custom player; use item artwork for YouTube/Vimeo)

Scripture Results

Bible passages related to the search query.
Haystack automatically:
  • Detects biblical references in queries (“Matthew 6”)
  • Finds thematic scripture connections (“forgiveness” → Matthew 6:14-15)
  • Shows how many items reference each passage

Series Results

Entire series related to the query.
Useful when users want comprehensive content on a topic.

Search Features

Semantic Understanding

Haystack understands meaning, not just keywords:

Highlights

Each result includes 1-3 highlights showing the most relevant sections:
Use highlights to:
  • Show preview text in search results
  • Enable “jump to moment” functionality
  • Display thumbnail previews

Scripture Detection

Haystack recognizes Bible references in multiple formats:
  • Book and chapter: “John 3”
  • Full reference: “John 3:16”
  • Natural language: “when Jesus talked to Nicodemus”
  • Alternative names: “1st John”, “First John”, “1 John”

Best Practices

Track All Searches

Log every search query to understand user intent and identify gaps in your content

Show Visual Previews

Use thumbnail URLs from highlights to give users visual context

Implement Jump to Moment

Let users jump directly to relevant timestamps instead of watching from the beginning

Monitor Zero Results

Track searches that return no results to identify missing content topics

Next Steps

API Reference

Full search API documentation