---
id: wiki-2026-0508-search-optimization
title: Search Optimization
category: 10_Wiki/Topics
status: verified
canonical_id: self
aliases: [Search Tuning, Retrieval Optimization, Hybrid Search]
duplicate_of: none
source_trust_level: A
confidence_score: 0.9
verification_status: applied
tags: [search, retrieval, bm25, vector, hybrid, rag]
raw_sources: []
last_reinforced: 2026-05-10
github_commit: pending
tech_stack:
  language: Python
  framework: Elasticsearch + pgvector
---

# Search Optimization

## 매 한 줄
> **"매 search 의 quality 는 매 lexical(BM25) + semantic(vector) hybrid + reranker 의 stack — 매 single signal 의 X"**. 매 origin 은 1970s tf-idf, 1994 BM25 (Robertson); 매 modern state 는 BM25F + dense vector (ColBERT/E5/Cohere v3.5) + cross-encoder rerank, 매 RAG 의 retrieval layer.

## 매 핵심

### 매 search stack (매 2026 modern)
- **Lexical**: BM25 (Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Tantivy) — 매 exact term, rare token, code.
- **Dense vector**: bi-encoder (E5-large, Cohere embed-v3.5, OpenAI 3-large) — 매 semantic match.
- **Sparse-learned**: SPLADE — 매 lexical + learned weight.
- **Hybrid fusion**: RRF (Reciprocal Rank Fusion) or weighted score sum.
- **Reranker**: cross-encoder (Cohere rerank-3.5, BGE-reranker-v2) — 매 top-50 → top-10.
- **Query understanding**: LLM rewrite, HyDE, multi-query expansion.

### 매 응용
1. Site search (e-commerce, docs).
2. RAG retrieval.
3. Code search (GitHub).
4. Internal knowledge search.

## 💻 패턴

### 매 BM25 (Elasticsearch 9, 매 tuned)
```json
PUT /products
{
  "settings": {
    "similarity": {
      "default": {
        "type": "BM25",
        "k1": 1.2,
        "b": 0.75
      }
    }
  },
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "title":       { "type": "text", "boost": 3.0 },
      "description": { "type": "text" },
      "tags":        { "type": "keyword" },
      "embedding":   { "type": "dense_vector", "dims": 1024, "similarity": "cosine" }
    }
  }
}
```

### 매 hybrid query (RRF, ES 9 native)
```json
GET /products/_search
{
  "retriever": {
    "rrf": {
      "retrievers": [
        { "standard": {
            "query": { "multi_match": {
              "query": "wireless earbuds noise cancel",
              "fields": ["title^3", "description"]
            }}
        }},
        { "knn": {
            "field": "embedding",
            "query_vector_builder": {
              "text_embedding": {
                "model_id": "cohere-embed-v3-5",
                "model_text": "wireless earbuds noise cancel"
              }
            },
            "k": 50, "num_candidates": 200
        }}
      ],
      "rank_window_size": 100,
      "rank_constant": 60
    }
  },
  "size": 10
}
```

### 매 BM25 tuning (매 corpus 별 k1/b)
```python
# 매 short corpus (titles): k1=1.2, b=0.5  (매 length penalty 약하게)
# 매 long docs (articles):  k1=1.5, b=0.75 (매 default)
# 매 code search:           k1=2.0, b=0.0  (매 length 무관)
# 매 grid search 매 NDCG@10 으로 tune

from rank_bm25 import BM25Okapi
import numpy as np

def grid_search(corpus, queries, judgments):
    best = (None, -1)
    for k1 in [0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.5, 2.0]:
        for b in [0.0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0]:
            bm25 = BM25Okapi(corpus, k1=k1, b=b)
            ndcg = evaluate(bm25, queries, judgments)
            if ndcg > best[1]:
                best = ((k1, b), ndcg)
    return best
```

### 매 cross-encoder rerank (Cohere v3.5)
```python
import cohere
co = cohere.ClientV2()

# 매 stage 1: hybrid retrieve top 50
candidates = hybrid_search(query, k=50)

# 매 stage 2: rerank to top 10
resp = co.rerank(
    model="rerank-v3.5",
    query=query,
    documents=[c.text for c in candidates],
    top_n=10,
)
top10 = [candidates[r.index] for r in resp.results]
```

### 매 HyDE (Hypothetical Document Embedding)
```python
import anthropic
client = anthropic.Anthropic()

def hyde_query(question: str) -> str:
    """매 question 을 hypothetical answer 로 변환 → 매 그것 을 embed."""
    msg = client.messages.create(
        model="claude-haiku-4-5",
        max_tokens=256,
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content":
            f"Write a 3-sentence hypothetical answer to: {question}"}],
    )
    return msg.content[0].text

# 매 query embedding 의 quality 향상 — 매 query-doc length asymmetry 완화
hypothetical = hyde_query("how does pgvector handle 1024-dim embeddings?")
emb = embed(hypothetical)
results = vector_search(emb)
```

### 매 multi-query expansion (매 LLM)
```python
def expand_query(q: str) -> list[str]:
    msg = client.messages.create(
        model="claude-haiku-4-5",
        max_tokens=256,
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content":
            f"Generate 3 alternative phrasings for search:\n{q}\n"
            "Return one per line."}],
    )
    return [q] + msg.content[0].text.splitlines()

# 매 매 phrasing 으로 search → RRF merge
queries = expand_query("how to ship a model fast")
all_hits = [search(q) for q in queries]
final = rrf_merge(all_hits)
```

### 매 pgvector hybrid (Postgres 17)
```sql
-- 매 BM25 (pg_search ext) + vector hybrid
WITH lexical AS (
  SELECT id, paradedb.score(id) AS s
  FROM docs
  WHERE id @@@ 'description:earbuds'
  ORDER BY s DESC LIMIT 50
),
semantic AS (
  SELECT id, 1 - (embedding <=> $1::vector) AS s
  FROM docs
  ORDER BY embedding <=> $1::vector LIMIT 50
)
SELECT id,
       COALESCE(1.0/(60 + l.rk), 0) + COALESCE(1.0/(60 + s.rk), 0) AS rrf_score
FROM (SELECT id, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY s DESC) rk FROM lexical) l
FULL OUTER JOIN
     (SELECT id, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY s DESC) rk FROM semantic) s
USING (id)
ORDER BY rrf_score DESC LIMIT 10;
```

### 매 evaluation (NDCG@10, 매 judgment list)
```python
import numpy as np

def dcg(rels):
    return sum(r / np.log2(i + 2) for i, r in enumerate(rels))

def ndcg(predicted_ids, judgments, k=10):
    rels = [judgments.get(pid, 0) for pid in predicted_ids[:k]]
    ideal = sorted(judgments.values(), reverse=True)[:k]
    return dcg(rels) / dcg(ideal) if dcg(ideal) > 0 else 0
```

## 매 결정 기준
| 상황 | Approach |
|---|---|
| 매 keyword-heavy (code, IDs) | BM25 dominant, vector secondary |
| 매 semantic (NL question) | vector dominant + BM25 floor |
| 매 mixed (e-commerce) | hybrid RRF + cross-encoder rerank |
| 매 high-precision top-3 | hybrid → cross-encoder rerank |
| 매 query 가 짧음/모호 | LLM expand + HyDE |
| 매 latency-critical (<50ms) | BM25 only or pre-computed embeddings |

**기본값**: hybrid (BM25 + dense) + Cohere rerank-v3.5 top-10 + LLM query expansion 옵션.

## 🔗 Graph
- 부모: [[Information Retrieval]] · [[RAG]]
- 변형: [[BM25]] · [[Vector Search]] · [[Information-Retrieval-IR|Hybrid Search]] · [[Reranker]]
- 응용: [[Semantic Search]]
- Adjacent: [[Embeddings]] · [[ColBERT]]

## 🤖 LLM 활용
**언제**: 매 query expansion, HyDE, query rewrite. 매 reranker prompt-style. 매 result summarization (RAG).
**언제 X**: 매 retrieval 자체 — 매 vector + BM25 가 더 cheap/fast. 매 LLM-as-retriever 의 latency 비합리.

## ❌ 안티패턴
- **Vector-only search**: 매 exact term (UUID, error code) 매 miss.
- **No reranker**: 매 top-50 retrieval 의 noise → top-10 quality 저하.
- **Default BM25 params**: 매 corpus 매 다름 — 매 tune.
- **No eval set**: 매 judgment 없이 tune → 매 vibe-driven.
- **Embedding drift**: 매 model upgrade 시 reindex 안 함.

## 🧪 검증 / 중복
- Verified (Robertson & Zaragoza "BM25 and Beyond" 2009, BEIR benchmark, Cohere/Anthropic 2026 docs, Pinecone "Hybrid Search").
- 신뢰도 A.

## 🕓 Changelog
| 날짜 | 변경 |
|---|---|
| 2026-05-08 | Phase 1 |
| 2026-05-10 | Manual cleanup — BM25 + vector hybrid + RRF + Cohere rerank-v3.5 + HyDE |
