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description: Learn how to implement AI-powered conversational search using Meilisearch's chat feature
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title: What is conversational search?
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description: Conversational search is an AI-powered feature that allows users to ask questions in everyday language and receive answers based on the information in Meilisearch's indexes
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Meilisearch's chat completions feature enables AI-powered conversational search, allowing users to ask questions in natural language and receive direct answers based on your indexed content. This feature transforms the traditional search experience into an interactive dialogue.
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## What is conversational search?
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<Note>
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This is an experimental feature. Use the Meilisearch Cloud UI or the experimental features endpoint to activate it:
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In conversational search interfaces, users ask questions in everyday language instead of using keywords, and receive complete answers rather than links to articles.
In the majority of cases, you should use the [`/chats` route](/reference/api/chats) to build a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline. RAGs excel when working with unstructured data and emphasise high-quality responses.
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## Use chat completions to implement RAG pipelines
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The chat completions feature implements a complete Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline in a single API endpoint. Meilisearch's chat completions consolidates RAG creation into one streamlined process:
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Meilisearch's chat completions consolidates RAG creation into a single process:
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1.**Query understanding**: automatically transforms questions into search parameters
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2.**Hybrid retrieval**: combines keyword and semantic search for better relevancy
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3.**Answer generation**: uses your chosen LLM to generate responses
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4.**Context management**: maintains conversation history by constantly pushing the full conversation to the dedicated tool
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### Alternative: MCP integration
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When integrating Meilisearch with AI assistants and automation tools, consider using [Meilisearch's Model Context Protocol (MCP) server](/guides/ai/mcp). MCP enables standardized tool integration across various AI platforms and applications.
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## Architecture overview
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Chat completions operate through workspaces, which are isolated configurations for different use cases. Each workspace can:
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- Use different LLM sources (openAi, azureOpenAi, mistral, gemini, vLlm)
The chat completions feature integrates with Meilisearch's existing security model:
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Follow the [chat completions tutorial](/learn/chat/getting_started_with_chat) for information on how to implement a RAG with Meilisearch.
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-**API key permissions**: chat only accesses indexes visible to the provided API key
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-**Tenant tokens**: support for multi-tenant applications
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-**LLM credentials**: stored securely in workspace settings
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-**Content isolation**: responses based only on indexed content
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### Model Context Protocol (MCP)
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## Next steps
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An alternative method is using a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. MCPs are designed for broader uses that go beyond answering questions, but can be useful in contexts where having up-to-date data is more important than comprehensive answers.
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-[Get started with chat completions implementation](/learn/chat/getting_started_with_chat)
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-[Explore the chat completions API reference](/reference/api/chats)
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Follow the [dedicated MCP guide](/guides/ai/mcp) if you want to implement it in your application.
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