Meilisearch Python Client

Common errors

Warnings

Install

Install compatibility verified last tested: 2026-05-12

Imports

• Client (official sync)
  wrong

  import meilisearch
  
  # Wrong: treating add_documents as synchronous confirmation
  client = meilisearch.Client('http://127.0.0.1:7700', 'masterKey')
  index = client.index('movies')
  index.add_documents(docs)
  # immediately searching — docs may not be indexed yet
  result = index.search('wonder')  # may return empty

  correct

  import meilisearch
  
  client = meilisearch.Client('http://127.0.0.1:7700', 'masterKey')
  
  # Index reference (creates if not exists on first add_documents)
  index = client.index('movies')
  
  # Add documents — returns Task, not confirmation
  task = index.add_documents([
      {'id': 1, 'title': 'Carol', 'genres': ['Romance', 'Drama']},
      {'id': 2, 'title': 'Wonder Woman', 'genres': ['Action']},
  ])
  print(task.task_uid)  # poll this to confirm indexing
  
  # Search
  result = index.search('wonder')
  print(result['hits'])

  add_documents() is non-blocking. Meilisearch queues the task — documents are not immediately searchable. Must wait for task to succeed before searching.

• AsyncClient (meilisearch-python-sdk)
  wrong

  # Using official meilisearch package in async context
  import meilisearch
  async def main():
      client = meilisearch.Client('http://127.0.0.1:7700', 'masterKey')
      # This blocks the event loop — no async support in official package

  correct

  from meilisearch_python_sdk import AsyncClient
  import asyncio
  
  async def main():
      async with AsyncClient('http://127.0.0.1:7700', 'masterKey') as client:
          index = client.index('movies')
          task = await index.add_documents([
              {'id': 1, 'title': 'Carol'}
          ])
          # Wait for indexing to complete
          await client.wait_for_task(task.task_uid)
          result = await index.search('carol')
          print(result.hits)
  
  asyncio.run(main())

  Official 'meilisearch' package has no async support. For FastAPI/asyncio use 'meilisearch-python-sdk' which has AsyncClient.

Quickstart stale last tested: 2026-04-23

Meilisearch Python client — indexing, waiting for task, and search.

# pip install meilisearch
import meilisearch
import time

client = meilisearch.Client('http://127.0.0.1:7700', 'masterKey')
index = client.index('products')

# Add documents (non-blocking)
task = index.add_documents([
    {'id': '1', 'name': 'Widget', 'price': 9.99},
    {'id': '2', 'name': 'Gadget', 'price': 24.99},
])

# Wait for indexing (dev only — use task polling in production)
client.wait_for_task(task.task_uid)

# Configure filterable attributes (triggers re-index)
index.update_filterable_attributes(['price'])

# Search
result = index.search('widget')
for hit in result['hits']:
    print(hit['name'])

# Search with filter
result = index.search('', {'filter': 'price < 15'})
print(result['hits'])