Query constraint (noun)
A condition that limits which information can qualify as a valid result for a query.
When someone asks a question of our documentation, the subject is only part of what a retrieval system needs to understand.
Consider: “How do administrators export audit logs from the cloud version?”
The subject is exporting audit logs. But the question also contains two conditions: the answer has to apply to administrators, and it has to apply to the cloud product.
A procedure written for on-premises customers (not using the cloud version) can use nearly identical language and still be the wrong answer for those folks. So can a procedure written for end users instead of administrators. Both can look highly relevant to a search system while failing to satisfy what the question askers actually require.
Those conditions — role, deployment, and dozens of others like them — are query constraints. Oracle describes search constraints as a way to limit the search space within an index. Firebase defines a constraint as something used to narrow the set of documents a query returns.
The concept isn’t new. What’s changed is what happens when the wrong constraint slips through undetected.
