Full-Text Search in PostgreSQL: tsvector, GIN, Ranking, and pg_trgm — No Elasticsearch Required

Build a real search feature inside PostgreSQL with no extra infrastructure: tsvector with generated columns and weights, GIN indexes, safe user queries with websearch_to_tsquery, relevance ranking with ts_rank, snippets with ts_headline, and typo tolerance with pg_trgm. Covers the silent failures that degrade search quality, a complete FastAPI endpoint, and an honest guide to when a dedicated engine like Elasticsearch is actually worth it. With production-ready SQL and Python.

18 minutes read

2026-08-04

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