A search request can be executed purely using a URI by providing request parameters. Not all search options are exposed when executing a search using this mode, but it can be handy for quick "curl tests". Here is an example:
GET twitter/_search?q=user:kimchy
And here is a sample response:
{
    "timed_out": false,
    "took": 62,
    "_shards":{
        "total" : 1,
        "successful" : 1,
        "skipped" : 0,
        "failed" : 0
    },
    "hits":{
        "total" : {
            "value": 1,
            "relation": "eq"
        },
        "max_score": 1.3862944,
        "hits" : [
            {
                "_index" : "twitter",
                "_type" : "_doc",
                "_id" : "0",
                "_score": 1.3862944,
                "_source" : {
                    "user" : "kimchy",
                    "date" : "2009-11-15T14:12:12",
                    "message" : "trying out Elasticsearch",
                    "likes": 0
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}The parameters allowed in the URI are:
| Name | Description | 
|---|---|
| 
 | The query string (maps to the  | 
| 
 | The default field to use when no field prefix is defined within the query. | 
| 
 | The analyzer name to be used when analyzing the query string. | 
| 
 | Should wildcard and prefix queries be analyzed or
not. Defaults to  | 
| 
 | The number of shard results that should be reduced at once on the coordinating node. This value should be used as a protection mechanism to reduce the memory overhead per search request if the potential number of shards in the request can be large. | 
| 
 | The default operator to be used, can be  | 
| 
 | If set to true will cause format based failures (like providing text to a numeric field) to be ignored. Defaults to false. | 
| 
 | For each hit, contain an explanation of how scoring of the hits was computed. | 
| 
 | Set to  | 
| 
 | The selective stored fields of the document to return for each hit, comma delimited. Not specifying any value will cause no fields to return. | 
| 
 | Sorting to perform. Can either be in the form of  | 
| 
 | When sorting, set to  | 
| 
 | Defaults to  | 
| 
 | A search timeout, bounding the search request to be executed within the specified time value and bail with the hits accumulated up to that point when expired. Defaults to no timeout. | 
| 
 | The maximum number of documents to collect for
each shard, upon reaching which the query execution will terminate early.
If set, the response will have a boolean field  | 
| 
 | The starting from index of the hits to return. Defaults to  | 
| 
 | The number of hits to return. Defaults to  | 
| 
 | The type of the search operation to perform. Can be
 | 
| 
 | Set to  |