---
title: Strata
description: Discover Storyblok's documentation with comprehensive developer guides, manuals, API references, and examples to help you get the most out of the headless CMS platform.
url: https://www.storyblok.com/docs/manuals/strata
---

# Strata

Strata is a semantic search layer for your space. It indexes your content as vector embeddings, so you can find content by meaning rather than by exact keyword matches. A visitor who searches _“can I send my order back?”_ finds a page that says _“return policy”_, even though the two phrases share no words.

> [!NOTE]
> Strata is only available on specific plans. Learn more on the [pricing page](https://www.storyblok.com/pricing).

## What Strata indexes

The Strata index for a space currently indexes **stories only** on the **default branch** (the main content branch, not stages in the [Pipelines](/docs/apps/pipelines) app), in the **default language**. Draft and published stories have two separate indexes, so draft and published content can be searched independently.

Everything else is excluded: the asset library, datasources, and tags. Text in a story’s asset fields, such as alt text, is still indexed.

Strata indexes the default language only, but you can search in other languages and get matching results from the default-language index.

## Enable Strata

Strata is disabled by default and can only be enabled per space by a space admin. To enable Strata in a space, go to **Settings** → **Strata**, then turn on the **Enable Strata** toggle.

Enabling Strata starts the first indexing run for the whole space. Indexing runs in the background and takes roughly one to two minutes per thousand stories, depending on content. The space becomes searchable once this first run completes. Until then, search returns no results.

## Manage indexing status

[![The Strata settings page showing the Index status panel with last run, stories indexed, and errors, a content version selector, and the Run History table.](https://a.storyblok.com/f/212319/5fc47ce458/strata-index-status.png/m/720x0/)](https://a.storyblok.com/f/212319/5fc47ce458/strata-index-status.png)

The Index status panel and Run History on the Strata settings page.

Use the **Index status** panel on the **Strata** settings page to monitor the current state of the index and start a reindex.

Strata automatically updates the index for a space once per day at a scheduled time. Search keeps working during a reindex, serving the current index until the new one is ready. Stories might not be searchable immediately after publish. To make new or changed stories available sooner, start a manual reindex from the **Index status** panel.

When you start a reindex, you can choose which content to index: **All**, **Draft**, or **Published** stories. Only stories changed after the last run are reindexed, so subsequent reindex runs are much faster.

Below the panel, a **Run History** table lists past runs with additional details and indexing errors, if any. Select a run’s **errors** count to open an **Indexing errors** panel listing each story that couldn’t be indexed, with a **View story** link for each.

## Perform a semantic search

[![The Strata Search tab showing ranked results for the query 'can I send my order back?', each result with a match score.](https://a.storyblok.com/f/212319/d980f1c2e1/strata-search.png/m/720x0/)](https://a.storyblok.com/f/212319/d980f1c2e1/strata-search.png)

Semantic search results in the Strata Search tab.

The **Strata** settings page includes a **Search** tab to test semantic search. Select a content version (**Draft** or **Published**), enter a natural-language query, and select **Search**. Strata returns a ranked list of stories, each with its **name**, **slug**, a matching **excerpt**, and a **match score**.

To run semantic search from your own applications, AI assistants, or agents, use the [Content Delivery API search endpoint](/docs/api/content-delivery/v2/strata/search). For private searches scoped to a user’s permissions, use the [Management API search endpoint](/docs/api/management/strata/search).

## Limitations

Strata is retrieval-only: it returns relevant content but doesn’t generate answers. For what Strata can and can’t do, refer to the [Strata concept](/docs/concepts/strata).

## Pagination

-   [Previous: Stories](/docs/manuals/stories)
-   [Next: Taxonomies](/docs/manuals/taxonomies)