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Discourse is now testing a new search on Meta. AI search and keyword search share one box; Discourse can now guess which one you want, and when. 🧵 1/9

People search a forum for two reasons. Some want an answer: how do I fix this, why does that happen? Others want a thing: a topic, a page, a person. Until now, you had to know which tool to reach for first. 2/9

Discourse asks two questions: Does this search want something explained or solved, or a specific topic, page, or person? And if you searched inside a topic or category, are you asking about that place or the whole forum? 3/9

Discourse guesses only when the model is confident; it skips the model when it's slow. Sites without a decision model fall back to built-in rules. 4/9

The rules check search syntax (operators, # category, @ user, quoted phrases), matches inside the current topic, text in a different script from the site default, repeat searches, your learned preference, question phrasing (a trailing ? or five-plus words), and which tabs have results. 5/9

If you switch away from the AI tab, Discourse counts that as a wrong guess. Switch a few times; Discourse remembers your preferences. 6/9

On Meta, the team logs the rules' verdict, the model's verdict and confidence, which tab opened and why, and whether the searcher switched away and how fast. 7/9