Advanced search filters in Glean

Search filters narrow your results to exactly what you need. Instead of scanning hundreds of results for one document, you can ask for "Google Drive presentations from Jane, updated last week."

Use filters to:

• Run precise queries in Glean Search
• Build Manual search queries in Agents, so a step retrieves exactly the data you specify

The basic syntax is filter:value, such as app:gdrive or from:"Jane Doe". Add a - to exclude results, so -app:gmail leaves out Gmail. Combine filters to narrow further.

If you're building an Agent, see Use search filters in Glean Agents for the rules that keep results reliable.

Prerequisites

You need access to Glean Search. To test filters for Agents, you also need permission to build or edit agents.

How to build a search query

Build a query incrementally. Start with keywords, then add one filter at a time to narrow the results:

1. Start simple: project phoenix
2. Add an app: project phoenix app:confluence
3. Add a type: project phoenix app:confluence type:page
4. Add a person: project phoenix app:confluence type:page from:"PM"
5. Add a time filter: project phoenix app:confluence type:page from:"PM" updated:past_week

Essential syntax rules

Quote multi-word values, and use quotes for exact phrases. Unquoted words match any of the words. Quoted words must all appear.

filter:value                    → Basic filter syntax
filter:"value with space"       → Quote multi-word values
"exact phrase"                  → Match this exact phrase
"word1" "word2"                 → Require both words, in any order
word1 word2                     → Match any of these words
-filter:value                   → Exclude matching results

Core filters

These are the fundamental filters that work across all applications:

app:appname                    → Limit to specific app(s)
type:typename                  → Filter by document type  
from:person                    → From specific person
from:me                        → Your documents
updated:timeframe              → Recently modified
my:history                     → You've viewed (6 month limit)
collection:"Name"              → In a Glean collection
has:golink                     → Has a Go link
in:"Folder Name"               → Docs in specific container/space/folder

Date and time expressions

Natural language

updated:today                  → Current day only
updated:yesterday              → Previous day only
updated:past_week              → Last 7 days
updated:past_month             → Last 30 days
updated:past_3_days            → Last 3 days
updated:past_quarter           → Last 90 days
updated:this_week              → Current calendar week
updated:last_month             → Previous calendar month
after:"2024-01-01"             → After a specific date
before:"2024-01-01"             → Before a specific date

Specific dates

updated:"2024-01-15"                    → Specific date
updated:"2024-01"                       → Entire month
updated:"2024"                          → Entire year
updated:"2024-Q1"                       → Quarter
after:"2024-01-01" before:"2024-01-31"  → Date range

Boolean logic

• The same filter behaves like or. type:doc type:sheet matches docs or sheets.
• Different filters behave like and. app:jira from:me matches Jira items from you.
• You can't force and on the same filter (platform limitation).
• No parentheses or custom grouping (platform limitation).
• Negation: add - to exclude a term. For example, employee experience -customer excludes results that mention "customer."

People and entity filters

Find people by title, department, location, or reporting structure, and combine those filters with document searches.

# Job & Organization
title:"Software Engineer"      → Job title
department:engineering         → Department
businessunit:sales             → Business unit
team:"Platform Team"           → Specific team

# Location
location:"San Francisco"       → City/office
country:"United States"        → Country
state:"CA"                     → State/province
region:"EMEA"                  → Region

# Reporting & Employment
reportsto:"Manager Name"       → Direct manager
level:[ic|manager|director]    → Seniority level
startafter:"2023-01-01"        → Start date after
startbefore:"2024-01-01"       → Start date before
employmenttype:[fulltime|contractor|intern]

# Combining with documents
from:[title:"Product Manager"] type:presentation
from:[department:sales] updated:past_week

Text matching patterns

# Exact phrase
"quarterly business review"     → Exact phrase in order

# All words required
"quarterly" "business" "review" → All 3 words, any order

# Any words
quarterly business review       → ANY of these words

# Special characters (use quotes)
"user@company.com"
"Q4-2024"  
"$1,000,000"
"C++"

Use search filters in Glean Agents

A Manual search query gives an Agent step exact control over what it retrieves, so results stay consistent from one run to the next. AI-generated queries are convenient, but their filters can change between runs.

For a Company Search step, default to a Manual search query. Use an AI-generated query only when the Agent must set a parameter during the run, such as a relative date.

Rules for reliable results

• Quote multi-word values: account:"Acme Corp"
• Test the query in Glean Search first, then copy the exact syntax
• Prefer Manual search over AI-generated when you can
• Include every filter the step needs
• Handle empty results in your Agent logic

note

Any manual query that works in Agents also works in Glean Search, which makes the Search UI a convenient place to test.

Good and bad examples

Quote multi-word values. Unquoted values are misread and cause parsing errors.

✅ account:"Acme Corporation" status:"in progress"
❌ account:Acme Corporation status:in progress

✅ app:jira type:bug label:"high-priority"
❌ app:jira type:bug label:high priority

Tips and tricks

Performance tips

• Add an app: filter first to narrow the scope
• Be specific with document types
• Limit date ranges when you can
• Use exact phrases for titles you know

Discover filters through the Search UI

1. Run a search.
2. Click All filters.
3. Select options.
4. Copy the syntax from the search bar.

Known limitations and workarounds

Limitation	What doesn’t work	Practical workaround
No complex boolean	(A OR B) AND (C OR D)	Run multiple targeted searches
No same‑field AND	“Docs with Jane AND John”	Use text search for both names
No regex	Pattern matching	Use multiple exact phrases
History scope	my:history > 6 months	Combine with other filters
GDrive recency edge cases	Newly updated files may not appear with broad time filters	Combine time with from: or type:; add keywords for critical searches
Bounded result set	Glean Search returns a ranked set of top results per query, not an exhaustive list. It isn't a substitute for native source query languages when you need every matching record.	For complete enumeration, use a source-specific tool (for example, Search Jira with JQL) or break queries into narrower time-sliced windows

Quick reference table

Common needs and the filter combinations that cover them:

Need	Filter combination
My recent work	from:me updated:past_week
Team documents	from:[department:"Dept"] type:document
Open bugs	app:jira type:bug status:"open"
Customer intel	"Acme Corp" app:salescloud app:zendesk
Meeting notes	"meeting" type:document updated:past_month
Shared drives	app:gdrive folder:"Shared"
Recent Slack	app:slack updated:yesterday
My history, slides	my:history type:presentation

Common search patterns

These are ready-to-use queries for team documents, customer intelligence, project tracking, bugs, sales, and knowledge search.

Recent team documents

from:[department:"Engineering"] updated:past_week
from:[reportsto:"Manager Name"] "meeting notes"
from:me app:gdrive type:document updated:past_month

Customer intelligence

"Acme Corp" app:salescloud app:zendesk app:gong
account:"Acme Corp" type:opportunity status:"open"
"Acme Corp" app:slack channel:"#customer-success"

Project tracking

"Project Phoenix" app:confluence app:jira
"Project Phoenix" updated:past_week -type:email
"Project Phoenix" from:[team:"Phoenix Team"]

Bug management

app:jira type:bug status:"open" priority:highest
app:jira type:bug label:customer-reported assignee:me
app:jira type:bug status:"resolved" updated:past_week

Sales pipeline

app:salescloud type:opportunity stage:!"closed lost"
app:salescloud type:opportunity amount:>100000
app:salescloud closedate:"2024-Q1" owner:me

Knowledge search

"how to" type:document app:confluence label:tutorial
collection:"Engineering Playbooks" "best practices"
has:golink "onboarding"

Application-specific filters

Filter syntax and examples for Google Drive, Slack, Jira, Confluence, Salesforce, GitHub, GitLab, Teams, Gong, and Zendesk.

Google Drive

app:gdrive
type:[document|spreadsheet|presentation|pdf|image|video|folder]
folder:"Folder Name"
owner:email@company.com
Example:
app:gdrive type:spreadsheet folder:"Finance" updated:past_week

Slack

app:slack
channel:"#channel-name"   # include the #
from:@username            # include the @
type:[conversation|channel|dm]
Example:
app:slack channel:"#engineering" from:@john "deployment"

Jira

app:jira
type:[bug|story|epic|task|subtask]
status:"Status Name"
assignee:"Person Name"
reporter:"Person Name"
project:"PROJECT-KEY"
label:labelname
component:componentname
priority:[highest|high|medium|low|lowest]
sprint:"Sprint Name"
Example:
app:jira type:bug status:"in progress" priority:high assignee:me

Confluence

app:confluence
type:[page|blogpost|space]
space:"Space Name"
author:"Person Name"
label:labelname
Example:
app:confluence space:"Engineering Wiki" author:"Jane" label:howto

Salesforce

# Sales Cloud
app:salescloud
type:[opportunity|account|lead|contact|case]
status:"Status Name"
stage:"Stage Name"
owner:"Person Name"
account:"Account Name"
amount:>100000
closedate:"2024-Q1"

# Service Cloud
app:servicecloud
type:case
priority:[high|medium|low]
Example:
app:salescloud type:opportunity stage:"negotiation" amount:>50000

GitHub / GitLab

app:github   # or app:gitlab
type:[issue|pr|commit|repo|discussion]
repo:"repository-name"
author:"username"
assignee:"username"
label:labelname
status:[open|closed|merged]
Example:
app:github type:pr repo:"main-app" status:open label:bug

Microsoft Teams

app:teams
team:"Team Name"
channel:"Channel Name"
from:"Person Name"
type:[conversation|file|channel]
Example:
app:teams team:"Product Dev" channel:"General" type:file

Gong

app:gong
account:"Account Name"
participant:"Person Name"
type:[call|email]
Example:
app:gong account:"Acme Corp" type:call updated:past_week

Zendesk

app:zendesk
type:ticket
status:[new|open|pending|solved|closed]
priority:[urgent|high|normal|low]
assignee:"Agent Name"
requester:"Customer Name"
Example:
app:zendesk type:ticket status:open priority:urgent