Sonic

Sonic is a fast, lightweight and schema-less search backend. It ingests search texts and identifier tuples, that can then be queried against.

Sonic can be used as a simple alternative to super-heavy and full-featured search backends such as Elasticsearch in some use-cases. It is capable of normalizing natural language search queries, auto-completing a search query and providing most relevant results for a query.

🇫🇷 Crafted in Nantes, France.

TODO: write journal article (link below)

:newspaper: The Sonic project was initially announced in a post on my personal journal.

TODO: sonic hedgehog image (from personal drawing) (below)

Who uses it?

Crisp

👋 You use Sonic and you want to be listed there? Contact me.

Features

• Search terms are stored in collections, organized in buckets; you may use a single bucket, or a bucket per user on your platform if you need to search in separate graphs.
• Search results return object identifiers, that can be resolved from an external database if you need to enrich the search results. This makes Sonic a simple graph storage system, that points to identifier results. Sonic doesn't store any textual data in its graphs.
• Networked channel interface (Sonic Channel), that let you search your stored graphs, manage data ingestion (push in the index, pop from the index, flush a collection, flush a bucket, etc.) and perform administrative actions. The Sonic Channel protocol was designed to be lightweight on resources and simple to integrate with (the protocol is specified in the sections below).
• Easy-to-use libraries, that let you connect to Sonic Channel from your apps.

Limitations

• Indexed data limits: Sonic is designed for large search indexes split over thousands of search buckets per collection. An IID (ie. Internal-ID) is stored in the index as a 32 bits number, which theoretically allow up to ~4.2 billion objects to be indexed (ie. OID) per bucket. We've observed storage savings of 30% to 40%, which justifies the trade-off on large databases (versus Sonic using 64 bits IIDs). Also, Sonic only keeps the N most recently pushed results for a given word, in a sliding window way (the sliding window width can be configured).
• Search query limits: Sonic Natural Language Processing system (NLP) does not work at the sentence-level, for storage compactness reasons (we keep the FST graph shallow as to reduce time and space complexity). It works at the word-level, and is thus able to search per-word and can predict a word based on user input, though it is unable to predict the next word in a sentence.
• Real-time limits: the FST needs to be re-built every time a word is pushed or popped from the bucket graph. As this is quite heavy, Sonic batches rebuild cycles.
• Interoperability limits: Sonic Channel protocol is the only way to read and write search entries to the Sonic search index. Sonic does not expose any HTTP API. Sonic Channel has been built with performance and minimal network footprint in mind. If you need to access Sonic Channel from an unsupported programming language, you can either open an issue or look at the reference node-sonic-channel implementation and build it in your target programming language.
• Hardware limits: Sonic performs the search on the file-system directly; ie. it does not fit the index in RAM. A search query results in a lot of random accesses on the disk, which means that it will be quite slow on old-school HDDs and super-fast on newer SSDs. Do store the Sonic database on SSD-backed file systems only.

How to use it?

Installation

Sonic is built in Rust. To install it, either download a version from the Sonic releases page, use cargo install or pull the source code from master.

Install from source:

If you pulled the source code from Git, you can build it using cargo:

bash cargo build --release

You can find the built binaries in the ./target/release directory.

Install clang to be able to compile the required RocksDB dependency.

Install from Cargo:

You can install Sonic directly with cargo install:

bash cargo install sonic-server

Ensure that your $PATH is properly configured to source the Crates binaries, and then run Sonic using the sonic command.

Install from Docker Hub:

You might find it convenient to run Sonic via Docker. You can find the pre-built Sonic image on Docker Hub as valeriansaliou/sonic.

First, pull the valeriansaliou/sonic image:

bash docker pull valeriansaliou/sonic:v1.0.0

Then, seed it a configuration file and run it (replace /path/to/your/sonic/config.cfg with the path to your configuration file):

bash docker run -p 1491:1491 -v /path/to/your/sonic/config.cfg:/etc/sonic.cfg valeriansaliou/sonic:v1.0.0

In the configuration file, ensure that:

• channel.inet is set to 0.0.0.0:1491 (this lets Sonic Channel be reached from outside the container)

Sonic Channel will be reachable from tcp://localhost:1491.

Configuration

Use the sample config.cfg configuration file and adjust it to your own environment.

Available configuration options are commented below, with allowed values:

[server]

• log_level (type: string, allowed: debug, info, warn, error, default: error) — Verbosity of logging, set it to error in production

[channel]

• inet (type: string, allowed: IPv4 / IPv6 + port, default: [::1]:1491) — Host and TCP port Sonic Channel should listen on
• tcp_timeout (type: integer, allowed: seconds, default: 300) — Timeout of idle/dead client connections to Sonic Channel
• auth_password (type: string, allowed: password values, default: none) — Authentication password required to connect to the channel (optional but recommended)

[channel.search]

• query_limit_default (type: integer, allowed: numbers, default: 10) — Default search results limit for a query command (if the LIMIT command modifier is not used when issuing a QUERY command)
• query_limit_maximum (type: integer, allowed: numbers, default: 100) — Maximum search results limit for a query command (if the LIMIT command modifier is being used when issuing a QUERY command)
• query_alternates_try (type: integer, allowed: numbers, default: 4) — Number of alternate words that look like query word to try if there are not enough query results (if zero, no alternate will be tried; if too high there may be a noticeable performance penalty)
• suggest_limit_default (type: integer, allowed: numbers, default: 5) — Default suggested words limit for a suggest command (if the LIMIT command modifier is not used when issuing a SUGGEST command)
• suggest_limit_maximum (type: integer, allowed: numbers, default: 20) — Maximum suggested words limit for a suggest command (if the LIMIT command modifier is being used when issuing a SUGGEST command)

[store]

[store.kv]

• path (type: string, allowed: UNIX path, default: ./data/store/kv/) — Path to the Key-Value database store
• retain_word_objects (type: integer, allowed: numbers, default: 1000) — Maximum number of objects a given word in the index can be linked to (older objects are cleared using a sliding window)

[store.kv.pool]

• inactive_after (type: integer, allowed: seconds, default: 180) — Time after which a cached database is considered inactive and can be closed (if it is not used, ie. re-activated)

[store.kv.database]

• compress (type: boolean, allowed: true, false, default: true) — Whether to compress database or not (uses LZ4)
• parallelism (type: integer, allowed: numbers, default: 2) — Limit on the number of compaction and flush threads that can run at the same time
• max_files (type: integer, allowed: numbers, default: 1000) — Maximum number of database files kept open at the same time (this should be balanced)
• max_compactions (type: integer, allowed: numbers, default: 1) — Limit on the number of concurrent database compaction jobs
• max_flushes (type: integer, allowed: numbers, default: 1) — Limit on the number of concurrent database flush jobs

[store.fst]

• path (type: string, allowed: UNIX path, default: ./data/store/fst/) — Path to the Finite-State Transducer database store

[store.fst.pool]

• inactive_after (type: integer, allowed: seconds, default: 180) — Time after which a cached graph is considered inactive and can be closed (if it is not used, ie. re-activated)

[store.fst.graph]

• consolidate_after (type: integer, allowed: seconds, default: 120) — Time after which a graph that has pending updates should be consolidated (increase this delay if you encounter high-CPU usage issues when a consolidation task kicks-in; this value should be lower than store.fst.pool.inactive_after)

Run Sonic

Sonic can be run as such:

./sonic -c /path/to/config.cfg

Perform searches and manage objects

Both searches and object management (ie. data ingestion) is handled via the Sonic Channel protocol only. As we want to keep things simple with Sonic (similarly to how Redis does), connecting to Sonic Channel is the way to go when you need to interact with the Sonic search database.

Sonic Channel can be accessed via the telnet utility from your computer. The very same system is also used by all Sonic Channel libraries (eg. NodeJS).

1️⃣ Sonic Channel (uninitialized)

• START <mode>: select mode to use for connection (either: search or ingest)

Issuing any other command — eg. QUIT — in this mode will abort the TCP connection, effectively resulting in a QUIT with the ENDED not_recognized response.

2️⃣ Sonic Channel (Search mode)

The Sonic Channel Search mode is used for querying the search index. Once in this mode, you cannot switch to other modes or gain access to commands from other modes.

➡️ Available commands:

• QUERY: query database (syntax: QUERY <collection> <bucket> "<terms>" [LIMIT(<count>)]? [OFFSET(<count>)]?)
• SUGGEST: auto-completes word (syntax: SUGGEST <collection> <bucket> "<word>" [LIMIT(<count>)]?)
• PING: ping server (syntax: PING)
• HELP: show help (syntax: HELP [<manual>]?)
• QUIT: stop connection (syntax: QUIT)

⏩ Syntax terminology:

• <collection>: index collection (ie. what you search in, eg. messages, products, etc.);
• <bucket>: index bucket name (ie. user-specific search classifier in the collection if you have any eg. user-1, user-2, .., otherwise use a common bucket name eg. generic, default, common, ..);
• <terms>: text for search terms (between quotes);
• <count>: a positive integer number; set within allowed maximum & minimum limits;
• <manual>: help manual to be shown (available manuals: commands);

Notice: the bucket terminology may confuse some Sonic users. As we are well-aware Sonic may be used in an environment where end-users may each hold their own search index graph in a given collection, we made it possible to manage per-end-user search graphs with bucket. If you only have a single index graph per collection (most Sonic users will), we advise you use a static generic name for your bucket, for instance: default.

⬇️ Search flow example (via telnet):

bash T1: telnet sonic.local 1491 T2: Trying ::1... T3: Connected to sonic.local. T4: Escape character is '^]'. T5: CONNECTED <sonic-server v1.0.0> T6: START search SecretPassword T7: STARTED search protocol(1) buffer(20000) T8: QUERY messages user:0dcde3a6 "valerian saliou" LIMIT(10) T9: PENDING Bt2m2gYa T10: EVENT QUERY Bt2m2gYa conversation:71f3d63b conversation:6501e83a T11: QUERY helpdesk user:0dcde3a6 "gdpr" LIMIT(50) T12: PENDING y57KaB2d T13: QUERY helpdesk user:0dcde3a6 "law" LIMIT(50) OFFSET(200) T14: PENDING CjPvE5t9 T15: PING T16: PONG T17: EVENT QUERY CjPvE5t9 T18: EVENT QUERY y57KaB2d article:28d79959 T19: SUGGEST messages user:0dcde3a6 "val" T20: PENDING z98uDE0f T21: EVENT SUGGEST z98uDE0f valerian valala T22: QUIT T23: ENDED quit T24: Connection closed by foreign host.

Notes on what happens:

• T6: we enter search mode (this is required to enable search commands);
• T8: we query collection messages, in bucket for platform user user:0dcde3a6 with search terms valerian saliou and a limit of 10 on returned results;
• T9: Sonic received the query and stacked it for processing with marker Bt2m2gYa (the marker is used to track the asynchronous response);
• T10: Sonic processed search query of T8 with marker Bt2m2gYa and sends 2 search results (those are conversation identifiers, that refer to a primary key in an external database);
• T11 + T13: we query collection helpdesk twice (in the example, this one is heavy, so processing of results takes more time);
• T17 + T18: we receive search results for search queries of T11 + T13 (this took a while!);

3️⃣ Sonic Channel (Ingest mode)

The Sonic Channel Ingest mode is used for altering the search index (push, pop and flush). Once in this mode, you cannot switch to other modes or gain access to commands from other modes.

➡️ Available commands:

• PUSH: Push search data in the index (syntax: PUSH <collection> <bucket> <object> "<text>")
• POP: Pop search data from the index (syntax: POP <collection> <bucket> <object> "<text>")
• COUNT: Count indexed search data (syntax: COUNT <collection> [<bucket> [<object>]?]?)
• FLUSHC: Flush all indexed data from a collection (syntax: FLUSHC <collection>)
• FLUSHB: Flush all indexed data from a bucket in a collection (syntax: FLUSHB <collection> <bucket>)
• FLUSHO: Flush all indexed data from an object in a bucket in collection (syntax: FLUSHO <collection> <bucket> <object>)
• PING: ping server (syntax: PING)
• HELP: show help (syntax: HELP [<manual>]?)
• QUIT: stop connection (syntax: QUIT)

⏩ Syntax terminology:

• <collection>: index collection (ie. what you search in, eg. messages, products, etc.);
• <bucket>: index bucket name (ie. user-specific search classifier in the collection if you have any eg. user-1, user-2, .., otherwise use a common bucket name eg. generic, default, common, ..);
• <object>: object identifier that refers to an entity in an external database, where the searched object is stored (eg. you use Sonic to index CRM contacts by name; full CRM contact data is stored in a MySQL database; in this case the object identifier in Sonic will be the MySQL primary key for the CRM contact);
• <text>: search text to be indexed (can be a single word, or a longer text; within maximum length safety limits; between quotes);
• <manual>: help manual to be shown (available manuals: commands);

Notice: the bucket terminology may confuse some Sonic users. As we are well-aware Sonic may be used in an environment where end-users may each hold their own search index graph in a given collection, we made it possible to manage per-end-user search graphs with bucket. If you only have a single index graph per collection (most Sonic users will), we advise you use a static generic name for your bucket, for instance: default.

⬇️ Ingest flow example (via telnet):

bash T1: telnet sonic.local 1491 T2: Trying ::1... T3: Connected to sonic.local. T4: Escape character is '^]'. T5: CONNECTED <sonic-server v1.0.0> T6: START ingest SecretPassword T7: STARTED ingest protocol(1) buffer(20000) T8: PUSH messages user:0dcde3a6 conversation:71f3d63b Hey Valerian T9: ERR invalid_format(PUSH <collection> <bucket> <object> "<text>") T10: PUSH messages user:0dcde3a6 conversation:71f3d63b "Hello Valerian Saliou, how are you today?" T11: OK T12: COUNT messages user:0dcde3a6 T13: RESULT 43 T14: COUNT messages user:0dcde3a6 conversation:71f3d63b T15: RESULT 1 T16: FLUSHO messages user:0dcde3a6 conversation:71f3d63b T17: RESULT 1 T18: FLUSHB messages user:0dcde3a6 T19: RESULT 42 T20: PING T21: PONG T22: QUIT T23: ENDED quit T24: Connection closed by foreign host.

Notes on what happens:

• T6: we enter ingest mode (this is required to enable ingest commands);
• T8: we try to push text Hey Valerian to the index, in collection messages, bucket user:0dcde3a6 and object conversation:71f3d63b (the syntax that was used is invalid);
• T9: Sonic refuses the command we issued in T8, and provides us with the correct command format (notice that <text> should be quoted);
• T10: we attempt to push another text in the same collection, bucket and object as in T8;
• T11: this time, our push command in T10 was valid (Sonic acknowledges the push commit to the search index);
• T12: we count the number of indexed terms in collection messages and bucket user:0dcde3a6;
• T13: there are 43 terms (ie. words) in index for query in T12;
• T18: we flush all index data from collection messages and bucket user:0dcde3a6;
• T19: 42 terms have been flushed from index for command in T18;

4️⃣ Sonic Channel (Control mode)

The Sonic Channel Control mode is used for administration purposes. Once in this mode, you cannot switch to other modes or gain access to commands from other modes.

➡️ Available commands:

• TRIGGER: trigger an action (syntax: TRIGGER [<action>]?)
• PING: ping server (syntax: PING)
• HELP: show help (syntax: HELP [<manual>]?)
• QUIT: stop connection (syntax: QUIT)

⏩ Syntax terminology:

• <action>: action to be triggered (available actions: consolidate);
• <manual>: help manual to be shown (available manuals: commands);

⬇️ Control flow example (via telnet):

bash T1: telnet sonic.local 1491 T2: Trying ::1... T3: Connected to sonic.local. T4: Escape character is '^]'. T5: CONNECTED <sonic-server v1.0.0> T6: START control SecretPassword T7: STARTED control protocol(1) buffer(20000) T8: TRIGGER consolidate T9: OK T10: PING T11: PONG T12: QUIT T13: ENDED quit T14: Connection closed by foreign host.

Notes on what happens:

• T6: we enter control mode (this is required to enable control commands);
• T8: we trigger a database consolidation (instead of waiting for the next automated consolidation tick);

📦 Sonic Channel Libraries

Sonic distributes official Sonic Channel bindings for your programming language:

• NodeJS: node-sonic-channel

👉 Cannot find the library for your programming language? Build your own and be referenced here! (contact me)

Which text languages are supported?

Sonic supports a wide range of languages in its lexing system. If a language is not in this list, you will still be able to push this language to the search index, but stop-words will not be eluded, which could lead to lower-quality search results.

The languages supported by the lexing system are:

• 🇿🇦 Afrikaans
• 🇸🇦 Arabic
• 🇦🇿 Azerbaijani
• 🇧🇩 Bengali
• 🇧🇬 Bulgarian
• 🇲🇲 Burmese
• 🇨🇳 Chinese (Mandarin)
• 🇭🇷 Croatian
• 🇨🇿 Czech
• 🇩🇰 Danish
• 🇳🇱 Dutch
• 🇺🇸 English
• 🏳 Esperanto
• 🇪🇪 Estonian
• 🇫🇮 Finnish
• 🇫🇷 French
• 🇩🇪 German
• 🇬🇷 Greek
• 🇳🇬 Hausa
• 🇮🇱 Hebrew
• 🇮🇳 Hindi
• 🇭🇺 Hungarian
• 🇮🇩 Indonesian
• 🇮🇹 Italian
• 🇯🇵 Japanese
• 🇰🇭 Khmer
• 🇰🇷 Korean
• 🏳 Kurdish
• 🇱🇻 Latvian
• 🇱🇹 Lithuanian
• 🇮🇳 Marathi
• 🇳🇵 Nepali
• 🇮🇷 Persian
• 🇵🇱 Polish
• 🇵🇹 Portuguese
• 🇮🇳 Punjabi
• 🇷🇺 Russian
• 🇸🇮 Slovene
• 🇸🇴 Somali
• 🇪🇸 Spanish
• 🇸🇪 Swedish
• 🇵🇭 Tagalog
• 🇮🇳 Tamil
• 🇹🇭 Thai
• 🇹🇷 Turkish
• 🇺🇦 Ukrainian
• 🇵🇰 Urdu
• 🇻🇳 Vietnamese
• 🇮🇱 Yiddish
• 🇳🇬 Yoruba
• 🇿🇦 Zulu

How fast & lightweight is it?

Sonic was built for Crisp from the start. As Crisp was growing and indexing more and more search data into a full-text search SQL database, we decided it was time to switch to a proper search backend system. When reviewing Elasticsearch (ELS) and others, we found those were full-featured heavyweight systems that did not scale well with Crisp's freemium-based cost structure.

At the end, we decided to build our own search backend, designed to be simple and lightweight on resources. We did some benchmarks on how Sonic behaves at scale.

TODO: benchmarks (graphs + tables + load tests)

:fire: Report A Vulnerability

If you find a vulnerability in Sonic, you are more than welcome to report it directly to @valeriansaliou by sending an encrypted email to valerian@valeriansaliou.name. Do not report vulnerabilities in public GitHub issues, as they may be exploited by malicious people to target production servers running an unpatched Sonic instance.

:warning: You must encrypt your email using @valeriansaliou GPG public key: :key:valeriansaliou.gpg.pub.asc.

:gift: Based on the severity of the vulnerability, I may offer a $200 (US) bounty to whomever reported it.