Search

In Zammad, you can search for basically all available information like:

• Message subject and text
• Names and email addresses
• Text in file attachments
• User and organizations details (like notes, names, etc.)

Depending on what you are searching for and the amount of data in your Zammad instance, you can search in different ways. Read on to learn about the search basics, followed by the detailed search and the usage of Elasticsearch syntax.

Basic Search

The search is located in the top left corner in the primary navigation bar. Either select it via mouse or use the keyboard shortcut s. After activation, you can see the tickets which got recently closed from your taskbar as well as your recent search queries. To search, simply type a term. The search then displays all matching items for which you have at least view or read permissions, grouped by type like users and tickets. Selecting one of those results opens the item as tab in the primary navigation.

If you press enter or click on detailed search, Zammad opens the detailed search as a tab in the primary navigation. There you can narrow down your search by selecting a specific object type (e.g. organization), use advanced filters or even use Elasticsearch syntax. Read on for more information.

Detailed Search

Sometimes, a simple search term may not give you the results you are looking for. Zammad provides different options to narrow down the search in the detailed search page.

Sort the Results

To sort the results based on the column's values, click on a column header. The sorting is indicated by an arrow. Click on the column again to change the sorting from ascending to descending and back.

Limit Search to Object Type

Limit the search to an object type by using the Search entity tab selector below the search field (e.g. user or ticket). This limits the search to the selected object type and its related data. For example, when you select Ticket, the search also returns tickets where the owner or customer matches the search term.

Use Advanced Filters

In comparison to the search field, you can filter the search results based on specific attributes and their values. To do so, click on the Advanced filters button on the right side, which opens an area where you can specify additional conditions based on specific attributes and their values. Choose an attribute and enter or select a value which the search results have to match. Each attribute is available only once. When using more than one filter, be aware that they all have to be met because they are logically connected by an AND operator. This also applies to the search term in the main search field.

Remove a single filter by clicking the ✕ next to the value field. To remove all filters, click the x in the main search bar at the top next to the x filter(s) label.

In case you want to store or share your filter, you can do so by copying the URL. It includes the complete filter. Be aware that the search results may be different for other users due to divergent permissions.

If you still haven't found what you are looking for, you can benefit from the search being powered by Elasticsearch. You can find some examples in the next section.

Using Elasticsearch Syntax

This topic has its own section because it is an advanced topic for power users. By using Elasticsearch syntax, you can exactly filter your data for specific attribute values. Basically, all indexed attributes are supported. Read on to find examples how to use it or head over to the indexed attributes by Elasticsearch page where you can find a list with additional attributes.

Important Information

• Make sure to select the relevant object in the Search entity switcher. For example customer.lastname is available for tickets, but not for users.
• When combining an Elasticsearch query with advanced filters, be aware that all of the advanced filter conditions and the search syntax are logically connected by AND, so only results which match all of the advanced filter conditions and your search term will be displayed.
• To provide values containing a space, wrap them in ", e.g. priority.name:"2 normal".

Logic Operators and Ranges

You can combine conditions by using AND & OR as logical operators. Use TO to specify ranges for values with an order (e.g. integer or date). Include a limit of the specified range by using square brackets. Exclude it by using curly brackets. You can even combine those brackets, e.g. to include the lower limit and to exclude the upper limit. Nested terms can be achieved by separating them with parentheses ().

AND & OR with parentheses:

owner.lastname:brooks AND tags:(internal OR onboarding)

TO with asterisk wildcard:

state.name:open AND article_count: [5 TO *]

TO with excluding one limit of a range:

article.created_at:[2025-03-21 TO 2026-05-19}

Fuzzy Search

If you are not sure about the exact spelling of a value, use the tilde (~) as suffix to perform a fuzzy search.

owner.firstname:lawren~

Negating Search

If you want to exclude specified values, you can use negation !. To negate more than one term, use parentheses for all of them.

Exclude owner with last name "brooks":

!owner.lastname:brooks

Exclude multiple conditions:

owner.lastname:brooks AND !(tags:internal OR tags:onboarding)

Regex

You can even use regex to search. Wrap the regex term in /.

customer.lastname:/(bra?.n|doe)/