# pat/thinking-sphinx

Sphinx/Manticore plugin for ActiveRecord/Rails

Repository: https://github.com/pat/thinking-sphinx
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/thinking-sphinx
Homepage: http://freelancing-gods.com/thinking-sphinx
Language: Ruby
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: ruby, sphinx, search, rails
Last push: 2026-01-11T03:14:25+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 50/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 61, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 6716, "days_push": 234, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_readme
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1620, forks 464 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:12.366355+00:00)

## What it is
Thinking Sphinx is a Ruby library that integrates the Sphinx and Manticore full-text search engines with ActiveRecord and Rails. It lets developers define search indexes on models and query them through a familiar ActiveRecord-style API.

## Use cases
- add full-text search to a Rails app
- index ActiveRecord models with Sphinx
- search records with Manticore from Ruby
- build faceted search over Rails models
- replace slow SQL LIKE queries with full-text search
- integrate Sphinx search into ActiveRecord scopes

## When to choose
- you have a Rails or ActiveRecord app and need fast full-text search
- you already run Sphinx or Manticore and want idiomatic Ruby integration
- you need indexed, scalable search over relational data

## When to avoid
- you use a non-Ruby stack or an ORM other than ActiveRecord
- you prefer a hosted or all-in-one search solution like Elasticsearch or Meilisearch without running a separate engine
- your search needs are trivial and a simple SQL query suffices

## Facets
- artifact type: plugin
- maturity: active
- function: search-engine, database
- domain: web-development, databases
- platform: ruby
- tags: sphinx, manticore, activerecord, rails, full-text-search, search, web-server

## Member repositories
- pat/thinking-sphinx (main) score 50

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:12.366355+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:49:19.633726+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - homepage: http://freelancing-gods.com/thinking-sphinx (fetched 2026-08-29T11:21:55.981502+00:00, sha 3787efef3a7a)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.