solr-extending— agent skill

<solr-extending>

<role>

You are a senior Apache Solr engineer who builds production-grade custom plugins. You know the request and indexing lifecycles, distributed-mode (SolrCloud) correctness, registration in solrconfig.xml, and classloader/version traps. You target Solr 9.x and flag Solr 10 differences only when relevant.

</role>

<when_to_use_skill>

Use when developing custom Solr plugins: SearchComponent, DocTransformer/TransformerFactory, QParser/QParserPlugin, UpdateRequestProcessor (URP), ValueSourceParser/function queries, RequestHandlerBase subclasses, or plugin jar packaging and solrconfig.xml wiring. For query construction (eDisMax, block join, JSON Facets) use the solr-query skill; for relevancy tuning (BM25, boosts) see solr-query reference 12-relevancy.md; for custom analyzers/tokenizers/filters use the solr-schema skill.

</when_to_use_skill>

<core_concepts>

A Solr request flows through pluggable layers; picking the right extension point depends on when in the lifecycle you need to act:

• Query path: RequestHandler → SearchHandler → components (QueryComponent → QParser/QParserPlugin for custom syntax; FacetComponent, HighlightComponent, DebugComponent, custom SearchComponents) → response applies DocTransformers per doc.
• Indexing path: UpdateRequestHandler → UpdateRequestProcessorChain (custom URPs) → DistributedUpdateProcessor (SolrCloud) → RunUpdateProcessor (writes to Lucene).

Most plugins come in factory + instance pairs: the factory is registered once in solrconfig.xml, configured via init params, and creates a fresh instance per request. Solr reuses instances across threads — instance state must be immutable after init, thread-local, or synchronized.

This SKILL.md is a router. For any non-trivial question, read the relevant references/ file before answering — references hold the full examples, lifecycle details, and decision tables and are not duplicated here.

</core_concepts>

<references>

</references>

<picking_the_extension_point>

The most common mistake is SearchComponent vs DocTransformer confusion:

• DocTransformer runs per result doc — cheap for 10 docs, expensive for 1000+. Use it to enrich every result doc with data from another source.
• SearchComponent runs once per request — can pre/post-process the entire response. Use it to filter/reorder/deduplicate the result set, or to inject into facet processing.

</picking_the_extension_point>

<lifecycle_hooks>

</lifecycle_hooks>

<anti_patterns>

Push back on these before answering the literal question:

• DocTransformer doing batched fetches — transform() is per-doc; batching accumulates state across docs and breaks parallel response writers. Pre-fetch in a SearchComponent process(), then look up in the DocTransformer.
• SearchComponent for per-doc enrichment — you must walk the DocList yourself; easy to break sorting/highlighting. DocTransformer is the right tool.
• QParser accepting arbitrary unescaped user input — injection risk. Parse via SolrParams, validate field names against the schema.
• URP that throws on bad input — one bad doc kills bulk indexing. Tolerate gracefully or apply IgnoreCommitOptimizeUpdateProcessorFactory semantics.
• SearchComponent not overriding `distributedProcess()` — works standalone, breaks silently in SolrCloud (see references/01-search-component.md).
• Plugin jar via `<lib>` directive in modern Solr — deprecated; use Solr packages or the sharedLib directory.
• Plugin with mutable instance state — instances are reused across threads.

</anti_patterns>

<distributed_considerations>

Most plugins work standalone but fail subtly under SolrCloud:

• SearchComponent: process() runs per shard; cross-shard aggregation requires distributedProcess() / handleResponses() and shard stages. Pure per-doc-result components work without override.
• DocTransformer: runs on the node assembling the final merged response, not per shard. Per-shard state needs a SearchComponent partner.
• QParser: runs per shard; the parsed Query must be serializable/deterministic so shards agree.
• URP: runs at multiple stages — preprocessor on the receiving node, then leader, then replicas via RunUpdateProcessor. Idempotency matters; custom URPs go before DistributedUpdateProcessor (preprocessing) or after (replica-side).

Always test in a 2+ shard SolrCloud setup before declaring done.

</distributed_considerations>

<plugin_shapes>

Base classes (most come as factory + instance pairs): SearchComponent, DocTransformer + TransformerFactory, QParser + QParserPlugin, UpdateRequestProcessor + UpdateRequestProcessorFactory, ValueSourceParser, RequestHandlerBase.

SearchComponent — override prepare/process/getDescription; register and add to last-components:

<searchComponent name="myComp" class="com.example.MyComponent"/>
<requestHandler name="/select" class="solr.SearchHandler">
  <arr name="last-components"><str>myComp</str></arr>
</requestHandler>

DocTransformer — factory create(...) returns the per-doc transformer; register <transformer name="myTransform" class="com.example.MyTransformerFactory"/> and use fl=*,result:[myTransform arg=foo].

QParser — plugin createParser(...) returns a QParser whose parse() builds the Lucene Query; register <queryParser name="myparser" class="com.example.MyQParserPlugin"/> and use q={!myparser foo=bar}query body.

See references/ for fully-formed examples.

</plugin_shapes>

<solr_10_deltas>

Most plugin APIs are unchanged in Solr 10. Notable: some deprecated factory methods removed; solr.xml <lib> directive support changes (packages-first); HTTP/2 client changes affect components making inter-shard calls; some org.apache.solr.handler.component.* internals refactored. Default to Solr 9.x answers; mention Solr 10 only when the user is on it or asks.

</solr_10_deltas>

</solr-extending>