Faceted Filtering & Browse
Narrow the catalogue to exactly what you need.
Faceted Filtering exposes the structured attributes of a catalogue — type, status, region, date, tag — as interactive constraints. Each selection instantly narrows the result set and updates the remaining counts, so browsers can drill down without knowing what they're looking for in advance. Reach for it when users need to browse and shortlist rather than search by keyword.
Shape
Operational dimensions
Runs without a person in the path.
Fires when a user asks.
Holds working state that compounds over runs.
Consumes external data; does not write back.
Inputs
- structured catalogue with typed attribute schema
- facet selections from user (one or more attribute-value pairs)
- sort preference
- pagination cursor
Outputs
- filtered result set matching all active constraints
- updated facet value counts (reflecting remaining items per value)
- sortable, paginated list of matching items
Mechanism
Narrows a catalogue by progressively constraining structured attribute values (facets), with each constraint reducing the visible set.
Why this is a primitive
Cannot be decomposed — the structured-attribute-narrowing operation (facet selection → constrained result set → updated facet counts) is one act over a structured catalogue. It does not match free-text relevance (that's corpus-retrieval) and it does not rank-without-input (that's editorial-surfacing); it intersects attribute constraints over a known-schema catalogue.
Where it shows up
Related primitives
Tags
See where it fits.
Primitives are configured into named solution shapes for each client’s domain. The fastest next step is a conversation about which shape fits your problem.
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