$mustNot

The $mustNot operator excludes documents that match any of the specified conditions. It acts as a filter, removing matching documents from the result set.

The $mustNot operator only filters results—it never adds documents to the result set. This means it must be combined with $must or $should to define which documents to search.

A query with only $mustNot returns no results because there is no base set to filter:

// This returns NO results - nothing to filter{ $mustNot: { category: "electronics" } }// This works - $must provides the base set, $mustNot filters it{ $must: { inStock: true }, $mustNot: { category: "electronics" } }

Excluding Multiple Conditions

When $mustNot contains multiple conditions (via array or object), documents matching ANY of those conditions are excluded. This is effectively an OR within the exclusion:

// Exclude documents that match category="generic" OR price > 500{ $mustNot: [{ category: "generic" }, { price: { $gt: 500 } }] }

Examples

// Exclude out-of-stock itemsawait products.query({  filter: {    $must: {      category: "electronics",    },    $mustNot: {      inStock: false,    },  },});// Exclude multiple conditionsawait products.query({  filter: {    $must: {      name: "headphones",    },    $mustNot: [{ category: "generic" }, { price: { $gt: 500 } }],  },});

# Exclude out-of-stock itemsproducts.query(filter={"$must": {"category": "electronics"}, "$mustNot": {"inStock": False}})# Exclude multiple conditionsproducts.query(filter={    "$must": {"name": "headphones"},    "$mustNot": [{"category": "generic"}, {"price": {"$gt": 500}}],})

# Exclude out-of-stock itemsSEARCH.QUERY products '{"$must": {"category": "electronics"}, "$mustNot": {"inStock": false}}'# Exclude multiple conditionsSEARCH.QUERY products '{"$must": {"name": "headphones"}, "$mustNot": [{"category": "generic"}, {"price": {"$gt": 500}}]}'