Filter a collection with the query bar

Every Collection Tab has a query bar above its documents. It is the quickest way to find documents: type a filter, press Enter, and the result appears below in the Table, Tree or JSON view.

Run a query

1. Open a collection: double-click it in the connection tree, or select it and press Enter.
2. Click in the Query field and type a filter, for example { status: "shipped", total: { $gte: 200 } }.
3. Optionally fill Projection, Sort, Skip and Limit (see the table below).
4. Press Enter in any field (or F5 anywhere in the tab), or click Run.

The tab returns to the first page and shows Documents 1 to 50 (or your page size). Use the paging buttons to move through the result; see Page through results.

The query is not rewritten when it runs: what you typed stays in the fields, exactly as typed.

The fields

The arrows next to Sort (Sort ascending, Sort descending) set every direction of the current sort to 1 or -1 and run; with an empty Sort they sort on _id.

What you can type

Query, Projection and Sort accept the relaxed syntax of the MongoDB shell, not only strict JSON:

• unquoted field names, including dotted paths (address.city);
• single- or double-quoted strings, trailing commas, // and /* */ comments;
• type constructors: ObjectId("…"), ISODate("2026-01-05"), NumberInt(5), NumberLong(…), NumberDecimal("19.99"), UUID("…"), Timestamp(…), BinData(…) and others;
• regular expressions: { name: /^chef/i };
• Extended JSON wrappers such as { "$oid": "…" } or { "$date": "…" }, so text copied from the JSON View reads back exactly;
• date tags, which become a date range when the query runs: { orderedAt: #today }, #last7days, #thiscalmonth, #lastyear and others. The tag stays in the field, history and saved queries; each run computes the range again.

_id shortcuts

Type a value on its own in Query and it becomes a filter on _id when the query runs:

The field keeps the expanded filter so you can see what ran.

More ways to run

Click the arrow next to Run (More ways to run):

Count Documents in the status bar counts the full result of the last run (with its Skip, Limit, collation and hint). Nothing is counted until you ask: large collections page without a count.

Query toolbar

At the right of the Query field:

Find Query Options

The options apply to every find and count of the tab, and are saved with history entries, saved queries and default queries. They need MongoDB 4.4 or later.

Options take effect from the next run.

Default query

A default query belongs to one collection on one connection, on this computer.

1. Type the query you want to see every time.
2. Click Set default query. The status bar says Default query set.
3. The next time the collection opens, that query loads and runs.

To go back to all documents, choose Clear Default Query from the arrow next to Set default query. Restore Default Query brings back the last one you cleared and runs it. A history entry can also become the default: select it in Query History and click Set As Default Query.

Tips

• Paste a whole shell statement into Query, such as db.orders.find({ status: "pending" }, { total: 1 }).sort({ total: -1 }).limit(20): each part goes to its field. findOne sets Limit to 1. Statements that are not a find (remove, .map(…)) are refused with the reason.
• The fields support Undo (Ctrl+Z) and Redo, highlight matching brackets and colour the syntax.
• Press the Down arrow in the Query field to search your query history for what you typed.

Troubleshooting