Stop Messing with Index Definitions: Index Optimizer and Simplified Index Management in AEM

Customizing indexes in AEM as a Cloud Service has traditionally been complicated and error-prone: copying entire OOTB index definitions, manually bumping version numbers, keeping copies in sync with every product upgrade, and hoping nothing breaks during reindex. This session introduces two innovations that eliminate most of that toil.

Simplified Index Management lets you express your customizations and fully custom indexes in a single “diff.json” file containing only the delta. At deploy time, the platform merges your diff with the latest OOTB index definition and creates a correctly versioned index when needed. This works with both Cloud Manager pipelines and RDE/local quickstart, and is backward-compatible for incremental adoption.

The Index Optimizer closes the loop by analyzing the queries running in your environment and enhancing index definitions. Together, the two features let developers focus on what data needs indexing, not the mechanics of defining, versioning, and deploying indexes. The session includes a live demo using the open-source Oak Indexing Tools, covering migration, the merge algorithm, limitations, and the roadmap ahead.