docs: Add comprehensive stopwords documentation to API reference

- Add note to TextQuery docstring about index-level vs query-time stopwords
- Add stopwords section to schema.rst with configuration examples
- Add note to query.rst about stopwords interaction
- Link stopwords_interaction_guide.md from 11_advanced_queries.ipynb

These updates improve discoverability and help users understand the
interaction between index-level and query-time stopwords configuration.

Author: nkanu17

docs/api/query.rst

@@ -61,6 +61,12 @@ TextQuery
    :show-inheritance:
    :exclude-members: add_filter,get_args,highlight,return_field,summarize
 
+.. note::
+   The ``stopwords`` parameter in :class:`TextQuery` controls query-time stopword filtering (client-side).
+   For index-level stopwords configuration (server-side), see :class:`redisvl.schema.IndexInfo.stopwords`.
+   Using query-time stopwords with index-level ``STOPWORDS 0`` is counterproductive.
+   See the `Stopwords Interaction Guide <../stopwords_interaction_guide.html>`_ for details.
+
 
 FilterQuery
 ===========

docs/api/schema.rst

@@ -31,6 +31,47 @@ IndexSchema
    :exclude-members: generate_fields,validate_and_create_fields,redis_fields
 
 
+Index-Level Stopwords Configuration
+====================================
+
+The :class:`IndexInfo` class supports index-level stopwords configuration through
+the ``stopwords`` field. This controls which words are filtered during indexing
+(server-side), as opposed to query-time filtering (client-side).
+
+**Configuration Options:**
+
+- ``None`` (default): Use Redis default stopwords (~300 common words)
+- ``[]`` (empty list): Disable stopwords completely (``STOPWORDS 0``)
+- Custom list: Specify your own stopwords (e.g., ``["the", "a", "an"]``)
+
+**Example:**
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    from redisvl.schema import IndexSchema
+
+    # Disable stopwords to search for phrases like "Bank of America"
+    schema = IndexSchema.from_dict({
+        "index": {
+            "name": "company-idx",
+            "prefix": "company",
+            "stopwords": []  # STOPWORDS 0
+        },
+        "fields": [
+            {"name": "name", "type": "text"}
+        ]
+    })
+
+**Important Notes:**
+
+- Index-level stopwords affect what gets indexed (server-side)
+- Query-time stopwords (in :class:`TextQuery`) affect what gets searched (client-side)
+- Using query-time stopwords with index-level ``STOPWORDS 0`` is counterproductive
+
+For detailed information about stopwords configuration and best practices, see the
+`Stopwords Interaction Guide <../stopwords_interaction_guide.html>`_.
+
+
 Defining Fields
 ===============
 

docs/user_guide/11_advanced_queries.ipynb

@@ -740,7 +740,7 @@
      "name": "stdout",
      "output_type": "stream",
      "text": [
-      "✓ Loaded 5 companies\n"
+      "\u2713 Loaded 5 companies\n"
      ]
     }
    ],
@@ -757,7 +757,7 @@
     "for i, company in enumerate(companies):\n",
     "    company_index.load([company], keys=[f\"company:{i}\"])\n",
     "\n",
-    "print(f\"✓ Loaded {len(companies)} companies\")"
+    "print(f\"\u2713 Loaded {len(companies)} companies\")"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -805,9 +805,9 @@
     "\n",
     "If we had used the default stopwords (not specifying `stopwords` in the schema), the word \"of\" would be filtered out during indexing. This means:\n",
     "\n",
-    "- ❌ Searching for `\"Bank of America\"` might not find exact matches\n",
-    "- ❌ The phrase would be indexed as `\"Bank America\"` (without \"of\")\n",
-    "- ✅ With `STOPWORDS 0`, all words including \"of\" are indexed\n",
+    "- \u274c Searching for `\"Bank of America\"` might not find exact matches\n",
+    "- \u274c The phrase would be indexed as `\"Bank America\"` (without \"of\")\n",
+    "- \u2705 With `STOPWORDS 0`, all words including \"of\" are indexed\n",
     "\n",
     "**Custom Stopwords Example:**\n",
     "\n",
@@ -886,6 +886,16 @@
     "```"
    ]
   },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "### \ud83d\udcda Additional Resources\n",
+    "\n",
+    "For a comprehensive guide on stopwords configuration and best practices, see:\n",
+    "- [Stopwords Interaction Guide](../stopwords_interaction_guide.md) - Detailed explanation of index-level vs query-time stopwords"
+   ]
+  },
   {
    "cell_type": "code",
    "execution_count": 17,
@@ -902,14 +912,14 @@
      "name": "stdout",
      "output_type": "stream",
      "text": [
-      "✓ Cleaned up company_index\n"
+      "\u2713 Cleaned up company_index\n"
      ]
     }
    ],
    "source": [
     "# Cleanup\n",
     "company_index.delete(drop=True)\n",
-    "print(\"✓ Cleaned up company_index\")"
+    "print(\"\u2713 Cleaned up company_index\")"
    ]
   },
   {
@@ -1572,4 +1582,4 @@
  },
  "nbformat": 4,
  "nbformat_minor": 4
-}
+}

redisvl/query/query.py

@@ -1061,10 +1061,15 @@ def __init__(
             params (Optional[Dict[str, Any]], optional): The parameters for the query.
                 Defaults to None.
             stopwords (Optional[Union[str, Set[str]]): The set of stop words to remove
-                from the query text. If a language like 'english' or 'spanish' is provided
+                from the query text (client-side filtering). If a language like 'english' or 'spanish' is provided
                 a default set of stopwords for that language will be used. Users may specify
                 their own stop words by providing a List or Set of words. if set to None,
                 then no words will be removed. Defaults to 'english'.
+
+                Note: This parameter controls query-time stopword filtering (client-side).
+                For index-level stopwords configuration (server-side), see IndexInfo.stopwords.
+                Using query-time stopwords with index-level STOPWORDS 0 is counterproductive.
+                See docs/stopwords_interaction_guide.md for details.
             text_weights (Optional[Dict[str, float]]): The importance weighting of individual words
                 within the query text. Defaults to None, as no modifications will be made to the
                 text_scorer score.