Time-Box Constrained Searching in a Distributed Search System

A method includes receiving a search query containing one or more query terms from a remote device, determining one or more entity types implicated by the search query based on the one or more query terms, and determining an entity score indicating a likelihood that the search query implicates the entity type. The method also includes identifying one or more index clusters from index clusters to search based on the one or more entity types implicated by the search query, generating a query execution plan based on the entity scores, and performing a consumer driven search on the identified index clusters based on a set of query terms corresponding to the one or more query terms and in accordance with the query execution plan to identify a delivery consideration set of records. The method also includes generating delivery search results based on the delivery consideration set of records.