ModeShape 4 no longer needs the configuration option of disabling the query system. In ModeShape 3 this was done to eliminate the overhead of maintaining query indexes when queries were not used. But with ModeShape 4, all indexes are explicitly defined and so one can completely eliminate all index overhead by simply declaring no indexes.

Interestingly, even with no indexes the repository will still be able to correctly execute queries, although without indexes all queries are likely to be (significantly) slower than when indexes are defined. This is because with no indexes, the repository must scan all nodes in the applicable workspace to determine which nodes satisfy the constraints.

(All of the work regarding the new query indexes is being done as part of MODE-2018.)