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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/facebook/docusaurus/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Docusaurus does not include a built-in search engine, but it integrates seamlessly with several search solutions. Algolia DocSearch is the officially supported option, while Typesense DocSearch and community local search plugins are maintained by the community.

Algolia DocSearch

Official, free for developer docs. Hosted crawler indexes your site weekly.

Typesense DocSearch

Open-source alternative to Algolia. Self-host or use Typesense Cloud.

Local search

Index downloaded to the browser. Best for small sites or private deployments.

Custom SearchBar

Swizzle the SearchBar component to build your own search experience.

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Algolia DocSearch

Algolia DocSearch is free for any open-source or developer documentation site. Apply at https://docsearch.algolia.com/apply/. Algolia crawls your site once a week and aggregates all content into an Algolia index that is queried directly from your frontend.
The Docusaurus classic preset generates a sitemap.xml automatically. Algolia’s crawler uses this sitemap to discover pages efficiently.

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Configuration

If you use @docusaurus/preset-classic, no extra installation is needed — Algolia integration is built in. Add the algolia key to your themeConfig:
docusaurus.config.js
export default {
  themeConfig: {
    algolia: {
      // The application ID provided by Algolia
      appId: 'YOUR_APP_ID',

      // Public API key: safe to commit
      apiKey: 'YOUR_SEARCH_API_KEY',

      indexName: 'YOUR_INDEX_NAME',

      // Filter results to the current language and version
      contextualSearch: true,

      // Optional: path for the search results page (false to disable)
      searchPagePath: 'search',

      // Optional: enable AI-powered conversational search
      askAi: 'YOUR_ALGOLIA_ASK_AI_ASSISTANT_ID',
    },
  },
};
Search will not work reliably until Algolia has crawled your site at least once. After any significant content change, trigger a new crawl from the Algolia dashboard.
Contextual search is enabled by default. It automatically scopes search results to the version and language the user is currently browsing:
  • On /en/docs/v2/myDoc, results include only English v2 docs.
  • On /fr/docs/v1/myDoc, results include only French v1 docs.
docusaurus.config.js
export default {
  themeConfig: {
    algolia: {
      contextualSearch: true, // default
    },
  },
};
If you need full control over facet filters, disable contextual search and define facetFilters manually:
docusaurus.config.js
export default {
  themeConfig: {
    algolia: {
      contextualSearch: false,
      searchParameters: {
        facetFilters: ['language:en', ['filter1', 'filter2']],
      },
    },
  },
};

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Ask AI

Ask AI brings conversational search to your documentation. Users can ask natural-language questions and receive context-aware answers sourced from your Algolia index:
docusaurus.config.js
export default {
  themeConfig: {
    algolia: {
      askAi: {
        assistantId: 'YOUR_ALGOLIA_ASK_AI_ASSISTANT_ID',
        suggestedQuestions: true, // show suggested questions in the UI
      },
    },
  },
};

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Styling the search modal

Override Algolia’s CSS variables using Infima CSS variables from your src/css/custom.css:
src/css/custom.css
[data-theme='light'] .DocSearch {
  --docsearch-muted-color: var(--ifm-color-secondary-darkest);
  --docsearch-container-background: rgba(94, 100, 112, 0.7);
  --docsearch-modal-background: var(--ifm-color-secondary-lighter);
  --docsearch-searchbox-background: var(--ifm-color-secondary);
  --docsearch-searchbox-focus-background: var(--ifm-color-white);
  --docsearch-hit-color: var(--ifm-font-color-base);
  --docsearch-hit-active-color: var(--ifm-color-white);
  --docsearch-hit-background: var(--ifm-color-white);
  --docsearch-footer-background: var(--ifm-color-white);
}

[data-theme='dark'] .DocSearch {
  --docsearch-text-color: var(--ifm-font-color-base);
  --docsearch-muted-color: var(--ifm-color-secondary-darkest);
  --docsearch-container-background: rgba(47, 55, 69, 0.7);
  --docsearch-modal-background: var(--ifm-background-color);
  --docsearch-searchbox-background: var(--ifm-background-color);
  --docsearch-hit-color: var(--ifm-font-color-base);
  --docsearch-hit-active-color: var(--ifm-color-white);
  --docsearch-hit-background: var(--ifm-color-emphasis-100);
  --docsearch-footer-background: var(--ifm-background-surface-color);
}

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Troubleshooting: no search results

No results typically indicates an index configuration problem. Docusaurus uses Algolia faceting for contextual search, which requires the following facet fields to be configured on your index: docusaurus_tag, language, lang, version, type.
1

Use the recommended crawler config

Apply the official Docusaurus v3 crawler configuration from the Algolia documentation. Using a custom config is not supported.
2

Delete and re-create the index

Delete your Algolia index through the Algolia UI, then trigger a new crawl to fully reinitialize it with the correct faceting settings.
3

Verify faceting fields

After the crawl completes, check that docusaurus_tag, language, lang, version, and type appear as facet fields in your Algolia index dashboard.

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Typesense DocSearch

Typesense is an open-source instant-search engine you can self-host or run on Typesense Cloud. The integration uses two components:
  • typesense-docsearch-scraper — crawls your site and indexes into Typesense.
  • docusaurus-theme-search-typesense — the search bar UI component.
Follow the Typesense guide to set up the scraper and install the theme plugin in your Docusaurus site. Local search downloads the entire search index to the user’s browser. It works well for smaller sites or documentation that is behind a firewall and cannot be crawled by Algolia. Community-supported local search plugins are listed at https://docusaurus.io/community/resources#search. Install and configure the plugin of your choice following its documentation.

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Custom search component

If none of the existing solutions fit your needs, swizzle the SearchBar component from the classic theme and implement your own: 
npm run swizzle @docusaurus/theme-classic SearchBar
This creates src/theme/SearchBar/index.js in your project. Restart the dev server and edit the component — Docusaurus will use your version instead of the default.

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