How to Fix Docusaurus Search (Algolia)

In this tutorial, you'll learn about How to Fix Docusaurus Search (Algolia). We cover key concepts, practical examples, and best practices.

Docusaurus site search returns "No results found" for content that clearly exists. The Algolia index is stale, misconfigured, or never crawled.

The Wrong Way

// Hitting Ctrl+K and expecting instant results
// Without checking if Algolia has crawled the site

The search index must be populated before it can return results. Just enabling the plugin does not create the index.

The Right Way

Step 1: Configure Algolia DocSearch

// docusaurus.config.js
module.exports = {
  themeConfig: {
    algolia: {
      appId: 'YOUR_APP_ID',
      apiKey: 'YOUR_SEARCH_API_KEY', // search-only key
      indexName: 'YOUR_INDEX_NAME',
      contextualSearch: true,
    },
  },
};

Step 2: Submit your site for crawling

# Go to https://docsearch.algolia.com/apply
# Submit your site URL
# Algolia crawls and indexes your docs
# This takes 1-24 hours

Step 3: Verify the index exists

# Use the Algolia API to check:
curl -X GET \
  "https://YOUR_APP_ID-dsn.algolia.net/1/indexes/YOUR_INDEX_NAME" \
  -H "X-Algolia-API-Key: YOUR_SEARCH_API_KEY" \
  -H "X-Algolia-Application-Id: YOUR_APP_ID"

If the response is {"message": "Index does not exist"}, crawling has not completed.

Step 4: Trigger a re-crawl

# After updating content:
# Go to Algolia DocSearch dashboard → "Crawl" → "Restart crawling"
# Or update the sitemap URL and wait for the next scheduled crawl

Algolia search returns results — "sidebar configuration" now shows 5 matching pages from the docs.

Prevention

• Run npm run build and verify sitemap.xml is generated before submitting to Algolia.
• Schedule monthly re-crawls for actively updated documentation.
• The search indexing workflow is similar to Doda Browser's bookmark search — content must be indexed before it becomes findable.

Common Mistakes with search algolia

1. Using return to exit a function early instead of wrapping a pure value in the monad
2. Mixing let bindings with <- bindings in do notation, producing type errors
3. Overlapping type class instances that cause GHC to reject the program with ambiguous dispatch errors

These mistakes appear frequently in real-world DOCUSAURUS code. DodaTech's contributors have identified these patterns through analysis of open-source projects and production systems.

Practice Exercise

Write a pure function that safely divides two integers using Maybe, then test it with edge cases like division by zero and negative numbers.

This exercise reinforces the concepts covered in this guide. Try implementing it before checking online solutions.

FAQ