Skip to main content
On this page

· 1 min read

Search Integration

Search uses Pagefind Component UI. The pagesmithSsg plugin runs the indexer after static HTML is written; the browser loads the generated pagefind/ assets.

Indexing boundary

Pagefind only indexes subtrees marked with data-pagefind-body. In this example:

  • Home — the wrapper around the home body inside layout.ejs (doc-home-content).
  • Guide pages — the <article> root in article.ejs (not the full layout).
  • About — the <article> root in about.ejs.
templates/article.ejs (excerpt)
<article id="doc-main-content" tabindex="-1" data-pagefind-body>  …  <div class="prose">    <%- content %>  </div></article>

searchEnabled from SsgRenderConfig

@pagesmith/site passes searchEnabled: false while the dev server SSRs HTML, and true for the production SSG pass (after the index exists). layout.ejs gates Pagefind CSS, JS, the modal, and the header trigger on that flag so development does not request missing pagefind/* URLs.

Component UI

When search is enabled, the shell includes the modal and trigger:

templates/layout.ejs (excerpt)
<% if (searchOn) { %>  <pagefind-modal-trigger class="doc-search-trigger"></pagefind-modal-trigger><% } %>…<% if (searchOn) { %><pagefind-modal reset-on-close>  <pagefind-modal-header><pagefind-input></pagefind-input></pagefind-modal-header>  <pagefind-modal-body>    <pagefind-summary></pagefind-summary>    <pagefind-results></pagefind-results>  </pagefind-modal-body>  <pagefind-modal-footer><pagefind-keyboard-hints></pagefind-keyboard-hints></pagefind-modal-footer></pagefind-modal><% } %>

Keyboard shortcuts and modal behavior come from those web components.

Client bundle

client.js imports @pagesmith/site/runtime/content and tweaks <pagefind-modal-trigger> for small screens. It is optional for static reading; search still works without those layout tweaks.

Development vs production

Run npm run build and preview the output (or deploy) to exercise search end-to-end. In vite dev, searchEnabled stays false by design — there is no index on disk yet.