stacks-search-engine

name	stacks-search-engine
description	Use when implementing search in Stacks — full-text search with Meilisearch or Algolia backends, document indexing, search settings management, the useSearch model trait for automatic indexing, or search driver configuration. Covers @stacksjs/search-engine and config/search-engine.ts.
license	MIT
compatibility	Bun >= 1.3.0, TypeScript
allowed-tools	Read Edit Write Bash Grep Glob

Stacks Search Engine

Full-text search integration with Meilisearch and Algolia drivers.

Key Paths

• Core package: storage/framework/core/search-engine/src/
• Configuration: config/search-engine.ts

Search Driver Factory

import { useSearchEngine, useAlgolia, useMeilisearch } from '@stacksjs/search-engine'

const search = useSearchEngine()       // default driver
const algolia = useAlgolia()            // Algolia client
const meili = useMeilisearch()          // Meilisearch client

Document Operations

// Index documents
await search.addDocuments('products', [
  { id: 1, name: 'Widget', description: 'A useful widget', price: 29.99 },
  { id: 2, name: 'Gadget', description: 'A cool gadget', price: 49.99 }
])

// Search
const results = await search.search('products', 'widget')

// List indexes
const indexes = await search.listIndexes()

// Get/update settings
const settings = await search.getSettings('products')
await search.updateSettings('products', {
  searchableAttributes: ['name', 'description'],
  filterableAttributes: ['price', 'category'],
  sortableAttributes: ['price', 'created_at']
})

// Flush all documents
await search.flush('products')

Model Integration (useSearch Trait)

Models with useSearch trait are automatically indexed:

defineModel({
  name: 'Product',
  traits: {
    useSearch: {
      displayable: ['name', 'description', 'price'],
      searchable: ['name', 'description'],
      sortable: ['name', 'price', 'created_at'],
      filterable: ['category', 'status', 'price']
    }
  }
})

CLI Commands

buddy search-engine:update                    # index all searchable models
buddy search-engine:update --model Product    # index specific model
buddy search-engine:update --flush            # flush before re-indexing
buddy search-engine:update --settings         # update search settings only
buddy search-engine:settings                  # list current settings
buddy search-engine:settings --model Product  # settings for specific model

Driver Comparison

Feature	Meilisearch	Algolia
Self-hosted	Yes	No (cloud)
Pricing	Free (self-hosted)	Per-search pricing
Typo tolerance	Built-in	Built-in
Faceted search	Yes	Yes
Geo search	Yes	Yes
Speed	Very fast	Very fast

config/search-engine.ts

{ driver: 'opensearch' }  // 'meilisearch' | 'algolia' | 'opensearch'

Environment variables: MEILISEARCH_HOST, MEILISEARCH_KEY, SEARCH_ENGINE_DRIVER

Gotchas

• Default driver is opensearch — configure in config or env
• useSearch trait determines which model fields are indexed
• displayable controls which fields appear in search results
• searchable controls which fields are queried during search
• filterable enables faceted filtering on those fields
• sortable enables sorting by those fields
• Use buddy search-engine:update --flush for full re-index
• Meilisearch requires a running Meilisearch server
• Algolia requires API keys from your Algolia dashboard
• Settings updates don't re-index — run search-engine:update after changes