Pagefind

Pagefind Search Indexer

Guidelines for indexing static websites and configuring search capabilities using Pagefind. Always consult the local Pagefind Docs and Pagefind Config Options for full options reference.

CLI & Core Indexing Commands

Run Pagefind post-build to index the output HTML content:

• Default Indexing: npx pagefind --site <build_output_dir> (indexes all HTML pages in the output directory, e.g., dashboard/public).
• Config file: Pagefind can load parameters from a pagefind.yml or pagefind.json file placed in the project root.

Client Integration Rules

1. JS/CSS Assets: Pagefind generates static search assets (compiled index and search UI scripts) under the pagefind directory in the site root (e.g. pagefind/pagefind.js, pagefind/pagefind.css).
2. Excluding Elements: To keep irrelevant layout elements (such as footers, navbars, sidebars) from polluting search index scores, add data-pagefind-ignore attribute to their HTML elements.
3. Weighting Content: To highlight specific regions (e.g., titles, primary paragraphs), use data-pagefind-weight="<value>" (value from 1 to 10) on elements.

Completion Criteria

The indexing task is complete when:

1. pagefind completes building the search database successfully without throwing errors.
2. The index folder pagefind/ exists in the public output directory containing the generated search chunks and compiled index configs.
3. Relevant search query tests return expected matches.