Full-Text Search

docmd comes with a powerful, built-in full-text search engine. It requires zero configuration, works completely offline, and provides instant results with keyword highlighting.

How It Works

Unlike other documentation tools that rely on external services (like Algolia) or heavy server-side indexing, docmd takes a modern, lightweight approach:

1. Build Time: During docmd build, the system scans all your markdown files. It strips HTML tags, extracts headings, and compiles a highly optimized search-index.json.
2. Client Side: When a user visits your site, a lightweight search library (MiniSearch) is loaded.
3. Instant Querying: Searching happens entirely in the user’s browser. There is no network latency, no API limits, and no tracking.

Features

• Fuzzy Matching: Finds results even if there are typos (e.g., “installation” matches “instalation”).
• Smart Snippets: Shows the exact context of the keyword in the search results, with the matching terms highlighted.
• Keyboard Navigation: Full support for ArrowUp, ArrowDown, and Enter.
• Shortcuts: Press Cmd + K (Mac) or Ctrl + K (Windows/Linux) to open anywhere.
• Offline Capable: Once the page loads, search works without an internet connection.

Configuration

Search is enabled by default. You don’t need to do anything to get started.

Disabling Search

If you prefer to hide the search bar, set search: false in your config:

// docmd.config.js
module.exports = {
  // ...
  search: false, 
  // ...
};

Excluding Pages

Sometimes you have utility pages or draft content you don’t want appearing in search results. You can exclude specific pages using frontmatter:

---
title: "Private Draft"
noindex: true
---

Using noindex: true does two things:

1. Removes the page from the internal Search Index.
2. Adds a <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> tag to prevent Google/Bing indexing.

Comparison vs. Algolia

Many documentation generators (like Docusaurus) rely on Algolia DocSearch. While Algolia is powerful, it introduces friction:

docmd creates a frictionless experience: you write Markdown, we handle the discovery.