---
template: overrides/main.html
---

# Setting up site search

Material for MkDocs provides an excellent, client-side search implementation,
omitting the need for the integration of third-party services, which might
be tricky to integrate to be compliant with data privacy regulations. Moreover,
with some effort, search can be made available [offline][1].

  [1]: #offline-search

## Configuration

### Built-in search

[:octicons-file-code-24: Source][2] ·
[:octicons-cpu-24: Plugin][3]

The [built-in search plugin][3] integrates seamlessly with Material for MkDocs,
adding multilingual client-side search with [lunr][4] and [lunr-languages][5].
It's enabled by default, but must be re-added to `mkdocs.yml` when other plugins
are used:

``` yaml
plugins:
  - search
```

The following options are supported:

`lang`{ #lang }

:   :octicons-milestone-24: Default: _automatically set_ – This option allows
    to include the language-specific stemmers provided by [lunr-languages][5].
    Note that Material for MkDocs will set this automatically based on the
    [site language][6], but it may be overridden, e.g. to support multiple
    languages:

    === "A single language"

        ``` yaml
        plugins:
          - search:
              lang: ru
        ```

    === "Multiple languages"

        ``` yaml
        plugins:
          - search:
              lang:
                - en
                - ru
        ```

    The following languages are supported:

    <div class="mdx-columns" markdown="1">

    - `ar` – Arabic
    - `da` – Danish
    - `du` – Dutch
    - `en` – English
    - `fi` – Finnish
    - `fr` – French
    - `de` – German
    - `hu` – Hungarian
    - `it` – Italian
    - `ja` – Japanese
    - `no` – Norwegian
    - `pt` – Portuguese
    - `ro` – Romanian
    - `ru` – Russian
    - `es` – Spanish
    - `sv` – Swedish
    - `th` – Thai
    - `tr` – Turkish
    - `vi` – Vietnamese

    </div>

    _Material for MkDocs also tries to support languages that are not part of
    this list by choosing the stemmer yielding the best result automatically_.

    !!! warning "Only specify the languages you really need"

        Be aware that including support for other languages increases the general
        JavaScript payload by around 20kb (before `gzip`) and by another 15-30kb
        per language.

`separator`{ #separator }

:   :octicons-milestone-24: Default: _automatically set_ – The separator for
    indexing and query tokenization can be customized, making it possible to
    index parts of words separated by other characters than whitespace and `-`,
    e.g. by including `.`:

    ``` yaml
    plugins:
      - search:
          separator: '[\s\-\.]+'
    ```

`prebuild_index`{ #prebuild-index }

:   :octicons-milestone-24: Default: `false` · :octicons-beaker-24:
    Experimental – MkDocs can generate a [prebuilt index][7] of all pages during
    build time, which provides performance improvements at the cost of more
    bandwidth, as it reduces the build time of the search index:

    ``` yaml
    plugins:
      - search:
          prebuild_index: true
    ```
    
    This may be beneficial for large documentation projects served with
    appropriate headers, i.e. `Content-Encoding: gzip`, but benchmarking before
    deployment is recommended.

_Material for MkDocs doesn't provide official support for the other options of
this plugin, so they may be supported but might yield unexpected results.
Use them at your own risk._

  [2]: https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material/tree/master/src/assets/javascripts/integrations/search
  [3]: https://www.mkdocs.org/user-guide/configuration/#search
  [4]: https://lunrjs.com
  [5]: https://github.com/MihaiValentin/lunr-languages
  [6]: changing-the-language.md#site-language
  [7]: https://www.mkdocs.org/user-guide/configuration/#prebuild_index

### Search suggestions

[:octicons-file-code-24: Source][8] ·
:octicons-unlock-24: Feature flag ·
:octicons-beaker-24: Experimental ·
[:octicons-heart-fill-24:{ .mdx-heart } Insiders only][8]{ .mdx-insiders }

When _search suggestions_ are enabled, the search will display the likeliest
completion for the last word, saving the user many key strokes by accepting the
suggestion with the ++arrow-right++ key.

Add the following lines to `mkdocs.yml`:

``` yaml
theme:
  features:
    - search.suggest
```

Searching for ^^search su^^ yields ^^search suggestions^^ as a suggestion:

<figure markdown="1">

[![Search suggestions][9]][9]

  <figcaption markdown="1">

A demo is worth a thousand words — check it out at
[squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material-insiders][10]

  </figcaption>
</figure>

  [8]: ../insiders/index.md
  [9]: ../assets/screenshots/search-suggestions.png
  [10]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material-insiders/reference/code-blocks/?q=code+high

### Search highlighting

[:octicons-file-code-24: Source][8] ·
:octicons-unlock-24: Feature flag ·
:octicons-beaker-24: Experimental ·
[:octicons-heart-fill-24:{ .mdx-heart } Insiders only][8]{ .mdx-insiders }

When _search highlighting_ is enabled and a user clicks on a search result,
Material for MkDocs will highlight all occurrences after following the link.
Add the following lines to `mkdocs.yml`:

``` yaml
theme:
  features:
    - search.highlight
```

Searching for ^^code highlighting^^ yields:

<figure markdown="1">

[![Search highlighting][11]][11]

  <figcaption markdown="1">

A demo is worth a thousand words — check it out at
[squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material-insiders][12]

  </figcaption>
</figure>

  [11]: ../assets/screenshots/search-highlighting.png
  [12]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material-insiders/reference/code-blocks/?h=code+blocks

### Search sharing

[:octicons-file-code-24: Source][8] ·
:octicons-unlock-24: Feature flag ·
:octicons-beaker-24: Experimental ·
[:octicons-heart-fill-24:{ .mdx-heart } Insiders only][8]{ .mdx-insiders }

When _search sharing_ is activated, a :material-share-variant: share button is
rendered next to the reset button, which allows to deep link to the current
search query and result. Add the following lines to `mkdocs.yml`:

``` yaml
theme:
  features:
    - search.share
```

When a user clicks the share button, the URL is automatically copied to the
clipboard.

<figure markdown="1">

[![Search sharing][13]][13]

  <figcaption markdown="1">

A demo is worth a thousand words — check it out at
[squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material-insiders][14]

  </figcaption>
</figure>

  [13]: ../assets/screenshots/search-share.png
  [14]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material-insiders/setup/setting-up-site-search/?q=share+search

### Offline search

[:octicons-file-code-24: Source][15] ·
[:octicons-cpu-24: Plugin][16] · :octicons-beaker-24: Experimental

If you distribute your documentation as `*.html` files, the built-in search
will not work out-of-the-box due to the restrictions modern browsers impose for
security reasons. This can be mitigated with the [localsearch][16] plugin in
combination with @squidfunk's [iframe-worker][17] polyfill.

For setup instructions, refer to the [official documentation][18].

  [15]: https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material/blob/master/src/base.html
  [16]: https://github.com/wilhelmer/mkdocs-localsearch/
  [17]: https://github.com/squidfunk/iframe-worker
  [18]: https://github.com/wilhelmer/mkdocs-localsearch#installation-material-v5

!!! tip

    When distributing documentation as HTML files to be opened from the file
    system, you will also want to set `use_directory_urls: false` in
    `mkdocs.yml` to make page links function correctly.

## Usage

### Boosting a page

[:octicons-file-code-24: Source][8] ·
:octicons-note-24: Metadata ·
[:octicons-heart-fill-24:{ .mdx-heart } Insiders only][8]{ .mdx-insiders }

In order to give specific pages a higher relevance in search, [lunr][4] supports
page-specific boosts, which can be defined for each page by leveraging the
[Metadata][19] extension:

``` yaml
---
search:
  boost: 100
---

...
```

  [19]: ../../reference/meta-tags/#metadata

## Customization

The search implementation of Material for MkDocs is probably its most
sophisticated feature, as it tries to balance a _great typeahead experience_,
_good performance_, _accessibility_, and a result list that is _easy to scan_.
This is where Material for MkDocs deviates from other themes.

The following section explains how search can be customized to tailor it to
your needs.

### Query transformation

[:octicons-file-code-24: Source][20] ·
:octicons-mortar-board-24: Difficulty: _easy_

When a user enters a query into the search box, the query is pre-processed
before it is submitted to the search index. Material for MkDocs will apply the
following transformations, which can be customized by [extending the theme][21]:

``` ts
/**
 * Default transformation function
 *
 * 1. Search for terms in quotation marks and prepend a `+` modifier to denote
 *    that the resulting document must contain all terms, converting the query
 *    to an `AND` query (as opposed to the default `OR` behavior). While users
 *    may expect terms enclosed in quotation marks to map to span queries, i.e.
 *    for which order is important, `lunr` doesn't support them, so the best
 *    we can do is to convert the terms to an `AND` query.
 *
 * 2. Replace control characters which are not located at the beginning of the
 *    query or preceded by white space, or are not followed by a non-whitespace
 *    character or are at the end of the query string. Furthermore, filter
 *    unmatched quotation marks.
 *
 * 3. Trim excess whitespace from left and right.
 *
 * @param query - Query value
 *
 * @returns Transformed query value
 */
export function defaultTransform(query: string): string {
  return query
    .split(/"([^"]+)"/g)                            /* => 1 */
      .map((terms, index) => index & 1
        ? terms.replace(/^\b|^(?![^\x00-\x7F]|$)|\s+/g, " +")
        : terms
      )
      .join("")
    .replace(/"|(?:^|\s+)[*+\-:^~]+(?=\s+|$)/g, "") /* => 2 */
    .trim()                                         /* => 3 */
}
```

If you want to switch to the default behavior of the `mkdocs` and `readthedocs`
themes, both of which don't transform the query prior to submission, or
customize the `transform` function, you can do this by [overriding the
`config` block][22]:

``` html
{% block config %}
  {{ super() }}
  <script>
    var __search = {
      transform: function(query) {
        return query
      }
    }
  </script>
{% endblock %}
```

The `transform` function will receive the query string as entered by the user
and must return the processed query string to be submitted to the search index.

  [20]: https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material/blob/master/src/assets/javascripts/integrations/search/transform/index.ts
  [21]: ../customization.md#extending-the-theme
  [22]: ../customization.md#overriding-blocks-recommended

### Custom search

[:octicons-file-code-24: Source][23] ·
:octicons-mortar-board-24: Difficulty: _challenging_

Material for MkDocs implements search as part of a [web worker][24]. If you
want to switch the web worker with your own implementation, e.g. to submit
search to an external service, you can add a custom JavaScript file to the
`docs` directory and [override the `config` block][21]:

``` html
{% block config %}
  {{ super() }}
  <script>
    var __search = {
      worker: "<url>"
    }
  </script>
{% endblock %}
```

Communication with the search worker is implemented using a designated message
format using _discriminated unions_, i.e. through the `type` property of the
message. See the following interface definitions to learn about the message
formats:

- [:octicons-file-code-24: `SearchMessage`][25]
- [:octicons-file-code-24: `SearchIndex` and `SearchResult`][26]

The sequence and direction of messages is rather intuitive:

- :octicons-arrow-right-24: `SearchSetupMessage`
- :octicons-arrow-left-24: `SearchReadyMessage`
- :octicons-arrow-right-24: `SearchQueryMessage`
- :octicons-arrow-left-24: `SearchResultMessage`

  [23]: https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material/blob/master/src/assets/javascripts/integrations/search/worker
  [24]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Workers_API/Using_web_workers
  [25]: https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material/blob/master/src/assets/javascripts/integrations/search/worker/message/index.ts
  [26]: https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material/blob/master/src/assets/javascripts/integrations/search/_/index.ts