Algolia DocSearch

Can any website use the free DocSearch program?

The program is for public technical documentation and technical blogs. Apply with a domain you control. If accepted, verify ownership within seven days to keep the crawler running. Keep the required Search by Algolia branding visible. For private account data or a general product catalog, evaluate a separate search setup.

What does the crawler do, and what does the search box do?

The crawler visits selected pages and uses rules about which URLs and page sections to read. It turns headings and text into records in an Algolia index. The frontend search package queries those records and displays links. Updating the search box alone does not reindex your docs.

Schedule crawls, and check them after a URL or template change. When a result is missing, check whether the crawler reached the page and extracted the heading before changing the search UI.

How can you check the search scope before applying?

Use a paper fixture with two fictional public documentation pages and one excluded sample path. Write the page URLs and headings you expect to appear in search. No account or crawl is needed for this check.

1. 1
   Sketch one result and one exclusion

   Give a public guide a distinct heading and a fragment link, the part of a URL that jumps to a section. Make a query that should return that section. Give the excluded page a different phrase that must return nothing.
2. 2
   Plan the next check after approval

   On a separate authorized test setup, check the crawler’s allowed host and paths and the destination index before any test crawl. Inspect the extracted record and open the result link. Confirm the excluded phrase is absent. If you cannot isolate the scope and index, stop at the paper check and mark actual indexing untested.

What does the program include, and what should you keep?

The current free DocSearch terms list up to 5 million records, 50 million search requests per month and 5 million crawled resources per month for one application, with up to 20 indices. Algolia can restrict or suspend the application if it exceeds its limits. These are DocSearch program limits.

The terms include automatic enrollment in a service that makes the public docs searchable by coding assistants. Keep your original docs, redirects and crawler configuration. You can browse the extracted records in the Algolia dashboard, but the source docs and extraction rules let you rebuild an index elsewhere.