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Introducing Search v2

· 4 min read
David Boyne
Founder of EventCatalog

I'm excited to announce that EventCatalog introduces a completely redesigned search experience that makes discovering and exploring your event-driven architecture faster and more intuitive than ever before. Say goodbye to basic search and hello to powerful, categorized discovery.

The Challenge with Search v1

EventCatalog Entity MapPrevious search experience (Search v1)

As EventCatalogs grow larger with hundreds of domains, services, events, and documentation pages, finding the right information quickly becomes increasingly difficult. Traditional search implementations often fall short by:

  • Showing overwhelming results without any organization or context
  • Lacking category filtering to narrow down what you're looking for
  • Missing visual hierarchy to distinguish between different types of resources
  • Providing poor user experience on complex architectures

For teams managing large-scale event-driven systems, efficient discovery isn't just nice to have—it's essential for productivity and maintaining architectural understanding across the organization.

Introducing Search v2

The new custom search transforms how you explore your EventCatalog with a powerful, modal-based interface that puts everything at your fingertips. Built specifically for static output (with SSR support coming soon), this search experience is designed to scale with your architecture.

EventCatalog Entity MapFilter by resource type (e.g. Domains, Services, Events, Commands, Queries, Entities, Teams, Users, API Specifications)

Key Features at a Glance

🔍 Advanced Filtering: Filter by resource type including domains, services, events, commands, queries, entities, teams, users, and API specifications

⚡ Instant Results: Lightning-fast search powered by Pagefind with real-time highlighting and excerpts

🎯 Smart Categorization: Organized sidebar with visual icons and result counts for each category

📊 Visual Hierarchy: Color-coded results with type badges and descriptions for easy scanning

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts: Quick access with ⌘K (or Ctrl+K) for power users

🎨 Beautiful Design: Modern, responsive interface that matches your EventCatalog theme

Getting Started

First you need to update your EventCatalog to the latest version:

npm install @eventcatalog/core@latest

The new search is automatically available in your EventCatalog. Simply:

  1. Click the search bar in your EventCatalog header
  2. Or use the keyboard shortcut ⌘K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux)
  3. Start typing to see instant results with highlighting
Indexing your catalog

The search index is automatically generated during your EventCatalog build process.

npm run build

Once you run the build, you can run npm run dev to start the development server and see the new search experience.

Exact Match Filtering

When you need precise results, enable "Exact match in title" to filter results that contain your search term in the resource name. Perfect for finding specific services or events when you know exactly what you're looking for.

Keyboard Shortcuts

  • ⌘K or Ctrl+K: Open search modal
  • Escape: Close search modal
  • Enter: Navigate to selected result

Conclusion

The new custom search experience represents a significant step forward in making EventCatalog more discoverable and useful for teams of all sizes. By combining powerful filtering, beautiful design, and instant results, we're making it easier than ever to explore and understand your architecture.

Whether you're a developer looking for a specific service, an architect reviewing domain boundaries, or a product manager understanding system capabilities, the new search puts everything you need at your fingertips.

Try it out in your EventCatalog today and let us know what you think! We'd love to hear how the new search improves your team's productivity and architectural understanding.


Have feedback or suggestions for the search experience? Join our Discord community or open an issue on GitHub to share your thoughts.