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Added in eventcatalog@3.36.0

EventCatalog ships with two search modes. The default is a fast metadata search that works with no extra configuration. An opt-in indexed mode adds full-content search powered by Pagefind.

Understand the modes​

Resource search (default) indexes the metadata of every catalog resource — names, summaries, badges, types, and identifiers. It is fast, requires no build step, and works in both static and server output modes.

Indexed search (opt-in) builds a static index of the full markdown content of your catalog at build time. It can find matches inside the body of a page, changelogs, custom docs, and resource docs — not just the frontmatter fields.

Set search.type to 'indexed' in eventcatalog.config.js:

eventcatalog.config.js
module.exports = {
  search: {
    type: 'indexed',
  },
};

No other changes are required. The index is built automatically as part of eventcatalog build and also during eventcatalog dev.

What gets indexed​

When indexed search is enabled, the following content is included in the index:

  • All catalog resources: events, commands, queries, services, domains, subdomains, channels, containers, data products, entities, and flows
  • Custom docs pages
  • Resource docs
  • Changelogs

When the index is built​

During eventcatalog build, the indexer runs after the Astro build and writes the index to <outDir>/pagefind.

During eventcatalog dev, the index is built on startup and rebuilt automatically whenever any .md or .mdx file changes (debounced to avoid excessive rebuilds). The first build may take a few seconds depending on the size of your catalog. Subsequent incremental rebuilds are faster.

Result ranking​

Indexed results are ranked by relevance. Matches in the resource title and identifier score highest, followed by matches in the summary and type. Content-body matches score lower than title matches but are still surfaced when no title match is found.

Auth and the /pagefind assets​

Private catalogs

If your catalog uses authentication (an eventcatalog.auth.js file is present), the generated /pagefind directory is served as static client-readable assets. Anyone who can load the page can download the index, which contains the full text of all indexed content.

Ensure your deployment platform protects the /pagefind path behind the same authentication layer as the rest of your catalog.

To stay on the default resource search, either omit the search key entirely or set the type explicitly:

eventcatalog.config.js
module.exports = {
  search: {
    type: 'resource', // default, no index built
  },
};

Existing catalogs are not affected by this feature — no changes are needed unless you want to opt in.