Meilisearch

Static sites do not have built-in server-side search. Unpress can index generated posts into Meilisearch so you can add fast search to your 11ty site.

When to use it

Use Meilisearch if:

• you have enough content that tag archives are not enough
• you want typo-tolerant search
• you want a search index separate from your static files

Run Meilisearch locally

This repo already includes a Docker Compose example under docs/meilisearch/.

cd docs/meilisearch
docker compose up -d

Configure search settings

Add these values to .env if needed:

MEILI_HOST=http://127.0.0.1:7700
MEILI_API_KEY=
MEILI_INDEX=posts

Index generated posts

After you generate the site, run:

pnpx @selfagency/unpress --out-dir ./out --index-meili

Or with npx:

npx -y @selfagency/unpress --out-dir ./out --index-meili

If you need to override the host directly:

pnpx @selfagency/unpress --out-dir ./out --index-meili --meili-host http://127.0.0.1:7700

What gets indexed

Unpress reads generated Markdown files from the posts directory, parses frontmatter, and uploads batches of post documents to Meilisearch.

Front-end integration

You still need to add a search UI to your 11ty templates. A common pattern is:

1. add a search input to your layout
2. fetch results from your Meilisearch instance with client-side JavaScript
3. render matching post links below the input

Troubleshooting

• ensure the posts directory exists before indexing
• ensure MEILI_HOST points at a live instance
• provide MEILI_API_KEY if your instance requires it
• confirm the index name you expect with MEILI_INDEX