Building and Customizing Your Docs

Search

Fern uses Algolia DocSearch to power search for your documentation. DocSearch is designed specifically for documentation sites to help users quickly find what they need.

How search works

DocSearch scans your Fern site’s content and builds an index to generate search results. It includes built-in filters that let users refine their searches by content type:

  • Versions: For sites with separate documentation for different API versions.
  • Endpoints: Filters results by API reference documentation.
  • Guides: Filters results by non-API reference documentation.
  • Changelog: Filters results by changelog updates.

If you are using the AI Search feature, the search box also functions as your site’s chat window.

Note: If an article includes the nofollow or noindex frontmatter, it will not be indexed by Algolia DocSearch and won’t appear in search results.

You can override Fern’s search with your own solution. Here is an example of custom JavaScript a customer used to replace the default search with their own implementation and additional features. To learn more, see Custom JavaScript.