Fix site search returning no results

If the built-in search on your Mintlify documentation site returns no results for any query, including exact page titles, your pages are likely excluded from the search index by a hidden setting in your docs.json.

Check for hidden: true on a version or other top-level navigation element

Setting hidden: true on a version, anchor, dropdown, language, or product in your docs.json excludes every page beneath it from the search index. If that element contains all of your pages, such as your only version, the search index becomes empty and every search returns nothing. The site itself keeps working because hidden pages remain accessible by direct URL.

"navigation": {
  "versions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "hidden": true,
      "groups": [...]
    }
  ]
}

To fix it, choose one of the following:

• Remove hidden: true from the version or other element.

• Keep the element hidden from navigation but restore its pages to search and indexing by setting seo.indexing: "all" in your docs.json:

  "seo": {
    "indexing": "all"
  }

Tabs and groups support the searchable: true opt-in. Versions and other top-level navigation elements don’t. See Hidden pages for the full visibility and indexing behavior of each hidden placement.

Search reindexes when your site rebuilds, so push the docs.json change and wait for the deployment to complete before retesting. To verify the fix, open your site and search for the exact title of a page that was previously missing from results. If the page appears in the dropdown, the index rebuilt successfully.

Other causes

• Hidden tabs or groups: hidden: true on a tab or group also excludes its pages from search. For tabs and groups, you can add searchable: true alongside hidden: true to keep descendant pages searchable. See Include pages under specific hidden tabs or groups.
• Pages missing from navigation: Mintlify excludes any page you haven’t listed in your docs.json navigation from search by default.
• Page frontmatter: hidden: true, noindex: true, or searchable: false in a page’s frontmatter each exclude that page from site search.