Strapi simple search

A Strapi plugin that lets you search across collections with ease. Just pick the fields and collections you want to search through — no setup headaches, no external services needed. It's not laser-precise, but it gets the job done with charm.

Just simple.

Features

• Configuration web interface
• Limit results
• Order results

⚠️ Disclaimer:

All marked collections will be exposed to the public role, even if they are not set as public.

Screenshots

Requirements

• Strapi v5 is required.

Installation

1.1 Download

npm i strapi-simple-search

1.2 Select attributes

Start your Strapi project, head over to the plugin page, and simply pick the attributes you want to search by. Don't forget to hit save.

1.3 Enable plugin for roles

Go to Settings > Users & Permissions plugin, choose a role > Find Strapi-simple-search, and enable search.

Again, don't forget to save and reload server.

Usage

After enabling the search endpoint, you can send GET requests to /api/strapi-simple-search/search. The q parameter is required for searching, for example: /api/strapi-simple-search/search?q=searchedValue. Search is not case-sensitive.

Example reponse

{
  "news": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "documentId": "bdbmt4kf1gtkkqoepqs5ztdf",
      "title": "Title",
      "createdAt": "2025-07-09T19:54:06.382Z",
      "updatedAt": "2025-07-09T19:54:37.557Z",
      "publishedAt": "2025-07-09T19:54:37.552Z",
      "locale": null,
      "text": "Text",
      "boolean": true,
      "richText": [
        {
          "type": "paragraph",
          "children": [
            {
              "type": "text",
              "text": "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
    }
  ],
  "single-type": [
    # Not found
  ]
}

Development

To start development, you'll need a Strapi project for testing and a cloned plugin repository.

1.1 Register the plugin to the Yalc repository

Navigate to the plugin directory and run the following command. Keep it running while you continue with the setup.

npm run watch:link

1.2 Create a testing Strapi project

Exit the plugin directory and create a new Strapi project using the following command:

npx create-strapi@latest my-strapi-project

1.3 Install the plugin

When the first command start, you should see a message like this:

## yarn
yarn dlx yalc add --link strapi-simple-search && yarn install

## npm
npx yalc add strapi-simple-search && npx yalc link strapi-simple-search && npm install

Choose either npm or yarn and run the corresponding command.

1.4 Start strapi

Once the plugin is installed, start the Strapi project with:

npm run dev