Hao Nguyen

Posted on May 29, 2025 • Edited on Jul 22

Init Live Search – Smarter WordPress Search with Slash Commands & REST API

#wordpress #plugin #restapi #meilisearch

A fast, flexible live search modal for WordPress – powered by REST API, Meilisearch & slash commands

Init Live Search replaces the default WordPress search with a modern modal. Built on the REST API, it works instantly, supports keyboard navigation, slash commands, and now offers optional Meilisearch integration for typo-tolerant, sub-50ms relevance-ranked search — with automatic fallback to the local database if Meilisearch is ever unreachable.

No jQuery. No page reloads. No broken search box, ever.

What's New in v1.9.x

Optional Meilisearch Integration — connect your own self-hosted or cloud Meilisearch instance as the primary search engine, with silent, automatic fallback to local DB search
Auto-sync to Meilisearch — posts are pushed/removed from the index on publish, update, trash, and delete (non-blocking)
WP-CLI Reindex — wp init-live-search meili-reindex for bulk indexing or full rebuilds
Cross-site Search — fetch & merge results from other Init Live Search-powered sites, no CORS or auth setup needed
New Shortcodes — [init_live_search] and [init_live_search_related_posts], both buildable visually via the new Shortcode Builder UI
AI-Powered Related Posts — [init_live_search_related_ai] using multi-signal scoring (tags, ACF, series, views, comments, freshness)
Template-based Layouts — grid, classic, compact, thumbright, overridable from your theme
404 Smart Redirect — automatically redirects broken URLs to the most relevant post
WooCommerce Slash Expansion — added /brand, /attribute, /variation, /coupon
Search Operators — +musthave and -mustnot terms now supported in queries

Features at a Glance

Minimalist, Modern UX

Modal-based UI (Ctrl + /, triple-click, data-ils)
Instant results via REST API (no admin-ajax, no jQuery)
Infinite scroll support
Local caching with localStorage

Smarter Search Logic

Optional Meilisearch backend — typo-tolerant, relevance-ranked, sub-50ms, with automatic local-DB fallback
Match by title + tags with bi-gram fallback
Search in SEO metadata (Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, TSF, SEOPress)
Support ACF fields (e.g. company_name)
Tunable ranking (e.g. title > SEO > tags)
Search operators: +musthave, -mustnot

Cross-site Search

Query and merge results from other Init Live Search-powered sites
No CORS or auth config — just Site Name|https://example.com
Results auto-labeled by source (e.g. "Init Docs")

Productivity Built-In

Slash commands: /recent, /id, /fav, /product, /sku, /price, etc.
Full keyboard support: ↑ ↓ ← → Enter Esc
Quick search tooltip when selecting text
Voice search via SpeechRecognition (optional)

WooCommerce Ready

Filter by SKU, stock, price, sale status, brand, attribute, variation, coupon
Show prices, badges, "Add to Cart"
Slash commands: /product, /on-sale, /stock, /sku, /brand, /attribute, /variation, /coupon

Theming & Customization

Built-in style presets: style-full.css, style-topbar.css
Theme override support (style.css in theme)
Optionally disable all plugin CSS
Dark mode (dark, light, auto)

Built for Developers

PHP filters to override queries, ranking, result data
REST API endpoints: /search, /product, /id, etc.
JS events: ils:search-started, ils:results-loaded, etc.
WP-CLI support for Meilisearch reindexing
Complete developer docs + override guide

Optional Lightweight Analytics

Track query count, frequency, timestamps (no personal data)
Grouped view, export as CSV
Disabled by default, uses WordPress transients

Meilisearch Integration (Optional)

Init Live Search works great out of the box with zero setup — the built-in database search handles everything by default. If you want faster, typo-tolerant, relevance-ranked search at scale, connect your own Meilisearch instance in a few minutes.

Install and run Meilisearch yourself — self-hosted or via Meilisearch Cloud. This plugin doesn't host or manage a server for you.
Go to Settings → Init Live Search → Meilisearch, enter your Host URL, Index Name, and a search-only API key, then enable the integration.
Index your existing content:

   wp init-live-search meili-reindex

Done — search requests are now answered by Meilisearch. New, updated, and deleted posts stay in sync automatically.

Built for safety, not lock-in:

If Meilisearch is disabled, unconfigured, or fails to respond, the plugin silently falls back to local DB search — visitors never see a broken search box
The sensitive admin/indexing key can be set via the INIT_LIVE_SEARCH_MEILI_ADMIN_KEY constant in wp-config.php instead of the database
Turn it off any time — core search never depends on Meilisearch being present

Slash Command Examples

Command	Action
`/recent`	Show latest posts
`/id 123`	Load post by ID
`/product`	List products
`/sku ABC123`	Find by SKU
`/on-sale`	Show sale items
`/price 100 500`	Filter by price range (supports `sort`/`rsort`)
`/brand`	Filter by product brand
`/coupon`	Show active, usable coupons
`/fav`	Show saved favorites (localStorage)
`/random`	Jump to a random post

👉 Full Command Guide

Dev Tools You Get

JS events like ils:modal-opened, ils:results-loaded
PHP filters for SEO fields, fallback logic, ranking, and more
Theme override with custom style.css and related-posts templates
WP-CLI command for Meilisearch reindexing
Zero jQuery. Zero forced dependencies.

Installation

Install via WordPress.org or:

git clone https://github.com/brokensmile2103/init-live-search.git

Then activate and configure in Settings → Init Live Search.

Ways to trigger the modal:

Focus any <input name="s">
Press Ctrl + /
Triple-click anywhere
Click elements with data-ils
URL: ?modal=search&term=seo

Part of the Init Plugin Suite

Init Live Search is part of the Init Plugin Suite – a set of minimalist, performance-first tools for WordPress developers.

Thanks for reading. Got feedback or questions?
→ Project Page
→ GitHub

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