Scry Search: Meilisearch for WordPress

Description

Scry Search is built by developers for developers — but you don’t need to be one to run it.

If you can install a plugin and paste API keys, you can connect Meilisearch, pick post types, index content, tune ranking/synonyms/weights, and turn on autosuggest from wp-admin. No theme edits required. Existing search forms keep working. WooCommerce products are a first-class post type.

If you are a developer, the same plugin is meant to be extended: scry_ms_* filters/actions, optional window.scrySearch, and a full hook reference in DOCS.md (GitHub). We use this kind of surface on client work and our own products, so the priorities are boring on purpose: stable hook names, easy-to-find call sites, a real docs file, and no forced frontend chrome.

Works from the admin (no code)

• Connection Settings — URL and API keys, with a connection test
• Index Settings — post types, searchable fields (including meta), ranking rules, synonyms, stop words; bulk index / wipe
• Search Settings — post-type weights for federated search, optional autosuggest and matched-term highlighting
• Task drawer, Logs, and Search Analytics for day-to-day ops

Site owners and agencies can go live without custom development. Developers can still hook in when a project needs it.

Headless: no frontend UI required

This plugin does not force a search UI on you. No required shortcode, widget, or results template.

What you get by default is indexing and Meilisearch-backed queries. Autosuggest and highlighting are optional and off unless you turn them on. Keep your theme’s search, or build your own UI against WP_Query / the autosuggest REST endpoint.

Drop-in WordPress search

Scry Search hooks posts_pre_query. Any WP_Query with a search string can go through Meilisearch (main search, programmatic queries, autosuggest) and still return normal WP_Post objects.

• No theme rewrites, no forced shortcodes, no widget lock-in
• search.php, searchform.php, core search widgets/blocks, and page-builder search elements keep working if you use them
• Opt out per query with scry_ms_should_search when you need native WP search

Works with Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, and similar tools: whatever search box they output still hits WordPress search, which Scry Search routes to Meilisearch.

AJAX autosuggest (optional)

Enable Autosuggest under Scry Search → Search Settings. The plugin attaches debounced AJAX to existing name="s" fields. Suggestions use the same Meilisearch indexes as full-site search. Optional CSS class selector so only the forms you choose get typeahead. Thumbnails supported when a featured image exists.

Shape the result data with scry_ms_autosuggest_results, or the rendered HTML with scry_ms_autosuggest_results_rendered. Leave autosuggest off to stay fully headless.

Per-post-type indexes and federated search

Index any registered post type independently — posts, pages, WooCommerce products, CPTs from other plugins. Each type gets its own Meilisearch index:

• Searchable fields — titles, content, excerpts, taxonomies, author, custom meta (ACF, Meta Box, etc.)
• Ranking rules — drag-and-drop reorder (words, typo, proximity, attribute, sort, exactness) per index
• Search weights — e.g. weight products above blog posts in the merged results

Search uses Meilisearch federated multi-search: indexes queried together, results merged and re-ranked with your per–post-type weights (not a hand-stitched PHP merge).

Relevancy, synonyms, and stopwords

Per index from wp-admin (or via filters):

• Reorder ranking rules
• Choose which attributes are searchable
• Synonyms — nicknames, abbreviations, UK/US spelling, brand aliases
• Stopwords — drop noise terms that shouldn’t affect ranking

WooCommerce

Fully compatible. Select product in Index Settings, choose product fields and meta, set federation weights if you also search posts/pages. Catalog search upgrades; theme and checkout stay as they are. Same hooks as any other post type if you need custom product documents or autosuggest rows.

Search analytics

Scry Search → Search Analytics:

• Dashboard with summary metrics, charts, and recent searches
• Optional IP anonymization / omit identifying fields
• Retention period with daily WP-Cron cleanup, plus a manual “delete old events” button
• CSV export of the analytics table (admin-only, nonce-protected)
• Extra fields via scry_ms_analytics_event_to_insert (non-column keys go into search_metadata)

Task monitor

Task drawer on plugin admin screens:

• Indexing tasks with status, duration, and errors
• Paginated history
• Scoped to indexes this plugin manages (shared Meilisearch instances won’t dump unrelated tasks)

Debug and error logs

Scry Search → Logs:

• Debug and Error levels, filterable in the viewer
• Stored in the database, newest first, load-more paging
• API keys / tokens redacted before storage
• Retention + daily cleanup, or clean up on demand

Automatic and manual indexing

• Auto-index on create/update; remove on trash/delete; re-index on untrash
• One-click bulk index per post type
• Wipe and rebuild when you need a clean slate
• Live search preview from the indexes UI before you ship ranking changes

For developers: hooks and JS runtime

Admin covers setup and tuning. When you need custom behavior, use the public scry_ms_* PHP hooks and the optional window.scrySearch runtime. Call sites are marked //@HOOK: scry_ms_… in source.

Full argument lists, return types, timing, and JS examples: DOCS.md on GitHub (also shipped with the plugin).

Code is split into features/<name>/ packages. Prefer a search-only API key for front-end paths; the shared client factory supports admin vs search.

PHP filters

Indexing and documents:

• scry_ms_should_index
• scry_ms_should_delete
• scry_ms_index_prepare_document
• scry_ms_index_names
• scry_ms_index_searchable_attributes
• scry_ms_bulk_index_query_args
• scry_ms_index_ranking_rules
• scry_ms_index_fields
• scry_ms_index_meta_keys

Index settings:

• scry_ms_index_settings_ajax
• scry_ms_index_settings_backup
• scry_ms_index_ranking_rules_before_update
• scry_ms_index_searchable_attributes_before_update
• scry_ms_index_synonyms_before_update
• scry_ms_index_stop_words_before_update

Search and client:

• scry_ms_should_search
• scry_ms_meilisearch_client
• scry_ms_multi_search_index_names
• scry_ms_multi_search_query_params
• scry_ms_multi_search_query
• scry_ms_multi_search_queries
• scry_ms_multi_search_federation
• scry_ms_multi_search_raw_results
• scry_ms_multi_search_final_results

Autosuggest, admin, analytics, logs, window:

• scry_ms_autosuggest_query
• scry_ms_autosuggest_results
• scry_ms_autosuggest_results_rendered
• scry_ms_admin_pages
• scry_ms_analytics_event_to_insert
• scry_ms_log_message
• scry_ms_window_localized
• scry_ms_premium_upgrades_display

PHP actions

• scry_ms_after_index_document
• scry_ms_after_delete_document
• scry_ms_after_bulk_index
• scry_ms_after_create_index
• scry_ms_index_settings_restore
• scry_ms_index_update_settings
• scry_ms_index_settings_sections_ui
• scry_ms_premium_upgrade_settings_ui

JavaScript runtime (window.scrySearch)

Optional. Enqueued on the front end (script handle scry_ms_window-script). Wait for the scrySearchReady event on document before using it.

• window.scrySearch.version
• window.scrySearch.getSearchForms()
• window.scrySearch.getSearchFormsByClass(className)
• window.scrySearch.registerUpgrade(name, version) — namespace for add-ons under window.scrySearch.upgrades

Per form (ScrySearch_SearchForm):

• formElement, searchInput, data
• submit(), submitAjax() (debounced)
• addPreSubmitAction(fn, order) / addPostSubmitAction(fn, order)
• addPreSubmitAjaxAction(fn, order) / addPostSubmitAjaxAction(fn, order)

A search form is any <form> with role="search" or a text/search input named s. Autosuggest and similar features attach through the AJAX action lists. Details and examples: DOCS.md.

Hosting

1. ScryWP Search — managed Meilisearch for WordPress
2. Self-hosted — your server, full control
3. Local — for development and testing

Enter URL + keys under Scry Search → Connection Settings, pick post types, index, done.

Works with your existing setup

• Theme search templates (search.php, searchform.php)
• Core search widgets and Gutenberg search blocks
• Page builders (Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, etc.)
• WooCommerce products and product meta
• Any registered custom post type
• Optional autosuggest / highlighting when you enable them

Get Managed Hosting from ScryWP

Don’t want to run Meilisearch yourself? ScryWP Search is managed hosting aimed at WordPress.

Requirements

• WordPress 5.2 or higher
• PHP 8.1 or higher
• A Meilisearch instance (ScryWP or self-hosted)

Support

Hooks/docs: DOCS.md or GitHub. Issues and questions: same repo or JG Web Development.