pixelcoda/search-platform

Accessible, API-first search platform with AI-assisted answers for TYPO3

v2.2.4 2026-06-05 18:46 UTC

Requires

• php: >=8.0

MIT

• Pixelcoda

README

Accessible, API-first search for TYPO3 with classic and headless rendering, filters, suggestions, hybrid retrieval and optional AI-assisted answers.

TYPO3 support: 12.4 LTS, 13.4 LTS and 14.x
Composer package: pixelcoda/typo3-search
Extension key: pixelcoda_search

Screenshots

Pixelcoda Search for TYPO3 and headless projects

Classic search interface

Optional AI-assisted search

🚀 Features

• Headless API-First Architecture with REST endpoints
• Hybrid Search: Keyword search (Meilisearch) + Vector search (pgvector)
• AI-powered Answers with RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
• Accessible React Widgets (BITV 2.0 compliant)
• TYPO3 Connector with webhook integration
• Flexible Ingest Pipeline: Crawl → Extract → Chunk → Embed → Upsert
• Multi-Provider LLM Support (OpenAI, Azure, Ollama, Hugging Face)
• Security: API Keys, HMAC signatures, Rate limiting
• Analytics & Telemetry for query/click tracking
• Docker-ready with docker-compose setup

🏗️ Architecture

┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐
│   Frontend      │    │   TYPO3 CMS     │    │   Worker Jobs   │
│   (Widgets)     │    │   (Connector)   │    │   (Ingest)      │
└─────────┬───────┘    └─────────┬───────┘    └─────────┬───────┘
          │                      │                      │
          │ REST API             │ Webhooks             │ Queue
          │                      │                      │
┌─────────▼──────────────────────▼──────────────────────▼───────┐
│                    pixelcoda Search API                       │
│            (Hono + TypeScript + Zod Validation)              │
└─────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────┘
          │                                         │
┌─────────▼─────────┐                    ┌─────────▼─────────┐
│   Meilisearch     │                    │   PostgreSQL      │
│   (Keyword)       │                    │   + pgvector      │
└───────────────────┘                    └───────────────────┘

📦 Components

Apps

• apps/api - Hono REST API with TypeScript
• apps/worker - Ingest pipeline for content processing
• apps/widgets - Accessible React components
• apps/typo3-connector - TYPO3 extension for webhook integration

Packages

• packages/llm-adapter - Provider-agnostic LLM client

Development Environment

• typo3-dev/ - Complete DDEV TYPO3 setup for testing

📚 Documentation

Document	Description
QUICKSTART.md	5-minute setup: Simple API, full stack, TYPO3 with DDEV
typo3-dev/README.md	TYPO3 DDEV environment, composer, Install Tool
BOOTSTRAP_PACKAGE_SETUP.md	TYPO3 Bootstrap Package installation and configuration
PERFORMANCE.md	Lighthouse results, Core Web Vitals and verification scope
SECURITY.md	API keys, HMAC, rate limiting, production checklist
CHANGELOG.md	Release history and notable changes

The Railway TYPO3 image includes a same-origin persistent Search API at /search-api, so frontend browsers never need to connect to localhost.

Live TYPO3 Suite and Search demo: https://web-production-e607a.up.railway.app/

🛠️ Quick Start

Minimal persistent API: npm install → npm run dev → API at http://localhost:8787. Indexed documents are stored in .data/search-index.json locally. See QUICKSTART.md.

After configuring the TYPO3 extension API URL and write key, index published pages and content elements:

vendor/bin/typo3 pixelcoda:search:reindex
vendor/bin/typo3 pixelcoda:search:index --dry-run

The frontend content element provides keyword search and an optional source-grounded AI answer panel. The production API additionally supports Meilisearch, PostgreSQL/pgvector, hybrid retrieval, synonyms, metrics and OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Ollama or Hugging Face through the LLM adapter.

Full setup:

1. Clone Repository

git clone [e-mail]:CasianBlanaru/pixelcoda-typo3-search.git
cd pixelcoda-typo3-search

2. Install Dependencies

npm install
# or: yarn install

3. Environment Setup

cp env.example .env
# Edit .env with your configurations

4. Start Services

# All services (Postgres, Meilisearch, API)
docker-compose up -d

# Or just database services
docker-compose up -d postgres meilisearch redis

# API in development mode
yarn -w apps/api run dev

5. Initialize Database

# With Docker
docker-compose --profile migrate up migrate

# Or locally
node scripts/migrate.js

🔧 Development

Quality checks

npm ci
npm run build
npm run lint:extension
npm test

cd typo3-dev/packages/pixelcoda_search
composer validate --strict

CI resolves the extension against TYPO3 12.4, 13.4 and 14.x. The full PHP quality suite runs against TYPO3 13.4; JavaScript linting, tests and every TypeScript production build run on each pull request.

API Server

yarn -w apps/api run dev
# Runs on http://localhost:8787

Worker for Content Ingestion

# Index single URL
yarn -w apps/worker run dev -- crawl https://example.com demo

# Pull from TYPO3-Headless API
yarn -w apps/worker run dev -- typo3-pull https://api.example.com typo3-site --language en --types pages,news

# With advanced options
yarn -w apps/worker run dev -- crawl https://docs.example.com docs \
  --collection documentation \
  --content-type documentation \
  --batch-size 5

Widgets Development

yarn -w apps/widgets run build

TYPO3 Development Environment

cd typo3-dev
./setup.sh
# Complete TYPO3 installation with plugin

📚 API Documentation

Core Endpoints

Indexing

# Add document
POST /v1/index/:project/:collection
{
  "documents": [{
    "id": "doc1",
    "title": "Title",
    "content": "Content...",
    "url": "https://example.com/page",
    "lang": "en"
  }]
}

# Delete documents
DELETE /v1/index/:project/:collection
{
  "ids": ["doc1", "doc2"]
}

Search (JSON:API 1.0 Compatible)

# Keyword search
POST /v1/search/:project
{
  "q": "search term",
  "limit": 10,
  "filters": {"collection": ["pages"]},
  "facets": ["collection", "lang"]
}

# Response:
{
  "data": [{
    "type": "searchResult",
    "id": "doc1",
    "attributes": {
      "title": "Page Title",
      "content": "Page content...",
      "url": "/page",
      "score": 0.95
    }
  }],
  "meta": {
    "pagination": {"page": 1, "total": 42},
    "search": {"query": "search term", "response_time_ms": 120}
  },
  "links": {
    "self": "/v1/search/project?page=1",
    "next": "/v1/search/project?page=2"
  }
}

AI Answer (RAG)

POST /v1/ask/:project
{
  "q": "How does the search work?",
  "maxPassages": 6,
  "collections": ["docs"],
  "includeDebug": true
}

# Response:
{
  "data": {
    "type": "answer",
    "id": "answer-123",
    "attributes": {
      "text": "The search works by...",
      "query": "How does the search work?",
      "confidence": 0.89
    },
    "relationships": {
      "citations": {
        "data": [{"type": "citation", "id": "citation-0"}]
      }
    }
  },
  "included": [{
    "type": "citation",
    "id": "citation-0",
    "attributes": {
      "title": "Search Documentation",
      "url": "/docs/search",
      "snippet": "The search engine uses...",
      "reference": "[1]"
    }
  }],
  "meta": {
    "generation": {"response_time_ms": 1500, "citations_count": 3}
  }
}

Suggestions

POST /v1/suggest/:project
{
  "q": "sear",
  "limit": 5
}

Synonyms

# Add synonyms
POST /v1/synonyms/:project
{
  "add": [{
    "terms": ["car", "vehicle", "automobile"],
    "lang": "en",
    "type": "synonym"
  }]
}

Metrics

# Log query metrics
POST /v1/metrics/query/:project
{
  "query": "search term",
  "results_count": 5,
  "response_time_ms": 120
}

# Get analytics
GET /v1/metrics/:project/queries?from=2024-01-01&to=2024-01-31

🎨 Widget Integration

SearchBox

import { SearchBox, PixelcodaSearchClient } from '@pixelcoda/widgets';

function MyApp() {
  return (
    <SearchBox
      apiBase="http://localhost:8787"
      project="demo"
      apiKey="pc_read_dev_key"
      enableSuggestions={true}
      onResults={(results) => console.log(results)}
      onError={(error) => console.error(error)}
    />
  );
}

AnswerPanel

import { AnswerPanel } from '@pixelcoda/widgets';

function MyApp() {
  return (
    <AnswerPanel
      apiBase="http://localhost:8787"
      project="demo"
      apiKey="pc_read_dev_key"
      query="How does the search work?"
      collections={["docs"]}
      showDebug={true}
    />
  );
}

Programmatic Client

import { PixelcodaSearchClient } from '@pixelcoda/widgets';

const client = new PixelcodaSearchClient(
  'http://localhost:8787',
  'demo',
  'pc_read_dev_key'
);

// Search
const results = await client.search({
  q: 'search term',
  limit: 10,
  collections: ['pages']
});

// AI Answer
const answer = await client.ask({
  q: 'How does this work?',
  maxPassages: 6
});

// Log metrics
await client.logQuery('search term', results.hits.length, 150);

🔌 TYPO3 Integration

Extension Installation

1. Copy typo3-dev/packages/pixelcoda_search to typo3conf/ext/pixelcoda_search
2. Activate extension in Extension Manager
3. Configure API endpoint and credentials

Webhook Configuration

// LocalConfiguration.php
$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['EXTENSIONS']['pixelcoda_search'] = [
    'api_url' => 'http://localhost:8787',
    'api_key' => 'pc_write_dev_key',
    'hmac_secret' => 'your_hmac_secret',
    'project_id' => 'typo3-site'
];

Classic Plugin Usage

1. Create new page
2. Add content element "pixelcoda Search"
3. Configure settings via FlexForm
4. Choose template variant
5. Save and view in frontend

Headless Mode

1. Set plugin mode to "headless"
2. Use JSON:API endpoints directly
3. Compatible with nuxt-typo3
4. No server-side rendering

🐳 Production Deployment

With Docker Compose

# Production setup
NODE_ENV=production docker-compose up -d

# With SSL (Traefik/nginx)
docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d

Environment Variables (Production)

# Generate secure API keys
API_READ_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
API_WRITE_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
MEILI_MASTER_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=$(openssl rand -hex 16)

# Configure LLM provider
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_production_key
ENABLE_VECTOR_SEARCH=true
ENABLE_RERANKING=true

🔒 Security

API Key Management

• Read Keys: For search and analytics
• Write Keys: For indexing and admin operations
• Project Scoping: Keys can be restricted to projects

HMAC Webhook Verification

// Verify webhook signature
const signature = request.headers['x-pixelcoda-signature'];
const payload = JSON.stringify(request.body);
const expectedSignature = crypto
  .createHmac('sha256', process.env.HMAC_SECRET)
  .update(payload)
  .digest('hex');

Rate Limiting

• Configurable per project
• Default: 100 requests/15min
• Different limits for read/write operations

📊 Monitoring & Analytics

Metrics

• Query Metrics: Search terms, response times, result counts
• Click Metrics: Click-through rates, position tracking
• Performance: API response times, error rates

Logging

# Show logs
docker-compose logs -f api
docker-compose logs -f worker

# Structured JSON logging
LOG_FORMAT=json LOG_LEVEL=info

🧪 Testing

Unit Tests

# API Tests
yarn -w apps/api test

# Worker Tests
yarn -w apps/worker test

# Widget Tests
yarn -w apps/widgets test

Integration Tests

# E2E API Tests
yarn test:integration

# Load Tests
yarn test:load

# TYPO3 Plugin Tests
cd typo3-dev && ddev exec composer test

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Create Pull Request

📝 License

This project is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

🆘 Support

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Documentation: Wiki
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions

Built by Pixelcoda by Casian Blanaru for the TYPO3 community.