[Feature]: Add Full-Text Search Across All Notes with Instant Results Using Next.js API Route

[divyanshim27]

Summary

openCSE is a documentation and notes platform for CSE subjects. Currently, there is no search functionality anywhere on the site. A student looking for a specific topic (e.g., "binary search tree", "TCP handshake", "process scheduling") has no way to search across subjects — they must manually navigate to the right subject and scroll to find what they need.

For a knowledge base platform, search is arguably the most important navigation tool.

Problem

• The app/ directory (Next.js pages) contains no search component or search page.
• There is no API route for querying note content.
• Notes live under notes/dsa/arrays/ and similar paths — structured content that is entirely unsearchable from the UI.
• Without search, the platform's usability degrades as more subjects and topics are added.

Proposed Solution

I will implement a full-text search feature using Next.js's built-in capabilities — no external search service required:

Step 1 — Build a search index at build time (lib/search-index.ts):

// Reads all markdown files from /notes at build time and builds a searchable index
export function buildSearchIndex(): SearchEntry[] {
  // Walk /notes directory, parse frontmatter + content
  // Return array of { title, subject, topic, slug, excerpt }
}

Step 2 — API Route (app/api/search/route.ts):

export async function GET(request: Request) {
  const { searchParams } = new URL(request.url);
  const query = searchParams.get('q') || '';
  const results = searchIndex.filter(entry =>
    entry.title.toLowerCase().includes(query.toLowerCase()) ||
    entry.content.toLowerCase().includes(query.toLowerCase())
  );
  return Response.json(results.slice(0, 10));
}

Step 3 — Search UI Component (app/components/SearchBar.tsx):

• Debounced input field (300ms) that calls /api/search?q=...
• Dropdown showing top results with subject label, topic title, and a matching excerpt
• Keyboard navigation (arrow keys + Enter to navigate)
• Added to the global navbar so it's accessible from every page

This is all TypeScript/Next.js and uses zero new dependencies beyond what's already in package.json.

Please assign this to me. I'll share a component design before submitting a PR.

Labels: enhancement, feature-request, ux, help wanted, GSSoC 2026

[parthkulkarni2004]

Hi, I’d like to contribute to this project. Could you please assign me an issue that I can work on? I’d be happy to contribute. Thank you! 🙌