What is search-admin?

search-admin is a web dashboard that gives you a visual, point-and-click way to manage a MeiliSearch server. MeiliSearch is a fast, open source search engine that developers add to their apps to power search features, but it normally has to be controlled through its own API or command line. This project is an unofficial, third-party tool, not built or endorsed by MeiliSearch itself, that connects to any MeiliSearch instance you already have running and gives you a friendly interface for it instead. Once connected, you can see an overview of the instance's health, version, and how much data it holds. From there you can create or delete search indexes, browse and edit the documents inside them, change index settings, and search or filter through your data. It also shows you background tasks the server is running, such as ongoing indexing jobs, letting you cancel or delete them, and it lets you create, view, or revoke the API keys that control access to your search data. The dashboard itself is built with Nuxt, Vue, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS, and runs as a standard web application you set up with Node.js and the pnpm package manager. There are three ways to give it access to your MeiliSearch server: setting the URL and master key as environment variables on the server, entering them once and remembering the connection in an encrypted browser cookie, or entering them just for the current browser tab without saving anything. Because this tool requires your MeiliSearch master key, which grants full control over your search data, the README is clear that you should never expose it to the public internet if you configure it with environment variables, and should instead run it on a private network only accessible to trusted people. It is meant for developers and teams who already run MeiliSearch and want an easier way to manage it day to day, rather than a beginner's first search tool.