Algolia Local Dev Loop

Overview

Set up a fast, reproducible local development workflow for Algolia. Use separate dev indices, mock the client in tests, and iterate without touching production data.

Prerequisites

• Completed algolia-install-auth setup
• Node.js 18+ with npm/pnpm
• Vitest or Jest for testing

Instructions

Step 1: Environment-Based Index Names

// src/algolia/config.ts
import { algoliasearch } from 'algoliasearch';

const ENV = process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development';

// Each environment gets its own index prefix
export function indexName(base: string): string {
  if (ENV === 'production') return base;
  return `${ENV}_${base}`; // e.g., "development_products"
}

export const client = algoliasearch(
  process.env.ALGOLIA_APP_ID!,
  process.env.ALGOLIA_ADMIN_KEY!
);

Step 2: Seed Script for Dev Data

// scripts/seed-algolia.ts
import { client, indexName } from '../src/algolia/config';

const SEED_DATA = [
  { objectID: 'prod-1', name: 'Widget A', category: 'tools', price: 29.99 },
  { objectID: 'prod-2', name: 'Widget B', category: 'tools', price: 49.99 },
  { objectID: 'prod-3', name: 'Gadget C', category: 'electronics', price: 199.99 },
];

async function seed() {
  const idx = indexName('products');

  // replaceAllObjects atomically swaps index content
  const { taskID } = await client.replaceAllObjects({
    indexName: idx,
    objects: SEED_DATA,
  });
  await client.waitForTask({ indexName: idx, taskID });

  // Configure settings for the dev index
  await client.setSettings({
    indexName: idx,
    indexSettings: {
      searchableAttributes: ['name', 'category'],
      attributesForFaceting: ['category', 'filterOnly(price)'],
      customRanking: ['asc(price)'],
    },
  });

  console.log(`Seeded ${SEED_DATA.length} records into ${idx}`);
}

seed().catch(console.error);

{
  "scripts": {
    "seed:algolia": "npx tsx scripts/seed-algolia.ts",
    "dev": "tsx watch src/index.ts",
    "test": "vitest",
    "test:watch": "vitest --watch"
  }
}

Step 3: Mock Algolia in Unit Tests

// tests/algolia.test.ts
import { describe, it, expect, vi, beforeEach } from 'vitest';

// Mock the entire algoliasearch module
vi.mock('algoliasearch', () => ({
  algoliasearch: vi.fn(() => ({
    searchSingleIndex: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({
      hits: [
        { objectID: '1', name: 'Widget A', _highlightResult: {} },
      ],
      nbHits: 1,
      page: 0,
      nbPages: 1,
    }),
    saveObjects: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ taskID: 123 }),
    waitForTask: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({}),
  })),
}));

import { algoliasearch } from 'algoliasearch';

describe('Product Search', () => {
  const client = algoliasearch('test-app-id', 'test-api-key');

  it('returns matching products', async () => {
    const { hits } = await client.searchSingleIndex({
      indexName: 'development_products',
      searchParams: { query: 'widget' },
    });
    expect(hits).toHaveLength(1);
    expect(hits[0].name).toBe('Widget A');
  });
});

Step 4: Integration Test with Real API

// tests/integration/algolia.integration.test.ts
import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
import { algoliasearch } from 'algoliasearch';

describe.skipIf(!process.env.ALGOLIA_APP_ID)('Algolia Integration', () => {
  const client = algoliasearch(
    process.env.ALGOLIA_APP_ID!,
    process.env.ALGOLIA_ADMIN_KEY!
  );
  const testIndex = `test_${Date.now()}_products`;

  it('indexes and searches records', async () => {
    // Index
    const { taskID } = await client.saveObjects({
      indexName: testIndex,
      objects: [{ objectID: '1', name: 'Test Product' }],
    });
    await client.waitForTask({ indexName: testIndex, taskID });

    // Search
    const { hits } = await client.searchSingleIndex({
      indexName: testIndex,
      searchParams: { query: 'test' },
    });
    expect(hits.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);

    // Cleanup
    await client.deleteIndex({ indexName: testIndex });
  });
});

Output

The local loop provides an isolated development index, repeatable seed data, and a fast verification path for search and indexing changes. Production data and credentials remain outside the local development workflow.

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
Index does not exist	Dev index not seeded	Run npm run seed:algolia
Test pollution	Shared index between tests	Use unique timestamped index names
Stale search results	Indexing not waited	Always await client.waitForTask() after writes
Mock not applied	Wrong import order	Ensure vi.mock() is before imports

Examples

Clean Dev Index on Start

// scripts/reset-dev-algolia.ts
import { client, indexName } from '../src/algolia/config';

async function reset() {
  const idx = indexName('products');
  try {
    await client.deleteIndex({ indexName: idx });
    console.log(`Deleted ${idx}`);
  } catch (e) {
    // Index may not exist yet — that's fine
  }
}

reset().catch(console.error);

Resources

• Algolia JavaScript v5 Client
• Vitest Documentation
• tsx (TypeScript execute)

Next Steps

See algolia-sdk-patterns for production-ready code patterns.