This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Karthikeyan
This is a submission for the Algolia MCP Server Challenge
What I Built
SnippetSearch is a comprehensive code snippet discovery and management platform built to help developers find, save, and organize useful code snippets from multiple sources. It aggregates content from Dev.to, Hashnode, CSS-Tricks, Smashing Magazine, and more using RSS and APIs, then enables a seamless search experience powered by Algolia.
Features
- Real-time Search: Powered by Algolia InstantSearch.js
- Multi-source Indexing: Dev.to API, Hashnode RSS, CSS-Tricks, Smashing Magazine & more
- Bookmarks: Save your favorite snippets (persisted via localStorage)
- Smart Tagging: Automatic tag extraction from articles
- Mobile First: Fully responsive interface
- Clean UI: Built with Tailwind CSS
- Fast & Optimized: Minimal bundle size and fast builds
Tech Stack
- Frontend: Next.js 15, React, TypeScript
- Search: Algolia Search API, InstantSearch.js
- Styling: Tailwind CSS, Radix UI
- Content Aggregation: Custom RSS & API scrapers
- Deployment: Vercel
Live Links
- Live App: SnippetSearch
- GitHub: github.com/skarthikeyan96/dev-snippet-search
Screenshots
Homepage: Feature overview and clean hero section
Search Interface: Filters, pagination, bookmark toggles
Bookmarks Modal: Manage saved snippets
Mobile View: Touch-optimized UI
How I Used Algolia MCP Server
1. Search Infrastructure Setup
- Configured optimized indices with searchable attributes, highlighting, and ranking.
- Integrated InstantSearch.js with custom templates.
- Enabled search analytics to monitor user behavior. ### 2. Indexing Snippet Data
Parsed and indexed 388+ snippets from multiple sources:
- Dev.to API (324)
- Hashnode (32)
- CSS-Tricks (10)
- Smashing Magazine (10)
- Web Design Ledger (7)
- UX Movement (5) Applied HTML cleaning and tag normalization.
3. Advanced Search Features
- Faceted filtering by source.
- Instant keyword highlighting.
- Custom pagination and mobile-friendly search interface.
4. Performance Optimizations
- Reduced bundle size to ~224 kB.
- Implemented code splitting & vendor chunking.
- Optimized search rendering pipeline.
Learnings & Challenges
Data Normalization
Challenge: Varying formats across sources.
Solution: HTML entity decoding + tag stripping.
UX in Search
Challenge: Balancing speed and relevance.
Solution: Custom ranking + highlighting.
Responsive Design
Challenge: Touch targets and layout flexibility.
Solution: Tailwind utilities + mobile-first grid.
State Persistence
Challenge: Bookmark state across reloads (without SSR issues).
Solution: Hydration-safe localStorage management.
Technical Highlights
- Best practices for Algolia search tuning.
- Clean integration with InstantSearch.js templates.
- State hydration strategies for client-only features.
- Real-world TypeScript with Next.js.
- Tailwind for fast, maintainable UIs.
Future Improvements
- Cloud sync for saved snippets
- User accounts + snippet sharing
- Code syntax highlighting
- Server-side rendering for SEO
- Offline-first PWA support
Project Metrics
- Snippets Indexed: 388+
- Sources Integrated: 6+
- Bundle Size: 224 kB
- Mobile Friendly: 100% responsive
- Performance: Lighthouse score > 95
Conclusion
SnippetSearch showcases how Algolia’s MCP Server can power a fast, elegant, and scalable search experience for developers. From content aggregation to real-time search, this project reflects the potential of modern tools when combined with thoughtful design and engineering.
Thank you for reading.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Karthikeyan