Halo CMS Post Search

Search posts on any Halo-powered website via its public REST API (no authentication required).

Workflow

1. Extract the base URL from the user (e.g., https://example.com)
2. Ask for the search keyword if not provided
3. Call the search API using curl via the Shell tool
4. Parse the JSON response and present results to the user

Search API

Endpoint: POST {baseUrl}/apis/api.halo.run/v1alpha1/indices/-/search

Request Body (JSON):

{
  "keyword": "search term",
  "limit": 10,
  "highlightPreTag": "<B>",
  "highlightPostTag": "</B>"
}

Request Fields

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
keyword	string	Yes	-	Search keyword
limit	int	No	10	Result limit (1-1000)
highlightPreTag	string	No	<B>	Highlight open tag
highlightPostTag	string	No	</B>	Highlight close tag
includeTypes	string[]	No	all	Filter by type
includeTagNames	string[]	No	all	Filter by tag names
includeCategoryNames	string[]	No	all	Filter by category names
includeOwnerNames	string[]	No	all	Filter by owner names

Response Structure

{
  "hits": [
    {
      "id": "...",
      "metadataName": "post-abc",
      "title": "Post Title with <B>keyword</B> highlighted",
      "description": "Post description...",
      "content": "Plain text content...",
      "categories": ["category-name"],
      "tags": ["tag-name"],
      "ownerName": "author-name",
      "permalink": "/archives/post-slug",
      "type": "post.content.halo.run",
      "creationTimestamp": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z",
      "updateTimestamp": "2025-01-15T00:00:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "keyword": "search term",
  "total": 5,
  "limit": 10,
  "processingTimeMillis": 42
}

Example curl Command

curl -s -X POST '{baseUrl}/apis/api.halo.run/v1alpha1/indices/-/search' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"keyword":"your keyword","limit":10,"highlightPreTag":"**","highlightPostTag":"**"}' | python3 -m json.tool

Use highlightPreTag / highlightPostTag set to ** for markdown-friendly bold highlighting in output.

Post Detail API

When the user wants to read the full content of a search result, fetch the post detail.

Endpoint: GET {baseUrl}/apis/api.content.halo.run/v1alpha1/posts/{name}

The {name} is the metadataName field from a search hit.

curl -s '{baseUrl}/apis/api.content.halo.run/v1alpha1/posts/{metadataName}' | python3 -m json.tool

Key Response Fields

Path	Description
spec.title	Post title
spec.slug	URL slug
spec.cover	Cover image URL
spec.publishTime	Publish time
spec.pinned	Whether pinned
spec.visible	Visibility (PUBLIC, PRIVATE, etc.)
spec.excerpt.raw	Manual excerpt
status.excerpt	Auto-generated excerpt
status.permalink	Post permalink
content.content	Full rendered HTML content
content.raw	Raw content (usually Markdown or HTML)
owner.displayName	Author display name
stats.visit	Visit count
stats.comment	Comment count
stats.upvote	Upvote count
categories[].spec.displayName	Category display name
tags[].spec.displayName	Tag display name
tags[].spec.color	Tag color
contributors[].displayName	Contributor display name

Presenting Post Detail

Display:

1. Title (spec.title) with full URL ({baseUrl} + status.permalink)
2. Author (owner.displayName)
3. Date (spec.publishTime)
4. Categories / Tags (from categories[].spec.displayName and tags[].spec.displayName)
5. Content — prefer content.raw for readable text; use content.content (rendered HTML) as fallback
6. Stats (visits, comments, upvotes) if relevant

Presenting Search Results

For each hit, display:

1. Title (with permalink as full URL: {baseUrl}{permalink})
2. Description or a snippet of content
3. Tags / Categories if present
4. Date (creationTimestamp)

If the user wants the full post, call the Post Detail API using metadataName.

If total is 0, inform the user that no results were found.

If the request fails with a connection error, verify the URL is correct and the site is accessible. If it returns a search engine error, the site may not have a search plugin enabled.