search: don't assume a title column exists in searchable collections

.changeset/fix-search-titleless-collection.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"emdash": patch
+---
+
+Fix search and suggestions failing with `D1_ERROR: no such column: title` when a searchable collection has no `title` field. The query now detects whether the collection defines a title field and only selects it when present.

packages/core/src/search/query.ts

@@ -197,6 +197,8 @@ async function searchSingleCollection(
 
 	// Get searchable fields for snippet generation
 	const searchableFields = await ftsManager.getSearchableFields(collection);
+	const hasTitleField = await collectionHasField(db, collection, "title");
+	const titleSelection = hasTitleField ? sql.ref("c.title") : sql<string | null>`NULL`;
 
 	// Build weight string for bm25 if weights provided
 	// Format: bm25(table, weight1, weight2, ...)
@@ -229,7 +231,7 @@ async function searchSingleCollection(
 			c.id,
 			c.slug,
 			c.locale,
-			c.title,
+			${titleSelection} as title,
 			snippet("${sql.raw(ftsTable)}", 2, '<mark>', '</mark>', '...', 32) as snippet,
 			${sql.raw(bm25Expr)} as score
 		FROM "${sql.raw(ftsTable)}" f
@@ -347,6 +349,9 @@ export async function getSuggestions(
 
 		const ftsTable = ftsManager.getFtsTableName(collection);
 		const contentTable = ftsManager.getContentTableName(collection);
+		const hasTitleField = await collectionHasField(db, collection, "title");
+		const titleSelection = hasTitleField ? sql.ref("c.title") : sql<string>`COALESCE(c.slug, c.id)`;
+		const titleRequired = hasTitleField ? sql`AND c.title IS NOT NULL` : sql``;
 
 		// Use prefix search for autocomplete. `escapeQuery` already appends `*`
 		// to each term for prefix matching, so we must not append another one.
@@ -363,13 +368,13 @@ export async function getSuggestions(
 			}>`
 				SELECT 
 					c.id,
-					c.title
+					${titleSelection} as title
 				FROM "${sql.raw(ftsTable)}" f
 				JOIN "${sql.raw(contentTable)}" c ON f.id = c.id
 				WHERE "${sql.raw(ftsTable)}" MATCH ${prefixQuery}
 				AND c.status = 'published'
 				AND c.deleted_at IS NULL
-				AND c.title IS NOT NULL
+				${titleRequired}
 				${locale ? sql`AND c.locale = ${locale}` : sql``}
 				ORDER BY bm25("${sql.raw(ftsTable)}")
 				LIMIT ${limit}
@@ -397,6 +402,25 @@ export async function getSuggestions(
 	return suggestions.slice(0, limit);
 }
 
+async function collectionHasField(
+	db: Kysely<Database>,
+	collection: string,
+	field: string,
+): Promise<boolean> {
+	validateIdentifier(collection, "collection slug");
+	validateIdentifier(field, "field slug");
+
+	const row = await db
+		.selectFrom("_emdash_collections as c")
+		.innerJoin("_emdash_fields as f", "f.collection_id", "c.id")
+		.select("f.id")
+		.where("c.slug", "=", collection)
+		.where("f.slug", "=", field)
+		.executeTakeFirst();
+
+	return row !== undefined;
+}
+
 /**
  * Get search statistics for all collections
  */

packages/core/tests/integration/mcp/search.test.ts

@@ -54,6 +54,22 @@ async function setupSearchablePostCollection(db: Kysely<Database>): Promise<void
 	await new FTSManager(db).enableSearch("post");
 }
 
+async function setupSearchableNoteCollection(db: Kysely<Database>): Promise<void> {
+	const registry = new SchemaRegistry(db);
+	await registry.createCollection({
+		slug: "note",
+		label: "Notes",
+		supports: ["drafts", "revisions", "search"],
+	});
+	await registry.createField("note", {
+		slug: "body",
+		label: "Body",
+		type: "text",
+		searchable: true,
+	});
+	await new FTSManager(db).enableSearch("note");
+}
+
 describe("search", () => {
 	let db: Kysely<Database>;
 	let harness: McpHarness;
@@ -130,6 +146,51 @@ describe("search", () => {
 		expect(data.items.find((i) => i.id === id)).toBeTruthy();
 	});
 
+	it("searches all collections when one searchable collection has no title field", async () => {
+		await setupSearchablePostCollection(db);
+		await setupSearchableNoteCollection(db);
+		harness = await connectMcpHarness({ db, userId: ADMIN_ID, userRole: Role.ADMIN });
+
+		const post = await harness.client.callTool({
+			name: "content_create",
+			arguments: {
+				collection: "post",
+				data: { title: "needle post", body: "searchable text" },
+			},
+		});
+		const note = await harness.client.callTool({
+			name: "content_create",
+			arguments: {
+				collection: "note",
+				data: { body: "needle note" },
+			},
+		});
+		await harness.client.callTool({
+			name: "content_publish",
+			arguments: {
+				collection: "post",
+				id: extractJson<{ item: { id: string } }>(post).item.id,
+			},
+		});
+		await harness.client.callTool({
+			name: "content_publish",
+			arguments: {
+				collection: "note",
+				id: extractJson<{ item: { id: string } }>(note).item.id,
+			},
+		});
+
+		const result = await harness.client.callTool({
+			name: "search",
+			arguments: { query: "needle" },
+		});
+		expect(result.isError, extractText(result)).toBeFalsy();
+		const data = extractJson<{ items: Array<{ collection?: string; type?: string }> }>(result);
+		const collections = data.items.map((item) => item.collection ?? item.type);
+		expect(collections).toContain("post");
+		expect(collections).toContain("note");
+	});
+
 	it("scopes search by collections argument", async () => {
 		const registry = new SchemaRegistry(db);
 		await registry.createCollection({

packages/core/tests/integration/search/suggest.test.ts

@@ -54,4 +54,36 @@ describe("getSuggestions (Integration)", () => {
 
 		expect(suggestions).toEqual([]);
 	});
+
+	it("returns suggestions across all collections when one searchable collection has no title field", async () => {
+		const registry = new SchemaRegistry(db);
+		await registry.createCollection({
+			slug: "note",
+			label: "Notes",
+			supports: ["search"],
+		});
+		await registry.createField("note", {
+			slug: "body",
+			label: "Body",
+			type: "text",
+			searchable: true,
+		});
+		await new FTSManager(db).enableSearch("note");
+		await repo.create(
+			createPostFixture({
+				type: "note",
+				slug: "design-note",
+				status: "published",
+				data: { body: "Design note" },
+			}),
+		);
+
+		const suggestions = await getSuggestions(db, "note");
+
+		expect(suggestions).toContainEqual({
+			collection: "note",
+			id: expect.any(String),
+			title: "design-note",
+		});
+	});
 });

scripts/query-counts.snapshot.d1.json

@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@
 	"GET /posts/building-for-the-long-term (warm)": 16,
 	"GET /rss.xml (cold)": 13,
 	"GET /rss.xml (warm)": 4,
-	"GET /search (cold)": 14,
-	"GET /search (warm)": 5,
+	"GET /search (cold)": 15,
+	"GET /search (warm)": 6,
 	"GET /tag/webdev (cold)": 18,
 	"GET /tag/webdev (warm)": 8
 }

scripts/query-counts.snapshot.sqlite.json

@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@
 	"GET /posts/building-for-the-long-term (warm)": 17,
 	"GET /rss.xml (cold)": 4,
 	"GET /rss.xml (warm)": 4,
-	"GET /search (cold)": 6,
-	"GET /search (warm)": 6,
+	"GET /search (cold)": 7,
+	"GET /search (warm)": 7,
 	"GET /tag/webdev (cold)": 9,
 	"GET /tag/webdev (warm)": 9
 }