Algolia

9 min

Introduction

Algolia is a powerful search and discovery platform that helps businesses deliver fast, relevant, and personalized search experiences on websites and apps. It provides a hosted search API that allows developers to build lightning-fast search functionality with features like typo tolerance, filters, facets, and ranking customization—so teams can optimize user experiences, improve retention, and drive growth.

Getting started

To properly use Chord's Algolia destination, both your Algolia-specific Application ID and API Key must be provided for authentication.

Application ID

Your Algolia Application ID can be found on the Overview page or can be found alongside your Algolia API Key in your account settings.

Algolia Application ID

API key

When configuring Chord's Algolia destination, it is important to use your account Write API Key.

To find this key, follow the guidelines here:

Log into your brand's Algolia account and click on the Settings link on the bottom left-hand corner of your dashboard.

On the Settings page, select API Keys under the Team and Access section.

Copy the key titled Write API Key

Index, Query ID & Object IDs

Chord's Algolia destination automatically extracts and maps key Algolia Insights attributes from your analytics events.

Index

The Algolia destination identifies the index from event properties using this fallback hierarchy:

properties.index (preferred)

properties.search_index (fallback)

"undefined_index" (default if neither exists)

Query ID

Query IDs are extracted from properties.query_id and are essential for attributing user interactions back to specific search queries. This value should come directly from Algolia's search API response.

Object IDs

Object IDs are intelligently mapped from your product data:

Single product events: Uses properties.product_id → becomes ["product_id"]

Multi-product events: Maps from properties.products[].product_id → becomes array of all product IDs

Example event structure

{
  "type": "track",
  "event": "Product Clicked",
  "userId": "user123",
  "properties": {
    "query_id": "7891011121314151617",
    "index": "products", 
    "product_id": "SKU-001",
    "search_index": "products",
    "position": 3,
    "search_query": "coffee beans"
  },
  "timestamp": "2025-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"

The Algolia destination only processes supported e-commerce events (Product Clicked, Product Viewed, Product Added, Order Completed, Product List Filtered) and requires that your product_id values exactly match the objectID field in your Algolia index for proper attribution.

Connecting to the Algolia CDP destination

Before connecting destinations in the Chord CDP, please verify with all Destination owners that all non-Chord CDP configured destinations are disabled. Running external destinations alongside configured Chord CDP destinations can result in duplicate events downstream.

Log into the Chord data platform.

Navigate to the CDP.

Click the "Add" button next to Destinations.

Select Algolia from the destination catalog.

Enter in the destination name, your Algolia Application ID and your Algolia API key.

Click "Create" to connect.

Chord events relevant for destination

Not all Chord Tracking events are used downstream in your configured destinations. The most relevant and important events in the Chord tracking plan are mapped within the CDP destination, relayed and then ingested in the destination. Only track events are used downstream by Algolia. The Chord tracking plan events used by the Algolia Insights API are:

Chord Tracking Event	Algolia Event Type	Algolia Event Subtype
Order Completed	conversion	purchase
Product Added	conversion	addToCart
Product Clicked	click	-
All other events (i.e. Product Viewed, Product List Filtered)	view	-