# App flow — search and sharing (/docs/maintain/app-flow/search-and-sharing)
- **Status:** Current
- **Last updated:** 2026-11-03
- **Related ADRs:** [ADR-0035](../adr/ADR-0035-every-page-is-ready-for-search-and-sharing.mdx),
[ADR-0034](../adr/ADR-0034-the-proxy-answers-unknown-paths-with-a-true-404.mdx),
[ADR-0015](../adr/ADR-0015-every-entry-lives-at-the-root-in-one-shape-and-one-look.mdx)
> Snapshot of the system as it stands today. Edit in place; never record what changed.
What a person sees of a page before opening it, or outside it: the browser tab, a search result and
the card when a link is shared. Inside a page, one thing shows: its description, under its title. Sample values are invented (ADR-0008),
including the package `lodestar`. Phone width first.
The flow and the screens are drawn with Archify; the page shows them and its Markdown carries their
Mermaid (ADR-0022). Their sources are in `diagrams/docs/`: `search-and-sharing.json` for the flow and
`search-and-sharing-screen-1.json` to `-screen-5.json` for the screens.
## Entry points [#entry-points]
- **A search engine:** a person searches, and sees the page's title and description.
- **A shared link:** pasted into a chat or a post, which shows the page's card.
- **Any open page:** its title in the browser tab, in history and in bookmarks.
- **Not here:** the 404, which stays out of search; Markdown copies, `llms.txt`, `static.json` and
diagram frames, which stay readable by tools but out of search results.
## Flow [#flow]
```mermaid
flowchart TB
C["A search engine
robots.txt, then the sitemap"] --> P["A page
judged by where it sits"]
P -->|home, latest line, no lines, Maintain, or only in an older line| I["Indexed
its own canonical link"]
P -->|older line, and also in latest| A["Canonical link
to the same page in latest"]
P -->|dev line or a template| N["noindex
still readable by link"]
I --> R["Search result
title and description"]
A -->|shown as the page in latest| R
L["A shared link"] --> K["Share card
title, description and image"]
```
## Screens [#screens]
### 1. Search result, at phone width [#1-search-result-at-phone-width]
```mermaid
block-beta
columns 4
site["docs.nepal-dev.com › lodestar › use › install"]:4
title["Install — lodestar — Nepal Dev Verse"]:4
desc["Add lodestar to a React project and open the command palette with one hook."]:4
```
How the result is laid out is the search engine's choice; the site supplies the words.
**States**
- Empty: not applicable; the build refuses a page without a description.
- Loading: not applicable.
- Not found: a removed page answers 404 and drops out over time.
- Refused: a `dev` page or a template is `noindex`, so it has no result.
- Error: not applicable.
- Degraded: with no `SITE_URL`, as on a preview or a local build, every page is `noindex`.
- Success: the reader opens the page. A search for an older version's page usually leads to the same
page in latest, where the version menu is one click away.
### 2. Share card, at phone width [#2-share-card-at-phone-width]
```mermaid
block-beta
columns 4
image["The page's share image, screen 4"]:4
title["Install — lodestar — Nepal Dev Verse"]:4
desc["Add lodestar to a React project and open the command palette with one hook."]:4
domain["docs.nepal-dev.com"]:4
```
The home page's card has its own image, screen 5. The layout is the sharing app's choice.
**States**
- Empty: not applicable; every page has an image and a description.
- Loading: the sharing app fetches the card; the site does nothing.
- Not found: an unknown path has no card of its own, only the title *Page not found*.
- Refused, error: not applicable.
- Degraded: with no `SITE_URL` the image's address is a local one, so the app shows no image. This
is only ever a preview or a local build.
- Success: the card shows, and opening it leads to the page.
### 3. Browser tab, at phone width [#3-browser-tab-at-phone-width]
```mermaid
block-beta
columns 4
latest["Tab, latest line: Install — lodestar — Nepal Dev Verse"]:4
older["Tab, older line: Install — lodestar 2.x LTS — Nepal Dev Verse"]:4
dev["Tab, dev line: Install — lodestar dev — Nepal Dev Verse"]:4
overview["Tab, overview: lodestar — Nepal Dev Verse"]:4
home["Tab, home page: Nepal Dev Verse — packages and projects by Nepalese developers"]:4
```
**States**
- Empty, loading, refused, error, degraded: not applicable; the title is in the page's HTML.
- Not found: *Page not found — Nepal Dev Verse*.
- Success: the tab, history and bookmarks name the page, its package and the site.
### 4. A page's share image, at its fixed 1200 by 630 [#4-a-pages-share-image-at-its-fixed-1200-by-630]
```mermaid
block-beta
columns 4
brand["The brand mark and Nepal Dev Verse, top left, on the still dark star field"]:4
kicker["The entry's planet mark · lodestar · Use · v3.2 with its moon"]:4
title["Install"]:4
desc["Add lodestar to a React project and open the command palette with one hook."]:4
domain["docs.nepal-dev.com"]:4
```
Always in the dark theme's colours, because an image cannot follow the reader's theme. A project has
a ringed planet and a package a solid one, as everywhere on the site. Maintain has no moon, and a
long title is set smaller rather than cut.
**States**
- Empty: a page outside a track, such as an overview, has no track or moon in its kicker.
- Loading: none; every image is made at build.
- Not found: an unknown path's image address answers 404.
- Refused, error: a font that cannot be fetched fails the build rather than publishing a wrong image.
- Degraded: with no `SITE_URL` the image leaves out the domain.
- Success: the image shows in the sharing app's card.
### 5. The home page's share image, at its fixed 1200 by 630 [#5-the-home-pages-share-image-at-its-fixed-1200-by-630]
```mermaid
block-beta
columns 4
brand["The brand mark and Nepal Dev Verse, top left, on the still dark star field"]:4
line["Every package and project by Nepalese developers all over the world, documented to the version."]:2
system["On the right: the star, its orbits and a planet on each, still, clear of the text"]:2
domain["docs.nepal-dev.com"]:4
```
**States**
- Empty: with nothing documented, the orbits are drawn with no planets on them.
- Loading: none; the image is made at build.
- Not found, refused: not applicable.
- Error: as screen 4.
- Degraded: as screen 4.
- Success: the image shows in the sharing app's card.