(bug-fix): autocomplete should only refine on main search if submitted

[afrencalg]

Summary

In the React EXPERIMENTAL_Autocomplete widget, every keystroke in the search input was triggering 2 separate API calls, one on the parent index (via useSearchBox.refine) and one on the isolated autocomplete index (via useAutocomplete.refine). Since the autocomplete uses EXPERIMENTAL_isolated, these are two separate search lifecycles, resulting in duplicate searchClient.search() calls on every keystroke.

This change removes the redundant parent search call from the onChange handler so that typing only triggers 1 API call (the isolated autocomplete search). The parent index is still updated when the user submits (Enter key), selects a suggestion, or clears the input, matching the behavior of the instantsearch.js widget which already handled this correctly.

Result

Typing in the autocomplete input triggers 1 API call per keystroke instead of 2
Autocomplete suggestions still update live as you type
Parent search results update on submit/selection as expected

[codacy-production]

Up to standards ✅

🟢 Issues 0 issues

Results:
0 new issues

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🟢 Metrics 15 complexity · 0 duplication

Metric	Results
Complexity	15
Duplication	0

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_{TIP This summary will be updated as you push new changes. Give us feedback}

[pkg-pr-new]

More templates

• example-instantsearch-getting-started
• example-react-instantsearch-getting-started
• example-react-instantsearch-next-app-dir-example
• example-react-instantsearch-next-routing-example
• example-vue-instantsearch-getting-started

algoliasearch-helper

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/algolia/instantsearch/algoliasearch-helper@6958

instantsearch-ui-components

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/algolia/instantsearch/instantsearch-ui-components@6958

instantsearch.css

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/algolia/instantsearch/instantsearch.css@6958

instantsearch.js

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/algolia/instantsearch/instantsearch.js@6958

react-instantsearch

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/algolia/instantsearch/react-instantsearch@6958

react-instantsearch-core

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/algolia/instantsearch/react-instantsearch-core@6958

react-instantsearch-nextjs

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/algolia/instantsearch/react-instantsearch-nextjs@6958

react-instantsearch-router-nextjs

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/algolia/instantsearch/react-instantsearch-router-nextjs@6958

vue-instantsearch

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/algolia/instantsearch/vue-instantsearch@6958

commit: 6e0a826

[Haroenv]

the fix works! Do you know why we did this originally, was it in the first merge already? we should also add tests to ensure the right searches happen. This can be in CTS normally

[Haroenv]

Screen.Recording.2026-04-09.at.09.34.49.mov

was this before already? if you refine and then go back to empty query it will show the refined query. Probably something to do with query || refinement that should take in account that the query can be nullish later than on init too.

EDIT: I see what happened, this was implemented in the POC but not the proper version: https://github.com/algolia/instantsearch/pull/6745/changes#r3056209902

[afrencalg]

@Haroenv please check now :)

[Haroenv]

very good! there's another small edge case showing now, which is that refining with empty query doesn't seem to happen, is there a guard somewhere that doesn't refine if the query is falsy ''?