Idea Title
EXT:seal Ecosystem Expansion - Advanced Search & AI Vector Integration
What is my idea about?
This idea builds upon the existing and funded work around EXT:seal – Search Engine Abstraction Layer, as well as the related extensions EXT:index and EXT:seal_ai. Based on community feedback and real-world usage scenarios discussed in the TYPO3 community, the goal is to further strengthen and professionalize the overall search ecosystem around SEAL.
What do you want to achieve by 30th of April 2026?
The focus of this budget extension is threefold:
- Improving indexing coverage and interoperability.
EXT:index will be extended to natively support widely used third-party TYPO3 content extensions such as:
- EXT:container
- EXT:content_blocks
- EXT:calendarize
- (Please comment for more ideas on talk.typo3.org and I will check this)
These extensions represent common content patterns in modern TYPO3 projects. First-class support will significantly reduce project-specific indexing logic and configuration overhead.
- Enhancing search capabilities in EXT:seal
EXT:seal will be extended with advanced search features based on the SEAL Core:
- Faceted search support
- Geographical search enhancements, including “Radius / distance search” & “Bounding box search”
- Test Suite to cover indexing and search processes
- More detailed documentation to set up the extension (incl. EXT:index)
These features are essential for professional search use cases (e.g. event listings, location-based content, large data sets).
- Stabilizing and production-ready AI search integration
After the release of a tagged and stable version of symfony/ai, EXT:seal_ai will provide a stable and well-documented vector search integration. Move from “prototype” to “stable”. A strong focus will be placed on:
- Simple DSN-based configuration via TYPO3 Site Configuration, to allow switching or extending vector backends (AI platform & store)
- Try to support Core SEAL Concepts with metadata information in the vector store
- Alignment with the ongoing Symfony AI development (DSN configuration and platform/store features)
What is the potential impact of your idea for the overall goal?
This extension of the existing work will amplify the impact of EXT:seal within the TYPO3 ecosystem:
- Reduced project-specific search and indexing customization
- Better support for real-world TYPO3 content setups
- Modern search features (facets, geo search, semantic AI search) available out of the box
- Increased adoption of EXT:seal as a long-term, stable search foundation
- Improved confidence for agencies and enterprise users through automated tests
By responding directly to community feedback and real usage patterns, this work ensures that the SEAL ecosystem evolves in a practical and sustainable direction.
How does your Idea align with the strategic goals for TYPO3 v14.
This idea aligns with TYPO3 v14 strategic goals:
2 → Reducing Complexity - Native support for common extensions and unified configuration reduce custom code and complexity.
7 → Improve Interconnectivity - Better integration between content structures, search abstraction, and AI services.
10 → Improve Scalability - Advanced search features and vector search enable scalable, future-proof search architectures.
Which budget do we need for this idea?
7500 Euro
My Name
Tim Lochmüller