How to Add Image Search to a React App

This tutorial builds a complete image search feature in React. By the end, your users will be able to type "red sneakers" and see matching product photos, or upload an image and find visually similar ones in your database. We'll build two things: a small Express backend that talks to the Vecstore API, and a React component with a search input that supports both text queries and image uploads. What We're Building A React component that supports two types of search: Text-to-image search - user types a description like "wooden desk lamp" and gets matching images Reverse image search - user uploads or drags in a photo and gets visually similar images back Both go through the same API and the same image database. Prerequisites Node.js 18+ A React project (Create React App, Vite, Next.js, whatever you use) A Vecstore account (free tier works) An image database created in the Vecstore dashboard Your API key and database ID from the dashboard Step 1: Set Up the Backend You need a thin backend