`search.json` not generated when all website pages use `format: dashboard`

I have:

• searched the issue tracker for similar issues
• installed the latest version of Quarto CLI
• formatted my issue following the Bug Reports guide

Bug description

When using Quarto to create a website where all pages use format: dashboard, the website search index (search.json) is not generated, even when website search is explicitly enabled with website.search: true.

If at least one non-dashboard page is added to the website, search.json is generated again, but the dashboard pages are not included in the search index.

Steps to reproduce

Create a minimal Quarto website with the following _quarto.yml:

project:
  type: website

website:
  title: "Test"
  search: true

Create an index.qmd containing:

---
title: Home
format: dashboard
---

## Row

```{r}
1 + 1
```

Then run:

quarto render

Actual behavior

No search.json file is generated in the output directory.

Adding another page using format: dashboard does not change this behavior.

However, if a non-dashboard .qmd page is added to the website, search.json is generated again. In that case, the search index contains the non-dashboard page, but does not contain the dashboard pages.

For example:

• website with only dashboard pages → no search.json
• website with dashboard pages + one regular HTML page → search.json is generated, but only the regular HTML page is indexed

Expected behavior

search.json should be generated for a website with format: dashboard pages when website search is enabled with website.search: true.

The content of dashboard pages should also be included in the website search index, in the same way as regular website pages.

Your environment

• Quarto: 1.10.18
• Operating system: macOS Tahoe 26.5.2 (Intel)

Quarto check output

Quarto 1.10.18
[✓] Checking environment information...
      Quarto cache location: /Users/matthiasschnetzer/Library/Caches/quarto
[✓] Checking versions of quarto binary dependencies...
      Pandoc version 3.10.0: OK
      Dart Sass version 1.101.0: OK
      Deno version 2.7.14: OK
      Typst version 0.15.1: OK
[✓] Checking versions of quarto dependencies......OK
[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
      Version: 1.10.18
      Path: /Applications/quarto/bin

[✓] Checking tools....................OK
      TinyTeX: (not installed)
      Chrome Headless Shell: (not installed)
      VeraPDF: (not installed)

[✓] Checking LaTeX....................OK
      Using: Installation From Path
      Path: /Library/TeX/texbin
      Version: 2026

[✓] Checking Chrome Headless....................OK
      Chrome:  (not detected)

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

(|) Checking R installation...........*** Successfully loaded .Rprofile ***
[✓] Checking R installation...........OK
      Version: 4.6.0
      Path: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources
      LibPaths:
        - /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.6-x86_64/Resources/library
      knitr: 1.51
      rmarkdown: 2.31

[✓] Checking Knitr engine render......OK

[✓] Checking Python 3 installation....OK
      Version: 3.14.6
      Path: /usr/local/opt/python@3.14/bin/python3.14
      Jupyter: (None)

      Jupyter is not available in this Python installation.
      Install with python3 -m pip install jupyter

[✓] Checking Julia installation...

Reproduce the minimal website from _quarto.yml and index.qmd, then run quarto render and inspect whether search.json is created. Compare the output for dashboard-only pages with a site that also has a regular HTML page, and trace the website search-index generation and page inclusion behavior. Done means search.json is generated and dashboard content is included when website.search: true.