[Stack Overflow #37801289, accepted answer, 19 votes]: an empty query in Algolia returns all records by design. If your UI should show nothing until the user types, inspect the helper state for an empty query string and hide the results div until there is one. Its a frontend gate, not an index setting.

Source context: Stack Overflow #37801289 (accepted answer, 19 votes): an instantsearch.js developer wants an empty search box to return zero results, but Algolia's default is to return everything when the query is blank. The accepted answer shows the fix: check the underlying helper state for an empty query and show or hide the results container based on that.