Using Claude to Build a Structured Pokémon Search Engine from Unstructured Pokedex Text
Project Overview
A developer built two Pokémon websites for the franchise's 30th anniversary using Claude: a size comparison app and a structured search engine for Pokedex text. The search engine addresses the challenge of Pokémon flavor text lacking a fixed schema—entries are recycled, incomplete, and inconsistent, making simple queries like "Which Pokémon live near glaciers and have fur?" nearly impossible.
Data Processing with Claude
The developer created dozens of single-use scripts by giving plain-English instructions to Claude:
- Deduplicate recycled text using fuzzy logic
- Categorize and merge phrases into structured attributes
- Create interactive, multi-dimensional filters for exploration
Over 500,000 words were analyzed by phrases to identify 100+ subject themes. Every phrase was classified into structured categories, transforming messy, unstructured text into fully searchable and filterable data.
Taxonomy Design
In addition to standard in-game attributes (height, type, moves, abilities, shape, region), the developer designed a hierarchical taxonomy mapping every Pokedex phrase:
- Body: traits, coverings, senses, size
- Powers & Abilities: elements, movement, attack/defense, psychic
- Nature & Habitat: land, water, sky, weather, ecology
- Behavior: social, temperament, communication, reproduction
- Culture & Stats: mythology, symbolism, human use, comparisons
UI and Implementation Details
Claude helped design the UI to let users filter, search, and explore across 8 dimensions without cognitive overload. The size comparison app was a simple image scaler using raw 3D model values that Claude reverse-engineered to understand pixel-to-meter conversions.
The developer notes that manual data review is still needed, and the UI has some clunky elements: users must manually open the hamburger menu and load moves and "classification" tags to access Pokedex lore text.
Future Improvements
Planned enhancements include adding ontology relationships so the search engine can understand related terms and synonyms from a dictionary.
Project links: https://daviddot.com/oak (search engine) and https://daviddot.com/size (size comparison).
📖 Read the full source: r/ClaudeAI
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