diff --git a/e2e/tests/functional/plugins/plot/tagging.e2e.spec.js b/e2e/tests/functional/plugins/plot/tagging.e2e.spec.js
index e62c65772a3..dcda7a192cf 100644
--- a/e2e/tests/functional/plugins/plot/tagging.e2e.spec.js
+++ b/e2e/tests/functional/plugins/plot/tagging.e2e.spec.js
@@ -118,6 +118,35 @@ test.describe('Plot Tagging', () => {
     await basicTagsTests(page);
   });
 
+  test('Plots use index to retrieve tags @couchdb @network', async ({ page }) => {
+    test.info().annotations.push({
+      type: 'issue',
+      description: 'https://github.com/nasa/openmct/issues/8184'
+    });
+    // Switch to real-time mode
+    await setRealTimeMode(page);
+
+    const tagsRequestPromise = new Promise((resolve) => {
+      page.on('request', async (request) => {
+        const isTagsRequest = request.url().endsWith('by_keystring');
+        if (isTagsRequest) {
+          const response = await request.response();
+          resolve(response.status() === 200);
+        }
+      });
+    });
+    await createDomainObjectWithDefaults(page, {
+      type: 'Sine Wave Generator'
+    });
+
+    const pauseButton = page.getByLabel('Pause incoming real-time data');
+    pauseButton.click();
+
+    const didUseIndexForTagsRequest = await tagsRequestPromise;
+
+    expect(didUseIndexForTagsRequest).toBe(true);
+  });
+
   test('Tags work with Stacked Plots', async ({ page }) => {
     const stackedPlot = await createDomainObjectWithDefaults(page, {
       type: 'Stacked Plot'
diff --git a/src/plugins/persistence/couch/CouchObjectProvider.js b/src/plugins/persistence/couch/CouchObjectProvider.js
index b5e53848fd6..7862a5945ca 100644
--- a/src/plugins/persistence/couch/CouchObjectProvider.js
+++ b/src/plugins/persistence/couch/CouchObjectProvider.js
@@ -463,7 +463,6 @@ class CouchObjectProvider {
     { designDoc, viewName, keysToSearch, startKey, endKey, limit, objectIdField },
     abortSignal
   ) {
-    let stringifiedKeys = JSON.stringify(keysToSearch);
     const url = `${this.url}/_design/${designDoc}/_view/${viewName}`;
     const requestBody = {};
     let requestBodyString;
@@ -485,7 +484,7 @@ class CouchObjectProvider {
       requestBodyString = requestBodyString.replace('$END_KEY', endKey);
       /* spell-checker: enable */
     } else {
-      requestBody.keys = stringifiedKeys;
+      requestBody.keys = keysToSearch;
       requestBodyString = JSON.stringify(requestBody);
     }
 
diff --git a/src/plugins/persistence/couch/replace-localstorage-with-couchdb-indexhtml.sh b/src/plugins/persistence/couch/replace-localstorage-with-couchdb-indexhtml.sh
index 4fbc50d4ec6..dfb79cd0294 100644
--- a/src/plugins/persistence/couch/replace-localstorage-with-couchdb-indexhtml.sh
+++ b/src/plugins/persistence/couch/replace-localstorage-with-couchdb-indexhtml.sh
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 #!/bin/bash -e
 
-sed -i'.bak' -e 's/LocalStorage()/CouchDB("http:\/\/localhost:5984\/openmct")/g' index.html
+sed -i'.bak' -e 's/LocalStorage()/CouchDB(\{url: "http:\/\/localhost:5984\/openmct", useDesignDocuments: true\})/g' index.html