A web-based full-text search tool for local directories. Easy indexing of your files, then search them instantly via a browser. Without bullshit, extremely lightweight.
- Full-text search with SQLite FTS5 (BM25 ranking, highlighted snippets)
- Incremental re-indexing, only new or changed files are processed
- OCR for scanned PDFs and images (Tesseract.js locally, Tesseract CLI in Docker)
- Supports all sorts of files, e.g. PDF, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, JPG, PNG, TIFF
- Real-time indexing progress
- Rendering your files directly in the browser if possible
| Search | Rendering View |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Prerequisites: Node 22
# 1. Install dependencies + download Tesseract language data (~25 MB, once)
yarn inst
# 2. Configure
cp .env.example .env
# 4. Start the app
yarn startOpen http://localhost:3000, click Create Index, then search.
Prerequisites: Node 22
# 1. Install dependencies + download Tesseract language data (~25 MB, once)
yarn inst
# 2. Configure
cp .env.example .env
# 3. Start the backend (Terminal 1)
cd lib/backend
node --no-deprecation --watch src/server.js
# 4. Start the frontend (Terminal 2)
yarn devOpen http://localhost:5173, click Create Index, then search.
# 2. Configure
cp .env.example .env
# 2. Add volume mounts to docker-compose.yml for each directory in SEARCH_DIRS
# See the comment block in docker-compose.yml
# 3. Start
docker compose up -dOpen http://localhost:3000, click Create Index, then search.
All options are set via environment variables (or .env at the project root):
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
SEARCH_DIRS |
(required) | Comma-separated list of directories to index |
DB_PATH |
./db/nanosearch.db |
Path to the SQLite database file |
OCR_BACKEND |
js |
js (Tesseract.js) or cli (Tesseract CLI) |
PORT |
3000 |
Backend port |
LOG_LEVEL |
info |
Pino log level |
EXTENSIONS |
(see .env.example) | Complete list of extensions to index. Nothing is indexed unless listed here. |
| Backend | How | When to use |
|---|---|---|
js |
Tesseract.js (pure Node, no system deps) | Local development |
cli |
System tesseract binary |
Docker (default), faster |
Both backends recognise German and English simultaneously (deu+eng).