Hister: A private search engine for the pages you visit and the files you keep(github.com)
696 points by bookofjoe 26 days ago | 191 comments
tl;dr: Hister is a self-hosted, private search engine that full-text indexes web pages you visit (via a Firefox/Chrome extension) and local files, letting you search them from a web UI, terminal, or AI assistant via MCP. It runs locally with no telemetry or mandatory cloud, supports field filters, wildcards, and optional semantic search through a configurable embeddings endpoint. Written in Go and licensed AGPLv3, it's installable via binary, Homebrew, Docker, or Nix.
HN Discussion:
  • ↑Author introduces project and shares background/motivation for building it
  • ~Concern about resource usage (CPU/battery) from indexing activities
  • •Sharing similar personal projects or alternative tools that solve the same problem
  • ↑Nostalgia for Chrome's old full-text history search feature validates the need
  • ↓Hesitation to install unvetted software due to supply-chain/security risks