winget install --id=SourceBox.SearchBox -e SearchBox is a local-first document search app that indexes your files — folders, ZIP and ZIM (Kiwix/Wikipedia) archives, and qBittorrent downloads — and lets you search across them instantly from a clean web UI. It includes an optional AES-256 encrypted vault and local AI summaries via Ollama. Nothing leaves your machine by default; the bundled Meilisearch engine and all data stay local.
Find anything on your computer — instantly, and completely private.
SearchBox looks inside your files — PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, notes, web pages, even images — and finds what you're after in a blink, even if you don't remember the exact words (or spell them wrong). Everything runs on your own computer. Nothing is uploaded, tracked, or sent anywhere.
Free, open source, and yours to keep.
| 🔎 Search everything | Type a word or phrase; SearchBox searches the contents of your files, not just their names. |
| ✨ Forgiving search | Typos are fine — it still finds what you meant. |
| 📂 Point it at a folder | Pick any folder and SearchBox reads everything inside so it's all searchable. |
| 📚 Index ZIP & ZIM archives | Point it at a .zip or an offline-Wikipedia .zim (Kiwix) and it reads everything inside — searchable and browsable like a folder, articles and all. |
| 🗂️ Open files in the app | Read PDFs, Word docs, and notes right inside SearchBox. |
| 🖼️ Browse your images | A built-in gallery and an "Explore" view to flip through everything visually. |
| 🔒 Private vault | Upload sensitive files and lock them behind your password — encrypted on disk. |
| 🤖 AI summaries (optional) | Connect a free local AI and get a short summary of your results — still 100% on your machine. |
| ⭐ Bookmarks & history | Pin your most-used documents and jump back to recent searches. |
The easy way — no setup, no technical steps:
SearchBox-…-x86_64.msi for
most machines, or SearchBox-…-aarch64.msi for ARM64 Windows (e.g.
Snapdragon laptops).SearchBox opens in its own window, just like any normal app. Close the window to quit; reopen it from the Start menu whenever you like.
Runs on Windows 10 and 11. (On Windows 10 you may be asked once to install Microsoft's free "WebView2" component — it's a quick automatic download. Windows 11 already has it.)
That's it. You can add more folders any time.
> 📷 Screenshot: search results for an example query.
Type these right in the search bar to narrow your results:
budget ::pdf — only PDF filesnotes ::docx — only Word documentsfigures ::xlsx — only Excel spreadsheetsvacation ::image — jump to the image gallerytaxes ::vault — only files in your private vaultPower users can also combine filters with ::&& (and), ::|| (or), and
::! (not).
127.0.0.1 — not your network — so your files and index stay on your machine.Curious about the details? See SECURITY.md for encryption details and recovery key guidance.
Is it really free? Yes — free and open source (AGPL-3.0 license).
Do I need an internet connection? No. SearchBox works entirely offline. (The only exception is the optional AI feature, and even that runs locally once it's set up.)
Where are my files and data stored?
Your search index and settings live in %LocalAppData%\SearchBox on your PC.
Uninstalling SearchBox leaves your data right where it is.
It says the "search engine" is off — what do I do? SearchBox includes a small search engine that normally starts on its own. If it doesn't, open Settings → Search Engine → Start. (With the official installer this is handled for you automatically.)
How do I turn on AI summaries? Install Ollama (a free tool that runs AI models on your own machine), then enable it in Settings. Everything stays local.
Can it search my downloads? If you use qBittorrent, SearchBox can find and index your completed downloads — switch it on in Settings.
How do I update? SearchBox can update itself — go to Settings → About → Check for updates (it only reaches out to GitHub when you ask, and there's an opt-in "check on startup" toggle). Or just download the latest MSI from the Releases page and run it; it upgrades in place.
Docker (Linux, macOS, Windows)
docker compose up -d
# App: http://localhost:8080
# Search engine: http://localhost:7700
First launch walks you through account setup, then index a folder from the
Settings page. Data lives in named volumes (searchbox-data,
searchbox-vault, searchbox-thumbnails, meili-data), so docker compose down won't delete anything.
One-shot run without compose:
docker run -d --name searchbox \
-p 8080:8080 -p 7700:7700 \
-v searchbox-data:/app/instance \
-v searchbox-vault:/app/vault \
-v searchbox-thumbnails:/app/static/thumbnails \
-v meili-data:/app/meili_data \
-e SEARCHBOX_SECRET_KEY=change-me \
sourcebox/searchbox:latest
On Windows, to index drive letters (C:\, D:\, …) rather than whatever
Docker maps into its Linux VM, add the drive-letter overlay:
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.windows.yml up -d
Tech stack
sqlx — single-file databasepdf-extract, calamine (XLSX), quick-xml + zip (DOCX), pulldown-cmark, scraper (HTML)rust-embed (debug builds read from disk so edits are live)Build & run from source
Requires Rust 1.84+ and a Meilisearch binary (download one from
meilisearch releases
and drop meilisearch(.exe) next to the built searchbox binary — it's
auto-detected — or set its path in Settings → Search Engine).
cargo run --release
# Windows opens the SearchBox desktop window; elsewhere browse to
# http://localhost:8080 — first run walks you through account setup
See BUILD.md for release builds and the Windows installer (MSI).
Configuration (environment variables)
| Var | Default | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
SEARCHBOX_HOST | 0.0.0.0 | Bind address |
SEARCHBOX_PORT | 8080 | Bind port |
SEARCHBOX_DB_DIR | . | Where searchbox.db lives |
SEARCHBOX_BASE_DIR | cwd | Root for writable runtime dirs (vault/, meili_data/, static/thumbnails/) |
SEARCHBOX_SECRET_KEY | dev stub | Session cookie signing (set this in production) |
MEILI_PUBLIC_HOST | — | Browser-facing Meilisearch URL when it differs from the server-side one (e.g. a Docker bridge) |
MEILI_PORT | 7700 | Port for the Meilisearch sidecar |
MEILI_MASTER_KEY | dev stub | Meilisearch master key |
OLLAMA_URL | — | Set via the Settings page at runtime; this env var is only read by tooling |
Everything else — Meilisearch path, Ollama URL / model / timeout, qBittorrent
credentials, AI-search toggle — lives in the settings table and is editable
from the Settings page.
Project layout
├── src/ # Rust source
│ ├── main.rs # boot, desktop window (wry), graceful shutdown
│ ├── config.rs, db.rs, state.rs, error.rs, templates.rs
│ ├── auth/ # argon2 + session extractor
│ ├── models/ # SQLx structs + CRUD
│ ├── routes/ # Axum route handlers
│ ├── services/ # Meilisearch, Ollama, extractor, Meili supervisor
│ ├── vault/ # AES-256-GCM + PBKDF2 wrap/unwrap
│ └── jobs/ # background indexing-job tracker
├── schema.sql # applied on boot
├── templates/ # HTML (MiniJinja)
├── static/ # CSS + JS
├── wix/ # Windows MSI installer
├── Dockerfile, docker-compose.yml, fly.toml, entrypoint.sh
AGPL-3.0-or-later · © SourceBox LLC