{
  "id": 8094275,
  "title": "Hister: A private search engine for the pages you visit and the files you keep",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/17/hister-a-private-search-engine-for-the-pages-you-visit-and-the-files",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-17T16:25:37.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Hacker News Best",
    "slug": "hacker-news-best",
    "url": "https://github.com/asciimoo/hister"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Hister is a private search engine designed to index the web pages you visit and the files you store. It indexes the complete content of these pages so users can easily retrieve information using the web interface, terminal, or an AI assistant connected through MCP. Users can access Hister via demonstration, download the software, or read the quickstart guide. The documentation and binary files for various platforms are available for download from the latest release. To run Hister on Windows, execute .\\hister.exe listen in PowerShell, ensuring the terminal remains open while using Hister. The server must be active to index pages and enable searching. Users must install the browser extension for Firefox or Chrome to use Hister. Upon enabling the extension, visiting a web page and returning to Hister allows searching for a phrase from that page to find the first indexed result. No configuration is necessary for a local personal setup, but users can customize what Hister indexes according to the comprehensive quickstart guide. To search existing content, users can import browser history, index local directories, or import files. Alternative installation methods include Homebrew, Docker, and Nix, with detailed instructions provided in the installation guide. Hister has no telemetry and no cloud sync by default, ensuring all data remains on the user's own server. The browser extension sends indexed page content only to the configured Hister server, except for downloading page favicons. The server stores documents and search indexes on the user's server. Optional semantic search can be enabled by sending document text to a chosen embeddings endpoint. Users are advised to review the privacy overview and semantic search configuration before enabling remote integrations. Unlike conventional search engines, Hister creates a personal search index from the web pages and files users choose to keep, allowing users to find information they've previously encountered without relying on a third-party search provider. To contribute to the development of the web app, users should be familiar with the requirements, which include Go 1.26, npm, and a C compiler for CGO dependencies. For development, a Vite development server and the Go backend are started with automatic rebuilds through air. The CONTRIBUTING.md file should be read before submitting any changes. Bugs and suggestions should be reported in the issue tracker, while security reports should be addressed through SECURITY.md.",
  "summary": "Article URL: https://github.com/asciimoo/hister Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49743097 Points: 248 # Comments: 83",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}