MCP Servers · asciimoo

hister

Hister is a privacy-focused, self-hosted web search engine that indexes and searches through your browsing history and local files. It runs entirely on your machine, offers full-text search with an advanced query language, and optionally supports semantic search via AI agents.

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Source: GitHub — github.com/asciimoo/hister

1.6k

GitHub stars

Forks

Primary language

AGPL-3.0

License (OSI-approved)

Key facts

Objective fields from the source. Values we can't verify are shown as “Unknown” rather than guessed.

Field	Value
Repository	asciimoo/hister
Owner	asciimoo
Primary language	Go
License	AGPL-3.0 — OSI-approved
Stars	1.6k
Forks	84
Open issues	30
Latest release	v0.16.0 (2026-07-01)
Last updated	2026-07-08
Source	https://github.com/asciimoo/hister

What hister is

Written in Go, Hister provides local full-text indexing of visited web pages, supports headless browser crawling and traditional crawlers, includes multi-user hosting capability, and integrates with MCP (Model Context Protocol) for AI-enhanced semantic search. Built with a modern web UI (Vite/NPM frontend) and concurrent hot-reload development workflow.

Quickstart

Get the hister source

Clone the repository and explore it locally.

terminalbash

1git clone https://github.com/asciimoo/hister.git2cd hister3# follow the project's README for install & configuration

Need it deployed, integrated, or customized instead? DEV.co ships production installs.

Best use cases

Personal Knowledge Retrieval

Index and rapidly search through years of visited web pages and local documents without relying on cloud search providers or browser history sync services.

Privacy-Sensitive Organizations

Deploy as a self-contained team search engine for small communities or organizations that cannot use third-party search infrastructure due to compliance or data residency constraints.

AI Agent Integration

Connect semantic search and language models via MCP protocol to enhance browsing experience with AI-driven insights while maintaining full data locality.

Implementation considerations

AGPL-3.0 license requires source code availability to all users of the deployed instance; review implications for internal vs. external hosting.
Requires Go and NPM toolchain for building; evaluate OS/container strategy (no pre-built binaries mentioned in README).
Multi-user support exists but security model and authentication mechanism not detailed in provided data; requires review of SECURITY.md and source code.
Crawler and browser automation components may require additional resource tuning for large index sizes; local storage/indexing backend not specified.
MCP and semantic search features require optional external AI services integration; cost and API dependency must be evaluated.

When to avoid it — and what to weigh

Large-Scale Enterprise Search — Not architected for multi-datacenter, high-availability, or petabyte-scale indexing. Suitable for individual or small-team use only.
AGPL-3.0 License Incompatibility — Cannot be integrated into proprietary products or closed-source commercial offerings without triggering copyleft obligations. Requires careful license review for commercial use.
Real-Time or Live Web Search — Designed for indexing visited/crawled content, not live web crawling or freshness guarantees comparable to Google/Bing. Not a drop-in replacement for general search.
Minimal Maintenance Tolerance — Relies on Go, NPM, and external tools (Vite, air). Requires familiarity with modern software build chains and willingness to maintain dependencies.

License & commercial use

Licensed under AGPLv3 (GNU Affero General Public License v3.0) or later. This is a copyleft license requiring source code disclosure to all network users and granting freedom to modify and redistribute, but imposing derivative work obligations on all users.

Commercial use is technically permitted under AGPLv3, but with significant caveats: any deployment as a network service must make source code available to all users, creating transparency and modification-rights obligations. If embedded in or integrated with proprietary software, source disclosure of the entire combined work may be required. Requires legal review before commercial deployment. Not suitable for closed-source SaaS or proprietary product integration without explicit dual licensing.

DEV.co evaluation signals

Editorial assessment — not user reviews. Directional, with an explicit confidence level.

Signal	Assessment
Maintenance	Active
Documentation	Adequate
License clarity	Clear
Deployment complexity	Moderate
DEV.co fit	Good
Assessment confidence	High

Security considerations

Project references SECURITY.md for responsible disclosure, indicating security awareness. Local indexing reduces attack surface vs. cloud search. However: authentication/authorization model for multi-user mode not detailed; no mention of encryption-at-rest or TLS configuration; crawler and browser automation components present potential abuse/resource exhaustion vectors; AGPL requirement exposes code to all deployed instances (may reveal implementation details). Review SECURITY.md, architecture docs, and threat model before production deployment.

Alternatives to consider

Typesense / Meilisearch

Open-source self-hosted search engines with simpler licensing (AGPL/Elastic License or Open Search Server License). More mature, broader ecosystem, but lack privacy-first browser history focus and semantic search integration.

Elasticsearch (OSS) / OpenSearch

Powerful distributed full-text search with strong operational tooling. Steeper deployment/resource requirements; not tailored to personal browsing history; licensing model differs.

Standard Browser History + Local File Search

Native browser history export + tools like SQLite FTS or fsearch for local files. Zero licensing overhead, minimal setup. Limited full-text capability and no unified interface; no AI/semantic layer.

Software development agency

Build on hister with DEV.co software developers

Evaluate Hister for your team or organization. Review the full documentation, test the deployment architecture, and confirm AGPL-3.0 compatibility with your use case and IP strategy.

Talk to DEV.co

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hister FAQ

Can I use Hister commercially?

Technically yes under AGPLv3, but only if you comply with copyleft: disclose source code to all users, allow modification rights, and include notices. Unsuitable for closed-source SaaS or proprietary products without dual licensing negotiation. Consult legal counsel.

Does Hister send my browsing data to the cloud?

No. Hister is designed for local/self-hosted operation only. Optional semantic search may integrate external AI services (details not provided). Configure carefully if using AI features.

How much disk space does the index require?

Not specified in provided documentation. Depends on content depth (full page text vs. metadata), number of pages indexed, and compression. Requires testing or review of indexing backend specifications.

What is the authentication/multi-user security model?

Multi-user hosting is mentioned as a feature, but authentication mechanism and authorization details are not documented in provided excerpts. Review source code and SECURITY.md before deploying with multiple users.

Custom software development services

DEV.co is a software development agency delivering custom software development services to companies building on open source. Our software developers and web developers design, integrate, and ship production systems — spanning web development, APIs, AI, data, and cloud. If hister is part of your mcp servers roadmap, our team can implement, customize, migrate, and maintain it.

Ready to Self-Host Your Own Search Engine?

Evaluate Hister for your team or organization. Review the full documentation, test the deployment architecture, and confirm AGPL-3.0 compatibility with your use case and IP strategy.

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