SearchThing

Overview

SearchThing is a local-first document search tool that runs the entire pipeline (embedding, indexing, querying) inside the browser. Drop in PDFs, Markdown, or plain-text files, and search across them in natural language. Nothing leaves your machine; embeddings are generated on-device via Hugging Face Transformers.js inside a Web Worker.

Features

• Semantic search via on-device embeddings (no API calls, no network round-trip)
• Hybrid BM25 + vector ranking with reciprocal rank fusion
• Upload, store, and browse PDFs, Markdown, and text
• All embedding work happens in a Web Worker so the UI doesn’t stutter
• Caches embeddings per chunk so unchanged content isn’t re-embedded
• Built-in reader view that highlights the chunk that matched your query
• Mobile layout with adaptive navigation
• Drop files anywhere in the window to upload

Technology Stack

• TypeScript
• React
• Bun (server and bundler)
• Hugging Face Transformers.js for local embeddings
• shadcn/ui + Tailwind CSS
• Comlink for the main-thread ↔ worker bridge