ZIMdex

Offline web scraper and self-hosted search engine. Archives websites into ZIM files and provides a local search interface over the archived content.

Install

git clone https://github.com/cookiengineer/zimdex
cd zimdex
CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o zimdex .

Run

./zimdex --folder=./data --port=3000

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

Usage

Search

The landing page (/index.html) searches across all ZIM files in the data folder. Type a query to see results with snippets and links to the archived content.

Archive a website

1. Go to http://localhost:3000/archive.html
2. Enter a seed URL (e.g., https://buggedplanet.info/index.php?title=Main_Page)
3. Enable filters as needed (tracking params, MediaWiki cleanup, script removal)
4. Check "Ignore invalid SSL certificates" if the site has a broken cert
5. Click Start Scraping
6. Monitor progress in the live activity feed
7. When complete, click Build ZIM
8. Search the archived content from the search page

Filter plugins

Filters are selectable per-scrape in the archive UI:

Browse archived content

Click any search result to view the archived page. All links and assets are rewritten to load from the local ZIM file — no internet connection needed.

Data directory

data/
├── example.com-2026-08-02.zim    # Built ZIM archives
├── example.com.json              # Download queue (resumable)
└── example.com/                  # Download cache
    ├── index.html
    ├── logo.png
    └── style.css

Browser integration

Add ZIMdex as a custom search engine in Firefox:

1. Right-click the address bar → Add "ZIMdex"
2. Or Settings → Search → Add search engine:
   • URL: http://localhost:3000/api/search?q=%s

License

AGPL 3.0