alcove-search 0.3.0

Local-first document retrieval. Your data never leaves your disk.

Index your world. Share it with the universe.

Alcove is a local-first document search library. Install it, point it at your files, and search. No server, no sign-up, no data leaves your disk.

Watch the 30-second demo

✨ Features

• 🔒 Private — documents stay on your machine, no cloud calls, no telemetry
• ⚡ Zero config — pip install, two commands, searching in under a minute
• 🔌 Extensible — custom extractors, embedders, and vector backends
• 📄 Multi-format — PDF, EPUB, HTML, Markdown, CSV, JSON, JSONL, DOCX, TXT
• 🌐 Web UI — upload and search from your browser

📦 Installation

Requirements: Python 3.10+ · Linux, macOS, or Windows

pip install alcove-search

Optional extras:

Extra	Install command	What it adds
Semantic search	pip install alcove-search[semantic]	Real vector similarity via sentence-transformers (~80 MB model download on first use)
EPUB support	pip install alcove-search[epub]	.epub file ingestion
DOCX support	pip install alcove-search[docx]	.docx file ingestion

⚡ Quick Start

alcove seed-demo          # download sample corpus + build index
alcove serve              # open http://localhost:8000

🔒 Trust Model

• Local disk only — no hosted control plane
• No telemetry. Period. (ChromaDB's upstream telemetry is also disabled.)
• You choose what enters your index
• We do not want your data

📚 Documentation

• Architecture
• Operations
• Security
• Seed Corpus
• Roadmap
• Accessibility

📄 License

Apache 2.0