Needle

A private local search engine for indexing, finding, browsing, and opening files on your computer.

Download: Windows · macOS · Linux · Run from source · Report an issue

What it does

• Build and update local file indexes
• Fast filename and content search
• Exact-phrase and typo-tolerant search
• Browse indexed files by extension
• Open or reveal results directly
• Portable local JSON indexes

Download

Platform	File
Windows 10/11 (x64)	Needle-Windows-x64.exe — portable, no installer
macOS (Apple Silicon)	Needle-macOS-arm64.zip — unzip and move to Applications
Linux (x86_64)	Needle-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz — extract and run ./Needle

Each release is built from the tagged source by GitHub Actions and carries a SHA256SUMS.txt. The builds are not yet code-signed, so on first launch Windows SmartScreen may ask you to confirm ("More info" → "Run anyway"), and macOS may need you to Control-click the app and choose Open.

Status: beta. Needle does what this README describes and is covered by CI on Windows, macOS and Linux, but it is young: expect rough edges, and please report them.

Run from source

Requirements: Python 3.10+ with Tk support.

pyw needle_desktop.pyw

The application uses Python's standard library at runtime.

Build a standalone Windows executable

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\build-windows.ps1

Output:

dist\Needle.exe

Privacy

Index creation and searching happen locally. Needle does not need a hosted search service or account.

Scope

Needle targets personal/local file discovery rather than enterprise document management. Search is deliberately lightweight and deterministic.

Release process

• Every push runs tests/compile checks and builds a Windows executable artifact.
• Tags matching v* build the executable again, compute SHA256, and publish both files to GitHub Releases.
• See CHANGELOG.md for release history.

License

MIT