Privacy-focused personal search for everyone
Yew Search is a privacy-focused personal search engine that aggregates data from your external services (Gmail, Slack, Google Drive, etc.) and makes it all searchable in one place. Think of it as "Google search for your personal data" - but you own the data and control who can access it.
Your information is scattered across dozens of services. Finding that important email, message, or document means searching multiple platforms, remembering which service you used, and hoping their search actually works. Yew Search solves this by creating a unified, private index of everything you've given it access to.
Unlike cloud-based solutions, Yew Search runs on your infrastructure. Your data never leaves your server. No third parties. No data mining. No tracking. Just fast, private search across all your services.
We believe your personal data should be private by default. Every cloud service that touches your emails, documents, and messages is another potential data leak, another company monetizing your information, another target for hackers.
The homelab community has proven that self-hosting is viable for individuals. You can run your own photo storage, password manager, and home automation. Why not your own search engine?
Yew Search is built for people who value privacy, control, and transparency. It's designed to run on modest hardware (even a Raspberry Pi), use standard OAuth for connections, and provide the same search experience you'd expect from a commercial service - without the compromises.
Yew Search uses a fair-code dual licensing model, similar to GitLab, Mattermost, and N8N. This means:
The fair-code model ensures the project remains transparent and auditable while providing a sustainable path for development. You can read the code, verify what it does, and run it yourself - without restrictions for personal use.
Yew Search is currently in V1 MVP status. The core search functionality works end-to-end, authentication and sessions are stable, and the system is ready for early adopters in the homelab community.
Development is active and ongoing. We prioritize stability and privacy over feature velocity. Every integration is thoroughly tested, every OAuth flow is secure, and every data migration is idempotent.