New Features

Document Versioning

A new versioning rule type instructs Hister to track changes to a document each
time it is re-indexed. A diff-style changelog appears inside the preview panel so
you can see what changed between versions, and the preview endpoint returns the
full version history. Combine with a priority or skip rule to version only the
pages that matter to you.

Priority Rules

Priority rules have been reintroduced (closes #222). Documents whose URLs match a
priority rule are pinned to the top of search results regardless of their relevance
score. Rules can be created, edited, and sorted directly in the web UI.

PDF Indexing

Local PDF files can now be indexed with full text extraction. The browser extension
gains a new endpoint for sending PDFs directly to the server (closes #55). Indexed
PDFs are stored as a distinct document type and can be filtered with
metadata.type:pdf in search queries.

Faceted Filtering

Search results can now be filtered through facets that group documents by common
fields such as language, and domain. Facet counts update live as you refine your
query. Date-range filters have been moved into the same filters dropdown for a
unified experience, and a "load more" control expands facets with many values.

Embedded Video Extractor

A new extractor detects embedded videos (YouTube, Vimeo, and similar platforms)
on indexed pages and stores the embedding metadata as a dedicated document type.
Embedded videos are rendered directly inside the result preview panel, so you can
watch them without leaving Hister (closes #446).

Notion Extractor

A dedicated extractor for Notion pages extracts article content cleanly from
public Notion URLs, removing navigation chrome and other non-content elements.

Compressed HTML and Favicon Storage

HTML content and favicons are now stored gzip-compressed in separate files on
disk rather than inline inside the Bleve index. This significantly reduces index
size on disk and lowers memory pressure during search (closes #384).

Disable HTML Storage

A new config option lets you turn off full HTML storage and preview generation
entirely. Disabling storage trades preview functionality for a smaller footprint,
useful for bulk or headless indexing workflows (closes #440).

User-Specific Directory Indexing

The indexer.directories config now accepts a user field per directory entry.
Files under that path are indexed only for the specified user, making it easy to
share a single Hister instance while keeping personal file indexes private.

Label Editing from Results

Document labels can be edited inline directly from search result cards without
navigating away. The browser extension can also apply a one-off label to a
document at index time (closes #407). Updating a document no longer clears
previously assigned labels.

File Deletion Tracking

When a locally-watched file is deleted from the filesystem, Hister now
automatically removes it from the index (closes #230). Batch and single-document
deletions also clean up the associated HTML and favicon files from disk.

MCP Document Preview Endpoint

A new MCP endpoint exposes document previews to LLM agents and MCP-compatible
tools, complementing the existing MCP search endpoint.

Browser Import: Ladybird Support

The import-browser command now supports importing history from the
Ladybird browser.

Browser Import: Auto-Detect Database

The import-browser command now automatically detects the browser database file
path, so passing an explicit path is no longer required for supported browsers.

Enhancements

• Copy URL button: a copy-to-clipboard icon appears next to each result URL
• Preview extractor selector: switch between available extractors when viewing
  a document preview without re-indexing
• Rules table: columns are sortable; values are filterable; filter toggle
  buttons are visually distinct from column headers; regexp validation runs before
  saving a rule
• CLI index flags: --delay, --timeout, and --user-agent are now
  available directly on hister index without needing a config file
• Configurable client timeout: the HTTP client timeout used during indexing
  is configurable (fixes #429)
• Standardized config file lookup: config file discovery follows a consistent
  search order across all platforms (closes #424)
• History autoscroll: the history view scrolls to keep the selected entry
  visible (#427)
• Admin profile version: the admin profile page now shows the running Hister
  version (closes #409)
• Log level aliases: common short aliases are accepted for log level values
  (fixes #411)
• Random tips: a rotating set of usage tips is shown on the front page when
  navigating back from search results
• yt-dlp diagnostics: clearer error messages and debug logging help diagnose
  yt-dlp configuration problems
• Batch crawl insertion: URLs discovered during a recursive crawl are
  inserted in batches for better throughput
• Extension popup header: the popup header is now a link to the configured
  Hister server
• Per-sub-index paging: each language sub-index is iterated independently to
  prevent paging gaps in multi-language setups
• Improved embedding handling: fallow and embedding request processing
  is more robust

Bug Fixes

• Docker BASE_URL environment variable can now be correctly overridden by a
  config file (closes #442)
• Search results now contain all queried terms rather than any of them
• HTML is no longer re-written to the indexer during a reindex run
• yt-dlp subtitle download no longer skipped when the sub language differs from
  the original language (#429)
• History page stops loading more entries when the last page has been reached
• "Show all" in history now scrolls back to the top
• Rule type filter no longer incorrectly excludes rules
• Debug-level init messages are correctly suppressed at higher log levels
• Result paging uses a valid sort key, fixing out-of-order pages
• Times are displayed in the browser's configured timezone