New Features

Search Suggestions and Sorting

The web search box now suggests matching queries from search history, recent searches, aliases, fields, sort options, and facet values. Facet suggestions show result counts. The panel supports keyboard and pointer use, can be resized, and remembers its height.

A shared server schema keeps fields, facets, values, and sort options consistent across search clients. Queries can use sort:relevance, sort:date, sort:visits, or sort:domain. Prefix the value with a minus sign to reverse the order, as in sort:-date.

Social and Discussion Extractors

New Twitter, Bluesky, Reddit, and Discourse extractors preserve useful post, comment, reply, author, date, and reaction data. Twitter and Bluesky can split feeds and threads into separate post documents. Twitter also expands known shortened links to their original destinations.

Documents can now include JSON LD metadata. A new extractor SDK and registry define explicit results, capabilities, and optional context support.

Terminal Result Details

The terminal interface now has responsive workspaces and a readable result details pane. Wide terminals show the list and preview together. Narrow terminals use the full workspace. Text layout accounts for terminal cell width.

Local File Format Imports

hister import file can now import PDF, DOCX, Markdown, Org mode, valid UTF 8 text, and other supported local formats. It accepts individual files or directories. Extraction runs in the command line process and creates remote snapshots, so the server does not need access to the source files.

Service and Browser Imports

Hister can now import incrementally from Linkding, Readeck, and wallabag. Stored content is used when available, with a page download fallback. Browser imports can start at --start-date.

Bulk Document Updates

The new hister update command changes the owner, label, title, or language of documents matched by a search query. It supports dry runs, asks for confirmation, reports conflicts, and keeps file ownership rules intact.

Complete History Timeline

The history page now shows counts for all indexed or opened history. Recent days and older months are grouped for easier browsing, with daily details for a selected period.

Persistent Web Sessions

Web sessions are now stored in the configured SQL database. They survive server restarts, use rolling expiration, and are revoked at logout. Cookie security follows the configured server URL.

Structured MCP Results

The MCP endpoint now targets protocol version 2025-06-18 and defines output schemas for every tool. Results separate trusted metadata from untrusted source content, remove invisible control characters, and include safe handling guidance. Search callers can select full document fields.

Enhancements

1. Search interface: search duration is visible, index statistics are clickable, empty indexes show quick start help, errors are clearer, and recent searches are easier to identify and clear.
2. Query history: results promoted by query history are marked and can be forgotten for that query. Existing rules remain intact.
3. Command line: help now groups commands by scope. check-update reports new releases, and crawl urls can filter or count stored crawl URLs.
4. URL input: hister index --input accepts a file or standard input and creates a persistent job.
5. Files: watched directories can apply labels. Cleanup removes local documents that no longer match configured directories. File previews verify ownership and directory rules.
6. Batch imports: clients split batches at the configured request limit and report documents that are too large.
7. Browser extension: the extension supports access tokens and copied browser sessions. It refreshes changed cookies after authentication failures and submits pending page changes when a tab closes.
8. Web interface and docs: the header is more compact, the initial color scheme is configurable, accessibility is improved, and documentation now has search and clearer navigation.
9. Operations: profiling has an explicit setting. Container builds are smaller, and release images use Buildx Bake for supported architectures.
10. Crawler rendering: capture delay is shared by rendered backends and is now supported by Chromedp.
11. Terminal compatibility: command output and the TUI now use Charm v2, respect terminal color support, and preserve custom hotkeys.
12. Dependencies: Go modules, npm packages, Nix inputs, container bases, and GitHub Actions were updated.

Bug Fixes

1. Failed embedding jobs no longer starve later queued documents.
2. Index metadata access is safe during concurrent indexing.
3. Batch requests respect the server body limit and report oversized documents.
4. Field specific alternatives work correctly, and URL wildcard matching ignores letter case.
5. Browser imports count URLs correctly and handle empty history databases.
6. OAuth provider scopes are combined with default scopes.
7. Copied extension sessions use consistent expiry, and the background script works in browsers that require a classic script.
8. Sensitive content matches are no longer exposed in debug logs.
9. File indexing continues after an invalid symbolic link.
10. Opened history responses are decoded correctly.
11. Mastodon pages without a detected post are no longer stored.
12. Optional versioning rules remain optional, and prioritizing a result keeps the full rule set intact.
13. The middle pointer button still opens results while suggestions are visible.
14. Database conflict clauses now qualify column names correctly.
15. The configured color theme is applied before the page becomes visible.

Backward Compatibility Notes

The following changes require attention when upgrading from v0.17.0:

1. Login sessions: web users and extensions that copied a browser session must sign in once after upgrading. Access tokens are unchanged.
2. File preview API: /api/file now accepts a document id instead of an absolute path. Search and history results include this identifier.
3. MCP output: tool results now use schema version 1.0. Untrusted source values are under structuredContent.untrusted_content. Text output contains the same JSON and a security notice.
4. Extractor implementations: custom extractors must use the new SDK result constructors, capability declarations, and registry.
5. URL list input: hister index --url-list remains as a hidden deprecated alias. Use hister index --input; it also accepts - for standard input.