codelibs/fess

Open-source, self-hosted enterprise & site search server built on OpenSearch. Crawls web / file / DB / cloud sources, 20+ languages, REST API, and AI/RAG & semantic search. Apache-2.0.

What it solves

Fess makes it easy to add search to an organization's internal documents and websites without deep search-engine knowledge. Instead of configuring OpenSearch directly, you use a browser UI to set up crawlers and manage everything.

How it works

Fess runs on Java and uses OpenSearch as its search backend (bundled in Docker images, or set up separately). A built-in crawler collects documents from web sites, file systems, and data stores (like databases and cloud services). Content is indexed and made searchable via a search UI and REST API. Access can be controlled with roles and permissions, and single sign-on is supported via LDAP, OIDC, SAML, and more.

Who it’s for

Organizations that need a self-hosted, enterprise search solution for internal or public content. It's also a free alternative to Google Site Search for website owners (via Fess Site Search).

Highlights

  • Full-text search with faceting, sorting, and suggestions
  • Crawlers for web, file systems, and many data stores (databases, S3, SharePoint, Slack, etc.)
  • Supports many document formats: Office, PDF, ZIP archives
  • Browser-based admin UI and REST API
  • Role- and permission-based filtering
  • Single sign-on with LDAP, OIDC, SAML, SPNEGO, Microsoft Entra ID
  • Multilingual UI and analysis (20+ languages)
  • Extensible via themes, ingest, script, and data store plugins

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