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Query Language Guide

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Hister provides a query language that allows you to search through your content with precision. This guide explains the different query types and search techniques available.

Simply type any word to search across all fields:

hister

This searches for “hister” in the title, text content, URL, and domain of all indexed pages.

Quoted Phrases

Use double quotes to search for exact phrases:

"privacy policy"

This finds pages containing the exact phrase “privacy policy” (not just pages with both words separately).

Examples:

"self-hosted applications"
"data privacy regulations"
"end-to-end encryption"

Field-Specific Searches

You can search within specific fields using the field:value syntax:

Available Fields

  • title: - Search in page titles only
  • text: - Search in page content only
  • url: - Search in URLs only (bare file paths without :// are automatically resolved to absolute file:// URLs)
  • url_re: Search URLs with a Go regular expression
  • domain: - Search in domain names only
  • label: - Search in document labels only
  • language: - Filter by detected language (e.g., en, de, fr. Use unknown for languages Hister doesn’t support)
  • metadata.KEY: - Match an exact metadata value, such as metadata.source:linkding
  • type: - Filter by document type (web for websites, file or local for local files)
  • visits: - Filter by visit count, with exact values (visits:1), bounded ranges (visits:2..4), or open ranges (visits:10..)
  • added: Filter by when a document was first added, using a relative duration such as added:>90d or an absolute date such as added:>=2026-04-01
  • updated: Filter by when a document was last updated, using a relative duration such as updated:>90d or an absolute date such as updated:<2026-05-01. Relative durations support seconds (s), minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), and weeks (w). Absolute dates use YYYY-MM-DD and midnight UTC
  • user_id: - Filter by user ID (admin use; e.g., user_id:3)

Examples:

title:encryption

Finds pages with “encryption” in the title.

domain:github.com

Finds all pages from github.com.

url:*/security/*

Finds pages with “security” in the URL path.

text:"GDPR compliance"

Finds pages with “GDPR compliance” in the body text.

language:en

Finds pages detected as English language.

label:research

Finds documents with a matching label.

metadata.source:linkding

Finds documents imported from Linkding.

type:file

Finds both watched local files and imported remote file snapshots.

type:local

Finds watched files that remain accessible to the server filesystem.

type:remote

Finds remote file snapshots created with hister import file or submitted as prepared documents through /api/add.

type:web

Finds web pages (indexed from URLs).

visits:10..

Finds pages visited 10 or more times.

updated:>90d

Finds pages that have not been updated in more than 90 days. Use added:>90d to compare against the time a page was first added. The comparison operators <, <=, >, and >= are supported.

updated:>=2026-04-01 updated:<2026-05-01

Finds pages updated during April 2026. Absolute comparisons apply directly to the timestamp. Using the following day as an exclusive upper bound includes the entire final day. Relative comparisons apply to elapsed time, so updated:>90d means older than 90 days.

user_id:3

Finds all documents belonging to user with ID 3 (admin only).

url:/home/user/documents/report.pdf

Finds the local file at that path (resolved to an absolute file:// URL automatically).

Privacy & Security Examples

title:privacy domain:mozilla.org
title:"security audit" text:vulnerability
url:*/privacy-policy
domain:privacyguides.org text:encryption
language:en type:web
visits:2..4 domain:example.com
added:<7d domain:example.com
user_id:3 domain:example.com

Sorting Results

Use a sort: directive anywhere in the query to control result order. The directive controls ordering and is not matched against document content.

golang sort:date

sort:relevance uses the default relevance order. sort:date shows the most recently updated documents first. sort:visits shows the most visited documents first. sort:domain groups results by domain.

Prefix any sort value with a minus sign to reverse its direction. For example, sort:-date shows the oldest documents first, sort:-visits shows the least visited documents first, and sort:-domain orders domains from Z to A. sort:-relevance places the least relevant results first.

golang sort:-date

A query containing only a sort directive matches all documents:

sort:date

When a query contains more than one valid sort directive, the final directive takes precedence. Quoted text such as "sort:date" remains searchable text rather than changing the result order.

Wildcard Searches

Use asterisks (*) for wildcard matching:

secur*

Matches: security, secure, securing, etc.

*privacy*

Matches: privacy, myprivacy, privacytools, etc.

Field-specific wildcards:

domain:*.github.io
url:*/docs/*
title:*firewall*

URL wildcard matching ignores letter case, so url:*readme* also matches a path ending in README.md.

URL Regular Expressions

Use url_re: to match normalized page addresses with a Go regular expression. The expression uses the same MatchString behavior as indexing rules. It can therefore match any part of the URL unless you anchor it with ^ or $.

url_re:^https?://([^/]+.)?example.com/private/

Quotes are optional. Use them when the expression contains whitespace.

url_re:"^file:///.*/My Documents/.*.pdf$"

Regular expression matching is case sensitive unless the expression enables case folding, for example with (?i).

url_re:(?i)/readme.md$

Negation

Prefix terms with a minus sign (-) to exclude results:

privacy -facebook

Finds pages about privacy but excludes results containing “facebook”.

encryption title:-tutorial

Finds pages about encryption but not those with “tutorial” in the title.

Field-specific negation:

security -domain:facebook.com
title:hister -url:*/issues/*
privacy -"social media"
-language:en
-type:file

Alternation Expressions

Use parentheses with pipe (|) to create OR conditions:

(security|privacy|encryption)

Finds pages containing any of these terms.

title:(firewall|vpn|proxy)

Finds pages with firewall, VPN, or proxy in the title.

Combining with Other Queries

"data protection" (GDPR|CCPA|HIPAA)

Finds pages about data protection mentioning any of these regulations.

domain:(github.com|gitlab.com) title:security

Finds security-related pages from GitHub or GitLab.

Combining Query Types

You can combine all query types for powerful searches:

title:encryption "end-to-end" domain:(signal.org|whatsapp.com) -deprecated

This finds pages where:

  • “encryption” appears in the title
  • Contains the phrase “end-to-end”
  • From signal.org OR whatsapp.com domains
  • Does NOT contain “deprecated”

Real-World Examples

Finding privacy tools:

(privacy|security) tools "open source" -commercial type:web

Research on specific topics:

"threat model" (encryption|authentication|authorization) -tutorial language:en

Documentation searches:

title:(setup|installation|configuration) domain:(*.io|*.dev) hister

Local code documentation:

type:file (README|documentation) language:en

Security vulnerabilities:

(CVE|vulnerability|exploit) (2024|2025|2026) -"not affected" type:web

Self-hosting resources:

"self-hosted" (docker|kubernetes|compose) title:(guide|tutorial)

Tips

1. Case Insensitivity

All searches are case-insensitive:

Privacy = privacy = PRIVACY

2. Wildcards and Performance

  • Leading wildcards (*term) are slower than trailing wildcards (term*)
  • Starting query with * immediately tries to find every document, that can lead to performance issues
  • Use field-specific wildcards when possible for better performance

3. Empty Alternations

Alternations must contain at least one option:

()           # Invalid
(a)          # Valid - single option
(a|b)        # Valid - multiple options

Query Best Practices

Start Broad, Then Narrow

# Start with:
encryption

# Refine to:
encryption privacy

# Further refine:
"end-to-end encryption" (signal|matrix) -deprecated

Use Field Searches for Precision

Instead of:

github security issue

Try:

domain:github.com title:(security|vulnerability) -closed

Combine Phrases with Alternations

"privacy policy" (updated|changed|revised) (2025|2026)

Common Use Cases

Finding Documentation

title:(docs|documentation|guide) domain:*.io hister

Research Topic

"zero-knowledge" (encryption|proof|architecture) -marketing

Tracking Updates

domain:mozilla.org (firefox|thunderbird) "release notes"

Security News

(vulnerability|CVE|security) "disclosure" -duplicate

Privacy Tools Comparison

"privacy" (comparison|vs|versus) (browser|vpn|email)

Troubleshooting Queries

No Results Found

  • Remove field restrictions and try a broader search
  • Check spelling and try wildcards
  • Remove negations to see what’s being excluded
  • Simplify alternations

Too Many Results

  • Add field-specific searches
  • Use quoted phrases for exact matches
  • Add negations to filter out unwanted content
  • Specify domains to narrow scope

Unexpected Results

  • Ensure quotes are properly closed
  • Check that parentheses are balanced
  • Verify field names are spelled correctly (title, text, url, domain, language, type, user_id)
  • Remember searches are case-insensitive
  • For type filter, use “web” or “file” (also accepts “local” for files)