User guide on Searpa Docs

Getting started

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Getting started#

Searpa requires an account, there is no anonymous search. The account itself, though, can be anonymous: only a username and password are needed, no email or personal details are required (an email is optional, and only for password reset, see Your account). On the hosted service, accounts are invite-only during the alpha; on a self-hosted instance the administrator creates them.

Go to your Searpa instance (the hosted service is at searpa.eu).
Click Sign in and enter your username and password.
You land on the search home page.

If you forget your password and added an email to your account, use the Forgot password? link to reset it. Without an email on file a lost password cannot be recovered, see Your account.

Web search

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Web search#

The Web tab is Searpa’s core. It can draw on three independent web indexes and blend whatever you enable into one ranked list.

The three engines#

Engine	What it is
Brave	A large independent web index (also powers Images, News and Videos).
Mojeek	An independent UK search index with its own crawler.
Marginalia	A non-commercial index focused on the small, non-commercial web.

You choose which engines to use in Settings → Engines. Enable just one for a single source, or several to blend them. All three are on by default.

Search tabs

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Search tabs#

Besides the Web tab, Searpa has dedicated tabs for images, news, videos, maps and translation. Each runs your query against sources suited to that kind of content. A tab only appears when the instance has the provider it needs configured.

Images#

Image results come from the Brave image index, blended with Pixabay where it is enabled. Results are shown as a thumbnail grid.

Click any image to open a lightbox (much like Google Images):

Instant answers

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instant answers#

For common utility queries, Searpa shows an instant answer right at the top of the web results, so you get the answer without clicking through. This is in the spirit of DuckDuckGo’s instant answers.

Almost every instant answer is computed locally on the server, with no third party involved and nothing about your query sent anywhere.

What you can ask#

Category	Example queries
Calculator	`2+2`, `sqrt(16)*3`, `15% of 200`
Unit conversion	`5 km to miles`, `100 f to c`, `2 cups to ml`
Base conversion	`0xff in decimal`, `255 in binary`
Colour	`#4f46e5`, `rgb(255,128,0)`, `color picker`
World clock	`time in tokyo`, `what time is it in new york`
QR code	`qr code https://example.com`
Hash / UUID	`md5 hello`, `sha256 of test`, `uuid`
Password	`password generator`, `strong password`
Unix time	`unix timestamp`, `1700000000 to date`
Encode / decode	`base64 encode hi`, `url decode foo%20bar`
JSON / Regex	`json formatter`, `regex tester`
HTTP / Ports	`http 404`, `port 443`
Randomisers	`roll 2d6`, `flip a coin`, `random number 1-100`
Timer	`timer 5 minutes`, `stopwatch`
What’s my IP	`what's my ip`

Multilingual triggers#

Instant answers fire in seven languages, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch. For example, all of these work:

Knowledge cards

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Knowledge cards#

When your web search (first page) is about a well-known subject, Searpa shows up to three knowledge cards beside the results, a quick summary so you often don’t need to click through at all.

The cards#

Card	Source	Shows
Wikipedia	Wikipedia	A summary, image and link for the subject. This is the anchor card, it also helps detect what the other cards should show.
Film / TV	TMDB	Details for a movie or TV show: poster, rating, year, overview.
Places	TripAdvisor	A restaurant, hotel or attraction: rating, address (which links to the map) and a link.
Q&A	Stack Exchange	The top question and answer for a technical query.

How they’re chosen#

Searpa only shows a card when your query genuinely matches that kind of subject:

Bangs

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bangs#

Bangs are !shortcuts you type in the search box to send a query straight to another site or to a different Searpa tab. Searpa understands the widely-used DuckDuckGo-style bang vocabulary, thousands of sites, plus a few of its own.

The bang definitions come from Kagi’s open-source bangs repository, the same community-maintained !bang list Kagi publishes. Self-hosters refresh it with make bangs, see Maintenance.

A bang can sit anywhere in the query, the rest of the text is the search terms.

Settings

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Settings#

Open Settings from the home page or the menu to tailor Searpa to you. Your preferences sync to your account automatically and are restored on any device you sign in on. They are also stored in your browser, so they apply even before you sign in.

What you can change#

Setting	Options	Default
Engines	Any mix of Brave / Mojeek / Marginalia	All enabled
Safe search	On / Off	On
Search language	Auto, or one of the seven UI languages	Auto (your browser)
Interface language	Auto, or one of the seven UI languages	Auto
Theme	System / Light / Dark	System
Open links	Same tab / New tab	Same tab
Proxy images	On / Off	Off
Lazy-load knowledge cards	On / Off	On
Data sources	Per-provider on/off toggles	All enabled

Engines#

Pick which web indexes Searpa queries and blends, see Web search. This is also where you manage your blocked sites and custom bangs.

Your account

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Your account#

Signing in#

Searpa is login-only, every search happens under your account, and there is no public sign-up form. On the hosted service, accounts are invite-only during the alpha; on a self-hosted instance the administrator creates accounts.

Your account can be anonymous: it needs only a username and password, with no email or other personal details. There is no anonymous search (you’re always signed in), but the account behind it need not identify you.

Privacy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Privacy#

Searpa is built to be a private alternative to surveillance-funded search. Here is what that means in practice.

What Searpa does not do#

No tracking. Searpa does not follow you around the web or across sessions to build a profile.
No ads. There is no advertising, so there is no incentive to profile you.
No selling data. Your searches are not a product sold to anyone.

How your queries are handled#

Searches run server-side. Searpa talks to upstream providers (Brave, Mojeek, Marginalia and the rest) on your behalf, so those providers don’t see your browser or IP, they see Searpa’s server.
Provider API keys never reach your browser. All upstream calls happen on the server.
Image proxying (optional, in Settings) routes thumbnails through the Searpa server so source sites don’t see your browser either.
Results are briefly cached on the server to keep things fast and reduce load on providers; the cache is keyed to the query, not to you.

Your data#

Your settings sync to your account so they follow you across devices. You can export or delete them.
Your email, if you add one, is used only for password reset, see Your account.

Where it’s run#

The hosted service is operated in the European Union under European privacy law. Because the search engine is open source, anyone can audit how it works, or run their own copy and be the only operator who ever touches their data.

User guide on Searpa Docs

Getting started

Getting started#

Sign in#

Web search

Web search#

The three engines#

Search tabs

Search tabs#

Images#

Instant answers

Instant answers#

What you can ask#

Multilingual triggers#

Knowledge cards

Knowledge cards#

The cards#

How they’re chosen#

Bangs

Bangs#

Settings

Settings#

What you can change#

Engines#

Your account

Your account#

Signing in#

Privacy

Privacy#

What Searpa does not do#

How your queries are handled#

Your data#

Where it’s run#