Operator-controlled retrieval
Recursive ingest, chunking, indexing, and query over local corpora without turning the product into a chat wrapper.
Local-first document retrieval
Search infrastructure for documents you control.
Alcove ingests local files, builds local indexes, and returns matching excerpts through a CLI or local web API. It is retrieval, not generation: real text from operator-controlled corpora, with semantic search as an option instead of a requirement.
Local by default
Indexes live on operator-controlled disk.
Retrieval, not generation
Results are excerpts, not invented answers.
AI optional
Hash, semantic, or hybrid search depending on operator choice.
What Alcove gives you
Multiple search modes
Keyword, semantic, and hybrid retrieval are all available, with deterministic offline defaults for smoke tests and low-trust environments.
Composable runtime surfaces
CLI commands, a local API, a web UI, and machine-readable capabilities make Alcove usable from scripts, apps, and operator workflows.
Start in the right place
Quick start
Install the package, seed the demo corpus, and run the local server in a few commands.
Public docs
Trust boundaries, API direction, federation schema, and operator-facing documentation for the public Alcove surface.
Architecture
See how ingest, index, query, plugins, and the local service boundary fit together in the core project.