GitHub - librats/rats-search: rats-search: BitTorrent P2P multi-platform search engine for Desktop and Web servers with integrated torrent client

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Rats on The Boat - BitTorrent Search Engine

GitHub Actions Build Release Documentation License: MIT

A high-performance BitTorrent search program for desktop and server. It collects and indexes torrents from the DHT network, allowing powerful full-text search through torrent statistics and categories. Works over an encrypted P2P network and supports Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms.

Features

Core Search & Indexing

  • Works over P2P torrent network, doesn't require any trackers
  • DHT crawling and automatic torrent indexing
  • Full-text search over torrent collection (powered by Manticore Search)
  • Torrent and files search
  • Search filters (size ranges, files, seeders, etc.)
  • Collection filters (regex filters, adult filters)
  • Tracker peers scan support
  • Collects only statistical information and doesn't save any internal torrent data

P2P Network & Security

  • Supports its own P2P protocol for additional data transfer (search between Rats clients, descriptions/votes transfer, etc.)
  • End-to-end encryption with Noise Protocol (Curve25519 + ChaCha20-Poly1305)
  • P2P Search protocol: Search in other Rats clients with encrypted communication
  • BitTorrent Mainline DHT compatible (millions of nodes)
  • mDNS Discovery for automatic local network peer discovery
  • NAT Traversal with STUN/ICE support for connecting through firewalls
  • GossipSub messaging for scalable publish-subscribe protocol
  • Supports torrent rating (voting)
  • Description association from trackers
  • Top list (most common and popular torrents)
  • Feed list (Rats clients activity feed)

Torrent Client

  • Integrated torrent client for downloading
  • Drag and drop torrents (expand local search database with specific torrents)
  • Torrent generation and automatic adding to search database

User Experience

  • Native C++/Qt application — fast, responsive, and lightweight
  • Modern dark UI with customizable settings
  • System tray support with minimize/close to tray
  • Translations: English, Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, Hindi
  • Console mode for headless server operation
  • REST & WebSocket API for custom clients and integrations

Screenshots

Rats Search

Old Version

Architecture

Basic Architecture

Rats Search is built on librats — a high-performance P2P networking library providing:

Feature Description
BitTorrent Mainline DHT Compatible with the largest distributed hash table network (millions of nodes)
mDNS Discovery Automatic local network peer discovery without internet
NAT Traversal STUN/ICE support for connecting through firewalls and NAT
Noise Protocol Encryption End-to-end encryption with Curve25519 + ChaCha20-Poly1305
GossipSub Messaging Scalable publish-subscribe protocol for P2P communication
Thread-safe Design Modern C++17 concurrency with minimal overhead

Download

⬇️ Download the latest release for Windows, Linux, or macOS.

Platform Package
Windows RatsSearch-Windows-x64.zip
Linux RatsSearch-Linux-x64.AppImage or .tar.gz
macOS Intel RatsSearch-macOS-Intel.zip
macOS ARM RatsSearch-macOS-ARM.zip

Building from Source

Requirements

  • CMake 3.16+
  • Qt 6.9+ (with WebSockets module)
  • C++17 compatible compiler (MSVC, GCC, or Clang)
  • Ninja (recommended) or Make

Build Instructions

Clone the repository with submodules:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/DEgITx/rats-search.git
cd rats-search

Configure and build:

cmake -B build -G "Ninja" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --config Release

The executable will be in build/bin/.

Build Options

Option Default Description
RATS_SEARCH_BUILD_TESTS ON Build unit tests
RATS_SEARCH_USE_SYSTEM_LIBRATS OFF Use system-installed librats

Running

GUI Mode (Default)

Simply run the executable:

Command line options:

Option Description
-p, --port <port> P2P listen port (overrides config setting)
-d, --dht-port <port> DHT port (overrides config setting)
--data-dir <path> Data directory for database and config
-h, --help Display help
-v, --version Display version

Console Mode (Headless/Server)

For servers without a display, use console mode:

Console mode options:

Option Description
-c, --console Run in console mode (no GUI)
-p, --port <port> P2P listen port (overrides config setting)
-d, --dht-port <port> DHT port (overrides config setting)
--data-dir <path> Data directory for database and config
-s, --spider Enable torrent spider (disabled by default in console mode)

Interactive commands in console mode:

Command Description
stats Show statistics (torrents, files, peers, DHT nodes)
search <query> Search torrents by name
recent [n] Show n recent torrents (default: 10)
top [type] Show top torrents by type
spider start Start the DHT spider
spider stop Stop the DHT spider
help Show available commands
quit / exit Exit the application

Example console session:

# Start with spider enabled
./RatsSearch --console --spider --data-dir /var/lib/rats-search

# Or start with custom ports
./RatsSearch -c -p 4445 -d 4446 -s

Configuration

After first launch, a configuration file rats.json will be created in the data directory:

{
    "p2pPort": 4445,
    "dhtPort": 4446,
    "httpPort": 8095,
    "restApiEnabled": true,
    "indexerEnabled": true,
    "darkMode": true
}
Setting Description
p2pPort Port for P2P communication (TCP/UDP)
dhtPort Port for DHT operations (UDP)
httpPort Port for REST API server
restApiEnabled Enable/disable REST API
indexerEnabled Enable/disable DHT indexer

API

Rats Search includes a built-in REST API server for integrations and custom clients.

📖 API Documentation

Usage Manuals

Contributing

We welcome all contributions: bug fixes, improvements, code refactoring, and other enhancements.

Legacy Version (1.x — Electron/Node.js)

The previous Electron-based version is preserved in the legacy/ folder for reference and for running the web server interface.

Running the Legacy Web Server

cd legacy
npm install --force
npm run buildweb
npm run server

Access the web interface at: http://localhost:8095

Legacy Docker Image

docker build -t rats-search:legacy -f Dockerfile .
docker run -p 8095:8095 rats-search:legacy

Legacy Server Configuration

Server Compatibility Notes

Support & Donation

❤️ Support Rats Search development on OpenCollective

Contacts

License

MIT License © 2026