Frequently asked
FAQ
LYNX — An independent, privacy-focused web search engine — no query logs, explainable ranking, and crawler ethics as a structural constraint.
Is there a running LYNX search engine?
Not yet. The repository is in its design phase and contains the complete architecture, threat model, data model and engineering plan. Production code is written against these documents, not before them.
Is LYNX anonymous?
No, and we do not claim it is. LYNX is not 'zero logs'. What it does commit to is not building a profile of you, not selling or sharing query data, and documenting every place something is stored.
Will the index be as good as a commercial engine?
For years, no — it will be smaller and coverage will be worse. That limitation is stated in the README rather than buried, because a search engine you cannot trust is not a search engine you should use.
Why Rust?
The dominant server-side workload is parsing and fetching content an attacker controls. In that workload memory safety is not a style preference — it eliminates an entire bug class.
What license is it under?
AGPL-3.0-or-later, so anyone running a modified LYNX as a network service must publish their changes. A search engine is infrastructure; publishing it is what keeps it that way. Commercial licensing is available from Anoneurx.
Does the AI answer layer read my query?
Astra is off by default. Retrieval happens first and independently, Astra is an extra response field, it has no tools, no memory and no agent loop, and it fails closed rather than returning partially verified citations.