# Sonic — Fast Lightweight Search Backend in Rust

> Sonic is a schema-less search backend written in Rust that acts as a lightweight alternative to Elasticsearch for text search. It ingests text, builds an inverted index, and responds to search queries in microseconds while using minimal memory.

## Install

Save as a script file and run:

# Sonic — Fast Lightweight Search Backend in Rust

## Quick Use
```bash
docker run -d -p 1491:1491 valeriansaliou/sonic:v1.4.9
# Connect via Sonic Channel protocol on port 1491
```

## Introduction
Sonic is a fast, lightweight, schema-less search backend that replaces heavy search engines when you need simple full-text search without the overhead. Built in Rust, it focuses on speed and minimal resource usage, making it ideal for small to medium applications.

## What Sonic Does
- Accepts text via an ingestion channel and builds an internal inverted index
- Responds to search and auto-suggest queries in sub-millisecond time
- Supports multiple collections and buckets for data isolation
- Provides a simple Sonic Channel protocol over TCP for integration
- Runs with under 30 MB of RAM for typical workloads

## Architecture Overview
Sonic uses a custom Sonic Channel text protocol (not HTTP) split into three modes: ingest for pushing data, search for querying, and control for administration. Internally it stores an FST-based index on disk using RocksDB, keeping only hot data in memory. This design allows Sonic to handle millions of indexed objects on commodity hardware.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Deploy via Docker or compile from source with Rust stable
- Configuration lives in a single `config.cfg` TOML file
- Set authentication passwords per channel mode for security
- Tune `bucket_hash_count` and `kv_pool` based on dataset size
- Supports log-level configuration and PID file for daemon management

## Key Features
- Written in Rust for memory safety and zero-GC performance
- Sub-millisecond query latency on indexed collections
- Auto-suggest and auto-complete support built in
- Tiny memory footprint compared to Elasticsearch or Solr
- Multi-tenant via collections and buckets

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **Elasticsearch** — full-featured but resource-heavy; Sonic trades features for speed and simplicity
- **Meilisearch** — HTTP-based with rich features; Sonic is lower-level with less overhead
- **Typesense** — typo-tolerant HTTP search; Sonic uses a custom TCP protocol and is more minimal
- **Tantivy** — a Rust search library, not a standalone server; Sonic wraps its own index engine
- **Zinc** — lightweight Elasticsearch alternative with HTTP; Sonic is even simpler with channel protocol

## FAQ
**Q: Does Sonic support HTTP REST APIs?**
A: No. Sonic uses its own Sonic Channel text protocol over TCP. Client libraries are available for most languages.

**Q: Can Sonic replace Elasticsearch for large-scale analytics?**
A: Sonic is designed for search and suggest on text, not aggregation or analytics. It works best for small-to-medium search needs.

**Q: What storage engine does Sonic use?**
A: Sonic uses RocksDB internally for persistent key-value storage of its inverted index.

**Q: Is there a managed cloud version?**
A: No. Sonic is self-hosted only. Deploy it alongside your application server.

## Sources
- https://github.com/valeriansaliou/sonic
- https://github.com/valeriansaliou/sonic/blob/master/CONFIGURATION.md

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Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/969e8641-3b63-11f1-9bc6-00163e2b0d79
Author: Script Depot