Stella - Local natural language search across all your files
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You know the file exists. Spotlight can't find it. Stella can. Just describe it, "my cheat sheet for the final exam," "the product spec from last week's meeting" and Stella finds it.
Then drag it straight into Gmail, open it, or launch any app from the same bar. One shortcut for your whole Mac. Free. Private. No account. Bad filenames welcome.
Replies
Stella
Hey Product Hunt š
We've lost hours of our lives to Spotlight returning nothing when weĀ knowĀ the file exists. Naming a fileĀ untitled (4).docxĀ orĀ assignement_1(4).pdfĀ guarantees you'll never see it again. Naming a PDF after a client doesn't help when you've forgotten the client's name.
So we built Stella. You describe the file the way you'd describe it to a coworker. "The pitch deck with the blue charts," "my tax return from last year," "that contract Sarah sent in February,"Ā and Stella finds it. One search bar across all your local folders.
Oh, and it'sĀ free.
A few things we care about:
- 100% local.Ā Your files never leave your device. No cloud, no telemetry on file contents, no account required. The embedding model (291MB, quantized) runs on your machine.
- Fast. Filename matches return in ~5ms; semantic results land under 200ms.
- Honest about quality.Ā We benchmarked against Spotlight on 433 real queries ā Stella was ~5x more accurate (0.83 vs 0.16 MRR@10), and Spotlight didn't surface a single file Stella missed. We'd rather show numbers than adjectives.
What's next:Ā more file formats, a Windows build, and cloud storage integration (yes that includes Outlook, because Outlook search is so unbelievably bad).
We'd love your feedback, especially the queries where itĀ fails. That's where we learn the most.
ā The Stella team
Alconost Localization
@senan_gafforiĀ I've had this situation so many times (and in most cases, failed to find what I needed). Too bad it's only for Mac (why so many cool products are only available on Mac? xD) But I love the idea!
Stella
@margarita_s88Ā one of our biggest requests so far has been a Windows version. That's coming soon (fingers crossed)! We're glad to hear this problem resonates with so many people. We hope the solution does too!
mailX by mailwarm
Congratulations on your launch! Interesting. I need it.
Stella
@thamibenjellounĀ thank you! We'd love to hear your feedback. We're always trying to improve the accuracy and what people get out of Stella.
This would definitely be helpful! I have a photo that I cannot find right now and I name my files pretty well. So, it's a frustrating experience.
This looks cool, but I think the lack of any product shots (e.g. screenshots of the app itself running) = a huge missed opportunity. We've seen a slew of local filesearch using natural language tools on PH lately - I use Invenio for images which I found here, and I've seen at least 2 others that aren't filetype-specific in the last week.
I chose @Invenio because their site made it clear that the platform would be a delight to use, UX/UI wise.
Congrats on the launch either way, and again, this does look very cool.
Stella
@grey_seymourĀ thank you so much for the feedback! This was intended as a replacement to Spotlight and has a similar layout and UI, where it's not a full screen app and you can toggle it at any time. This was our first launch, so any feedback on that is always very appreciated. We'll definitely try to revamp the screenshots and demo videos to make it clearer.
Stella
@anusuya_bhuyanĀ 100% agree. We're in the same boat as most people. The idea of having your files in the cloud isn't an appealing one. Keeping it local was an absolute must.
Need it desperately!! I can't count how many hours I've spent finding files that I knew existed but could not remember the file location or name... (and love the name =)
Stella
@stella_guanĀ haha, glad you like the name :) a lot of people we spoke to had the same problem. It's very annoying, and it's insane there hasn't been a solution to it yet. We hope this solves it. We'd love to have you try it out and hear your thoughts!
Morgen
Wow
Stella
@david_tedaldi1Ā thank you! We'd love to hear any feedback you have!