Rats on The Boat - BitTorrent Search Engine

February 22, 2026 · View on GitHub

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:

./RatsSearch

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:

./RatsSearch --console

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)
`-m, --max-peers <n>`	Maximum P2P connections (overrides config, range: 10-1000)

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
`peers [n]`	Show or set max P2P connections (10-1000)
`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.

Docker

Run Rats Search in a container (console mode, no GUI):

docker build -t rats-search .
docker run -d -p 8095:8095 -v rats-data:/data rats-search

The default command starts the spider with 30 max P2P peers. Override as needed:

docker run -d \
  -p 8095:8095 \
  -v rats-data:/data \
  rats-search \
  /app/RatsSearch --console --spider --max-peers 100 --data-dir /data

Port / Volume	Description
`8095`	HTTP REST API (enable `restApi` in `/data/rats.json`)
`/data`	Persistent storage for database, config, and logs

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 Server Configuration

Server Compatibility Notes

Support & Donation

Bitcoin: bc1qsm5akf0gf2jnnxvjpf6nn3cd2p29yt3svxva3g

Subscribe to autor (GitHub donations): https://github.com/sponsors/DEgITx