Lux is a free and open-source search engine developed by Big-A. It started as a Big-A search page using Google Programmable Search. In August 2026, work began on a standalone crawler and index. The project was renamed Lux on September 17, 2026.
Lux is an Apache-2.0-licensed search project maintained by Big-A. Its crawler reads an approved list of sites, gathers page information, and writes a searchable index used by the web interface.
The name Lux was adopted in September 2026. Big-A remains the name of the company behind the project.
Lux is evolving from an experiment built on another search provider into a search system whose crawling, indexing, and results can be developed directly by Big-A.
Instead of pretending to index the entire web on day one, Lux begins with a selected collection and grows deliberately as new websites are crawled and suggested.
Lux is open source. Its implementation can be inspected and improved rather than hidden behind a completely closed search service.
A search engine has to discover pages, decide what information to keep, build an index that can be searched quickly, interpret a query, rank possible matches, and present useful results. Lux is a project for building and improving those pieces rather than treating search as a single black box.
Modern web search is dominated by enormous indexes built over decades. Lux starts from a very different scale. Rather than claiming to reproduce the entire infrastructure of the largest search companies, Lux is an independent search-engine project that can grow one crawler, one index, one ranking improvement, and one added website at a time.
That smaller beginning is also useful: the machinery of search can remain visible. Lux can experiment with how sites are selected, how pages are represented in the index, how results are ranked, and how developers can interact with search through the Lux API.
The crawler discovers and gathers information from websites. The index stores searchable information about those pages. The search interface turns a person's query into results. The API is the developer-facing side of Lux, designed to let other software make use of Lux search technology. And website suggestions give people a direct way to point Lux toward parts of the web worth considering.
A short history of the project, from the original Big-A search experiment to Lux.
Big-A was created in 2024. The company became the home for a growing collection of software projects, including the search project that would eventually become Lux.
The project began as a custom search engine using Google Programmable Search Engine underneath. It provided a Big-A-branded search experience while Google supplied the underlying search technology.
The project took shape as Big-A Search. An early implementation searched a selected collection of websites through Google Programmable Search. The idea was already larger than a custom Google page: the goal was to develop an independent crawler, index, and search system.
Big-A Search moved away from relying on Google as the search engine itself. The project developed its own searchable index and crawler infrastructure, giving Big-A control over which sites are indexed and how search works.
The search engine received its own identity: Lux. Big-A remained the company behind the project, while Lux became the product name. The new identity reflects the basic purpose of search—bringing information into view.
Lux searches a growing collection of selected websites and accepts website suggestions from its users. The project remains free and open source while its crawler, index, ranking, and search experience continue to develop.
Lux remains under active development. Current work centers on the crawler, index, ranking, API, and the search interface.