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On October 6, 2026, cl0q announced that it had made its web crawler available as open-source software and published steps for running a node. The project says each node discovers websites, fetches their homepages, and sends findings to cl0q’s index. The setup instructions require Docker and an online machine, but the linked repository could not be independently reviewed here, so the commands and implementation details below should be treated as cl0q’s published guidance, not as verified instructions.

What cl0q’s crawler node does

cl0q describes the node as a way for others to help build its index of the open web. According to the project’s announcement, a node discovers websites and fetches their homepages; it is not described as a recursive crawler that follows links through entire sites. cl0q also says the software does not scrape personal data or build profiles. These are descriptions from the project publisher, not findings from an independent code review. cl0q’s announcement on DEV Community says the project had mapped 38.5 million domains in 2026 and was working toward 100 million; those figures are the publisher’s claims, not independently verified measurements.

What safeguards does cl0q say are built in?

The announcement says the crawler’s rules are hardcoded. cl0q says nodes identify themselves with a User-Agent, access only public internet destinations, check a site’s robots.txt before each crawl, and obey any crawl-delay. It also claims that requests to a given server are spaced at least one second apart and that a site’s homepage is fetched no more than once every 120 days. The announcement does not independently establish how these safeguards are implemented or enforced.

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What you need before setting up a node

cl0q’s post lists Docker and an online machine as prerequisites. It does not specify a supported operating system, CPU or memory requirements, storage, bandwidth, or expected hosting cost. Its described architecture has five services and one Postgres database, running locally on the operator’s machine, with no public ports. The post’s “zero public ports” description should not be taken as an independent network-security assessment.

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How to run the node using cl0q’s published steps

The sequence below is transcribed from the October 6, 2026 announcement and has not been run or checked against the current repository. Review the repository’s current files and instructions before relying on it. The enrollment command uses an example contact address; replace it with an address you control.

git clone https://codeberg.org/cl0qsearch/crawler-node.git
cd crawler-node
cp .env.example .env
docker compose build
docker compose run --rm cl0q-node enroll --contact you@example.com
docker compose run --rm preflight
docker compose up -d
  1. Clone the repository and enter its directory. The first two commands download the project from Codeberg and switch into the cloned folder.
  2. Prepare the environment file. The copy command creates .env from .env.example. The announcement does not enumerate configuration values or say whether manual edits are required.
  3. Build the services. docker compose build builds the project’s Compose-defined services.
  4. Enroll the node. The enrollment command registers a node using your contact email. According to cl0q, enrollment returns a token.
  5. Run the preflight check. cl0q says this checks that things work before crawling begins.
  6. Start the services. The final command launches the Compose services in the background.

The announcement does not provide troubleshooting steps, explain token handling, or establish the current behavior of any command. If a command fails or the repository’s instructions differ, follow the current project documentation rather than assuming this sequence remains valid.

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Release status and plans stated at publication

cl0q identified the release as version 0.1.0 and said it was MIT licensed. The post described a GitHub mirror, additional repositories, and performance work as plans for the future at the time of publication; it did not establish that those plans have since been completed. The Codeberg repository is the project link in the announcement, but its contents and present release state have not been independently confirmed.

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