Zimi
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A modern experience for your ZIM files.
Kiwix packages the world's knowledge into ZIM files. Zimi makes them feel like the real internet with a rich web UI, fast JSON API, and an MCP server for AI agents. Everything works offline, in your language.
Use as much as you need:
- Search for agents.
pip install zimi-mcp searches and reads every ZIM over MCP. 280 KB.
- A reader and library.
ZIMI_APPS=0 zimi serve reads, searches and manages your ZIMs, nothing more.
- The whole app. Everything below.
What it does
- Search everything. One query across every ZIM, 100M+ articles, with
-word, "exact words", OR, lang: and in: when you need them.
- Apps over your library. Zimipedia for every wiki, the Dictionary for every Wiktionary, Bookshelf for every book, ZimiTube for video, ZimiExchange for Q&A, Reddot for subreddits, and offline street Maps.
- Games and the Almanac. Over 100 offline games and a sky reference, both real ZIMs: download them or find them in
zimi/builtin/.
- Keep what you find. Bookmarks, lists, likes and highlights in every app, synced across devices when you sign in.
- A real library. The whole Kiwix catalog one click away, even offline, with auto-updates and BitTorrent downloads that seed back.
- Make your own ZIMs. A web page, a whole site, a video playlist, a subreddit, a web archive or a folder of your files.
- Share on your network. Zimi devices find each other and pass ZIMs at LAN speed.
- Every language. Articles across languages by Wikidata ID; ten UI languages, right-to-left included; offline voices.
- For people and agents. Web app, JSON API and an MCP server. Runs on Docker, Podman, pip, macOS, Windows, Linux, or your phone as a PWA.
Screenshots
Install
macOS
brew tap epheterson/zimi
brew trust --tap epheterson/zimi # Homebrew 6 and later
brew install --cask zimi
Linux: sudo snap install zimi, or the AppImage (it updates itself; the window needs WebKitGTK 4.1 from your distro, otherwise Zimi opens in your browser).
Linux, no Python (a Pi, a USB disk): zimi-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz or -arm64.tar.gz from Releases; unpack it, mkdir zimi-data zims inside, then ./zimi serve -d; settings stay in zimi-data beside it (details).
Windows: the installer or portable zip from Releases.
Docker
docker run --network host -v ./zims:/zims -v ./zimi-config:/config epheterson/zimi
/zims holds your ZIM files, /config keeps settings and indexes. Open http://localhost:8899. Host networking lets LAN discovery and seeding work; for bridge mode, Compose, rootless Podman and Kubernetes see operations and networking.
Python
pip install zimi
zimi serve ./zims --port 8899 # or ZIM_DIR=./zims zimi serve, or --zim-dir ./zims
Run at boot on Linux (systemd): zimi service print shows the unit and sudo /var/lib/zimi/venv/bin/zimi service install writes it to /etc/systemd/system (the unit runs the Python of the command that installs it); the steps for a zimi user and its venv are at the top of the unit. ZIM files go in /var/lib/zimi/zims.
In the background without systemd (a Pi, a USB disk): zimi serve -d --zim-dir /path/to/zims detaches and writes zimi.pid and zimi.log in the data directory; stop it with the kill $(cat ...) line it prints.
Two packages: pip install zimi is the complete experience; pip install zimi-mcp is only the MCP server and search, for AI agents (280 KB, no web app).
Most people configure nothing. Everything is in Settings; zimi config prints every effective value and where it came from, and each ZIMI_* variable is documented in the guides below.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
