Michael Amachree

Posted on Sep 16

Cinder is now Tomoshibi 灯火 — same scraper, better name

#go #opensource #selfhosted #webdev

Cinder is now Tomoshibi (灯火, lamp light). Same Go scraper, same API. New name, cleaner monorepo, easier to find.

If you used Cinder, your old GitHub URL still redirects and your stars carried over. Migration is two lines.

TL;DR for existing users

Repo: github.com/Michael-Obele/cinder → github.com/Michael-Obele/tomoshibi (old URL redirects)
npm: npx tomoshi ( npx tomoshibi works too, same package)
Docker: michaelobele/tomoshibi-api etc. (old tags still pull for now)
Go module: github.com/Michael-Obele/tomoshibi
MCP tools: cinder_* → tomoshi_*
Env: TOMOSHIBI_API_URL (old CINDER_API_URL still read as fallback where it existed)

No breaking API changes. /v1/scrape, /v1/crawl, /v1/search, /v1/map work the same.

Why I renamed it

Cinder was a working name. It stuck for a bit, but it was hard to search and it collided with a lot of other projects. I wanted a name I could own and that says what the tool does.

Tomoshibi means lamp light in Japanese. The job is simple; turn messy, dark HTML into clean markdown your LLM can actually read. Light felt right. tomoshi is the short alias so you type less.

I scored names with a small naming rubric and Tomoshibi came out top at 30/35. Short, memorable, searchable, and the alias works in the terminal.

What actually changed

The rename was also a chance to clean up structure.

Before: separate repos cinder, cinder-tmcp, cinder-sv
Now: one monorepo tomoshibi

Package	Path	What it is
api	`packages/api`	Go API; Gin + Colly + Chromedp + SearXNG
mcp	`packages/mcp`	MCP server; 3 tools, `tomoshi` bin on npm
web	`packages/web`	Svelte 5 playground for scrape/crawl/search

Other bits: new lantern banner, unified README, Dockerfiles now build from packages/*, go.mod updated, archived the old cinder-tmcp and cinder-sv repos.

What stayed the same

One binary, hobby tier RAM. Monolith with embedded Asynq worker.
Smart mode; static first with Colly, fallback to Chromedp only when needed.
Readability plus ad block; clean markdown.
SearXNG search with Brave fallback.
Self hosted, no per token bill.

Benchmark still holds: scripts/search-bench.py (10 workers/30s) Tomoshibi ~560 req/s p50 11ms on the same box where hosted alternatives were far slower.

Migration (30 seconds)

Docker Compose (recommended):

git clone https://github.com/Michael-Obele/tomoshibi.git && cd tomoshibi
docker compose up -d # api 7431 + mcp 7433 + web 7432 + redis 7434 + searxng 7435
curl http://localhost:7431/health # -> {"status":"ok","service":"tomoshibi"}

MCP config (.vscode/mcp.json or Claude config):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tomoshi": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "tomoshi"],
      "env": { "TOMOSHIBI_API_URL": "http://localhost:7431" }
    }
  }
}

Go import:

import "github.com/Michael-Obele/tomoshibi/packages/api/internal/scraper"

Old cinder imports and Docker tags will error clearly and point to the new name. Old GitHub URL redirects so links do not break.

Try it with Docker

Full stack — 1 command:

git clone https://github.com/Michael-Obele/tomoshibi.git && cd tomoshibi
docker compose up -d

docker-compose.yml — api 7431 + mcp 7433 + web 7432 + redis 7434 + searxng 7435

Docker Hub:

GHCR (same images):

Pull:

docker pull michaelobele/tomoshibi-api:latest
# or
docker pull ghcr.io/michael-obele/tomoshibi-api:latest

Per-service compose:

What is next

Same roadmap; better SPA heuristics, more tests, keep the monolith cheap to run. Name is settled now so I can focus on shipping.

If you starred Cinder, thank you.

Repo: https://github.com/Michael-Obele/tomoshibi
npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/tomoshi
web: https://tomoshi.svelte-apps.me/

Formerly Cinder. Now Tomoshibi 灯火.

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