44 megabytes.
4.47 million files.
Interlinked Files sits in your background with a fully loaded index (every file on a developer's C: drive) and uses less memory than opening a single PDF.
TL;DR
The whole story, in five lines.
- 01A fully loaded index of every file on a developer's C: drive (4.47 million of them) sits at roughly 44 MB of memory, less than a single Chrome tab and about 27× lighter than an idle Slack.
- 02That is about 10 bytes of idle memory per file, the result of one rule: nothing stays resident unless it is needed to answer the next query. The full index lives on disk; only hot paths stay in RAM.
- 03Small memory does not mean slow: a single filename lookup returns in about 85 µs (139 µs median), content search in 7-9 ms, and the index refreshes within ~1 ms of a file changing.
- 04Every figure is a Task Manager working set on the same Windows 11 machine (Ryzen 9 9950X3D), taken an hour after launch while idle: the same ruler for Interlinked and for Slack, Teams, and Outlook.
- 05Everything local is free forever, no card. Hosting starts at $5.99/mo.
Interlinked Files
Fully loaded index, 4.47M files
Slack (idle)
No notifications, no calls, doing nothing
Same machine. Same Task Manager. Both idle for 30+ minutes. Interlinked holds a fully loaded index of 4.47M files in 44 MB. Slack, doing nothing, sits at 1.2 GB. The ratio is real.
Background memory, ranked
Seven things sitting in your taskbar doing nothing.
All numbers are working set on the same Windows 11 machine (Ryzen 9 9950X3D, 64 GB DDR5), after each app has been open for at least 30 minutes with no user interaction.
| Process | Idle memory▲ | State |
|---|---|---|
| Interlinked Files | 44 MB | Background daemon, fully loaded 4.47M-file index |
| OneDrive sync | 200 MB | Idle, no active transfers |
| Discord | 350 MB | Idle, no voice calls |
| Chrome (1 tab) | 400 MB | Single empty tab, idle |
| Outlook (new) | 800 MB | Inbox open, idle |
| Microsoft Teams | 900 MB | Idle, signed in |
| Slack | 1,200 MB | Idle, no notifications |
Interlinked indexes 4.47 million files and fits inside 44 MB.
That's less than one Chrome tab.Why idle matters
A search engine should fade
into the wallpaper.
A file search engine has two states: answering queries, and not answering queries. The not-answering state represents 99.9% of its lifetime. In that state it has one job: take up as little of your machine as possible while still waking up in microseconds the moment you need it.
Every megabyte an idle indexer holds is a megabyte that isn't available for your build, your simulator, your local model, your container, your IDE. Most idle indexers don't care about this. They were designed in an era when 4 GB of RAM was a lot. Interlinked was designed for the modern reality: 16-core developer machines that already feel cramped because every other tool grew without restraint.
Honesty
Idle vs warm: what we're measuring.
44 MB is the steady-state idle number. Right after a fresh boot, or right after a heavy burst of indexing, the memory will be higher. Then it settles. We could quote a lower number: after deep OS trim the working set drops further. We picked 44 MB because that's what you see if you open Task Manager an hour into a normal workday.
We measured every app the same way: Task Manager working set, an hour after launch, sitting idle. Slack's 1.2 GB isn't a spike; it's steady state. Same ruler for all of them. The 27× ratio is real.
Files indexed
Developer C: drive, full index
Memory per file
At idle. Per indexed file.
The background tax
Before you open a code editor, you've already lost 8 GB.
The everyday state of a developer machine is 8-12 GB committed before a single productive application has launched. Slack, Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, Chrome, Discord: each one growing without restraint, each one designed in a world where their process was the only one that mattered.
Adding one more memory-hungry background process feels like a tax. Interlinked is not one more memory-hungry background process. It indexes every file on your machine and costs you roughly the same as opening a single PDF.
The principle
Memory is a budget. Most apps spend it like it's free.
Search is a service you call when you need it. The other 23 hours and 50 minutes of the day, it should be invisible. Not consuming resources, not competing with your build, not pushing other processes to the page file.
44 MB at idle is the result of one design rule: nothing in memory that doesn't have to be there to answer the next query. The full index lives on disk. The pieces needed to make the next lookup sub-millisecond live in memory. Everything else is paged out and forgotten.
That rule compounds. A background process that stays at 44 MB doesn't just save RAM. It means the OS never has to trim it, never has to page it, never has to decide whether your indexer or your build process gets the physical memory. Invisible processes should be truly invisible.
Common questions
Questions, answered.
How does Interlinked fit millions of files in 44 MB?
The full index lives on disk; only the hot paths needed to answer your next query stay resident in memory. Across a 4.47M-file index that is roughly 10 bytes of idle memory per file, about 44 MB in total.
Does keeping memory this low make search slow?
No. A single filename lookup returns in about 85 µs (139 µs median across 4.47M files) and content search runs in 7-9 ms. The index also stays fresh, reflecting a changed file within about 1 ms.
Is the 44 MB number measured fairly?
It is the Task Manager working set on Windows 11 (Ryzen 9 9950X3D), an hour after launch and sitting idle: the exact same measurement used for Slack (1.2 GB), Teams, and Outlook. It is steady state, not a momentary post-boot dip.
What does Interlinked Files cost?
Everything, including the agent (MCP) integration that plugs into tools like Claude Code and Cursor, is free forever, no card. Hosting starts at $5.99/mo.
Does any of my data leave the machine?
No. There is no model and no network call in the indexing or search path. The index is built and queried entirely on your own machine, fully offline.