diff --git a/quickpeep_index/src/backend/tantivy.rs b/quickpeep_index/src/backend/tantivy.rs
index d5370da..ffd1198 100644
--- a/quickpeep_index/src/backend/tantivy.rs
+++ b/quickpeep_index/src/backend/tantivy.rs
@@ -1,40 +1,107 @@
 use crate::backend::{Backend, BackendIndependentDocument};
+use anyhow::Context;
+use std::collections::HashMap;
 use std::path::Path;
-use tantivy::schema::{Schema, STORED, TEXT};
-use tantivy::{Index, IndexWriter};
+use tantivy::schema::{Facet, Field, SchemaBuilder, STORED, TEXT};
+use tantivy::{doc, Index, IndexWriter};
 
-fn experiment_tantivy() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
-    let mut schema_builder = Schema::builder();
-    // TODO what should our schema look like? Should we have another database with stuff?
-    // (notably we could Zstd-compress things in another datastore, for reduced disk usage...)
-    schema_builder.add_text_field("title", TEXT | STORED);
-    schema_builder.add_text_field("article", TEXT);
-    schema_builder.add_text_field("nonarticle", TEXT);
-    schema_builder.add_text_field("url", STORED);
-    schema_builder.add_facet_field("tags", ());
-    // schema_builder.add_bytes_field()
-    let schema = schema_builder.build();
-    let index = tantivy::Index::create_in_dir(Path::new("/tmp/tindex"), schema)?;
-    let _writer = index.writer(100 * 1024 * 1024)?;
-
-    Ok(())
+pub struct Fields {
+    title: Field,
+    article: Field,
+    nonarticle: Field,
+    url: Field,
+    tags: Field,
 }
 
 pub struct TantivyBackend {
     index: Index,
-    index_writer: IndexWriter,
+    fields: Fields,
+    index_writer: Option<IndexWriter>,
+}
+
+impl TantivyBackend {
+    pub fn open(path: &Path) -> anyhow::Result<TantivyBackend> {
+        if !path.exists() {
+            std::fs::create_dir(path)?;
+        }
+
+        let dir_path = path.join("tantivy");
+
+        let (index, fields) = if dir_path.exists() {
+            let index = Index::open_in_dir(dir_path)?;
+
+            let schema = index.schema();
+            let mut field_map: HashMap<_, _> = schema
+                .fields()
+                .map(|(field, field_entry)| (field_entry.name(), field))
+                .collect();
+
+            let fields = Fields {
+                title: field_map.remove("title").context("No title field")?,
+                article: field_map.remove("article").context("No article field")?,
+                nonarticle: field_map
+                    .remove("nonarticle")
+                    .context("No nonarticle field")?,
+                url: field_map.remove("url").context("No url field")?,
+                tags: field_map.remove("tags").context("No tags field")?,
+            };
+
+            (index, fields)
+        } else {
+            let mut schema_builder = SchemaBuilder::new();
+            let fields = Fields {
+                title: schema_builder.add_text_field("title", TEXT | STORED),
+                article: schema_builder.add_text_field("article", TEXT),
+                nonarticle: schema_builder.add_text_field("nonarticle", TEXT),
+                url: schema_builder.add_text_field("url", STORED),
+                tags: schema_builder.add_facet_field("tags", ()),
+            };
+            let schema = schema_builder.build();
+
+            let index = Index::create_in_dir(dir_path, schema)?;
+
+            (index, fields)
+        };
+
+        Ok(TantivyBackend {
+            index,
+            fields,
+            index_writer: None,
+        })
+    }
 }
 
 impl Backend for TantivyBackend {
-    fn add_document(&mut self, _document: BackendIndependentDocument) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
-        // self.index_writer.add_document(doc! {
-        //     "title" => document.title,
-        //     "article" => document.article_body,
-        //     "nonarticle" => document.nonarticle_body,
-        //     "url" => document.url,
-        //     "tags" => document.tags
-        // })?;
-        todo!()
+    fn add_document(&mut self, document: BackendIndependentDocument) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
+        let index_writer = match self.index_writer.as_ref() {
+            None => {
+                self.index_writer = Some(self.index.writer(100 * 1024 * 1024)?);
+                self.index_writer.as_ref().unwrap()
+            }
+            Some(index_writer) => index_writer,
+        };
+
+        let Fields {
+            title,
+            article,
+            nonarticle,
+            url,
+            tags,
+        } = &self.fields;
+
+        let mut tantivy_doc = doc! {
+             *title => document.title,
+             *article => document.article_body,
+             *nonarticle => document.nonarticle_body,
+             *url => document.url
+        };
+        // TODO do we actually want facets? How about u64 tags or something...?
+        for tag in &document.tags {
+            tantivy_doc.add_facet(*tags, Facet::from(&format!("/{}", tag)));
+        }
+
+        index_writer.add_document(tantivy_doc)?;
+        Ok(())
     }
 
     fn flush(&mut self) -> anyhow::Result<()> {