diff --git a/src/bin/indexer.rs b/src/bin/indexer.rs
index 3c8a4b100..9cad5382d 100644
--- a/src/bin/indexer.rs
+++ b/src/bin/indexer.rs
@@ -424,7 +424,7 @@ fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         .max_dbs(10)
         .open(&opt.database)?;
 
-    let index = Index::new(&env)?;
+    let mut index = Index::new(&env, &opt.database)?;
 
     let documents_path = opt.database.join("documents.mtbl");
     let num_threads = rayon::current_num_threads();
@@ -499,13 +499,12 @@ fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         let mut builder = Merger::builder(docs_merge);
         builder.extend(docs_stores);
         builder.build().write_into(&mut writer)?;
-        Ok(writer.into_inner()?) as anyhow::Result<_>
+        Ok(writer.finish()?) as anyhow::Result<_>
     });
 
-    let file = lmdb.and(mtbl)?;
-    let mmap = unsafe { Mmap::map(&file)? };
-    let documents = Reader::new(mmap)?;
-    let count = documents.metadata().count_entries;
+    lmdb.and(mtbl)?;
+    index.refresh_documents()?;
+    let count = index.number_of_documents();
 
     debug!("Wrote {} documents into LMDB", count);
 
diff --git a/src/bin/search.rs b/src/bin/search.rs
index 6bd29230f..9ecbc1676 100644
--- a/src/bin/search.rs
+++ b/src/bin/search.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-use std::fs::File;
 use std::io::{self, Write, BufRead};
 use std::iter::once;
 use std::path::PathBuf;
@@ -7,7 +6,6 @@ use std::time::Instant;
 use heed::EnvOpenOptions;
 use log::debug;
 use milli::Index;
-use oxidized_mtbl::Reader;
 use structopt::StructOpt;
 
 #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
@@ -47,14 +45,7 @@ fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         .open(&opt.database)?;
 
     // Open the LMDB database.
-    let index = Index::new(&env)?;
-
-    // Open the documents MTBL database.
-    let path = opt.database.join("documents.mtbl");
-    let file = File::open(path)?;
-    let mmap = unsafe { memmap::Mmap::map(&file)? };
-    let documents = Reader::new(mmap.as_ref())?;
-
+    let index = Index::new(&env, opt.database)?;
     let rtxn = env.read_txn()?;
 
     let stdin = io::stdin();
@@ -72,15 +63,13 @@ fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
             Some(headers) => headers,
             None => return Ok(()),
         };
+        let documents = index.documents(documents_ids.iter().cloned())?;
 
         let mut stdout = io::stdout();
         stdout.write_all(&headers)?;
 
-        for id in &documents_ids {
-            let id_bytes = id.to_be_bytes();
-            if let Some(content) = documents.clone().get(&id_bytes)? {
-                stdout.write_all(content.as_ref())?;
-            }
+        for (_id, content) in documents {
+            stdout.write_all(&content)?;
         }
 
         debug!("Took {:.02?} to find {} documents", before.elapsed(), documents_ids.len());
diff --git a/src/bin/serve.rs b/src/bin/serve.rs
index 5c2f9bf5d..0962ae9da 100644
--- a/src/bin/serve.rs
+++ b/src/bin/serve.rs
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ use std::time::Instant;
 
 use askama_warp::Template;
 use heed::EnvOpenOptions;
-use oxidized_mtbl::Reader;
 use serde::Deserialize;
 use slice_group_by::StrGroupBy;
 use structopt::StructOpt;
@@ -99,22 +98,13 @@ async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         .open(&opt.database)?;
 
     // Open the LMDB database.
-    let index = Index::new(&env)?;
-
-    // Open the documents MTBL database.
-    let path = opt.database.join("documents.mtbl");
-    let file = File::open(path)?;
-    let mmap = unsafe { memmap::Mmap::map(&file)? };
-    let mmap = TransitiveArc(Arc::new(mmap));
-    let documents = Reader::new(mmap)?;
+    let index = Index::new(&env, &opt.database)?;
 
     // Retrieve the database the file stem (w/o the extension),
     // the disk file size and the number of documents in the database.
     let db_name = opt.database.file_stem().and_then(|s| s.to_str()).unwrap_or("").to_string();
     let db_size = File::open(opt.database.join("data.mdb"))?.metadata()?.len() as usize;
-
-    // Retrieve the documents count.
-    let docs_count = documents.metadata().count_entries;
+    let docs_count = index.number_of_documents();
 
     // We run and wait on the HTTP server
 
@@ -198,7 +188,6 @@ async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     }
 
     let env_cloned = env.clone();
-    let documents_cloned = documents.clone();
     let disable_highlighting = opt.disable_highlighting;
     let query_route = warp::filters::method::post()
         .and(warp::path!("query"))
@@ -213,13 +202,10 @@ async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
             if let Some(headers) = index.headers(&rtxn).unwrap() {
                 // We write the headers
                 body.extend_from_slice(headers);
+                let documents = index.documents(documents_ids).unwrap();
 
-                for id in documents_ids {
-                    let id_bytes = id.to_be_bytes();
-                    let content = documents_cloned.clone().get(&id_bytes).unwrap();
-                    let content = content.expect(&format!("could not find document {}", id));
+                for (_id, content) in documents {
                     let content = std::str::from_utf8(content.as_ref()).unwrap();
-
                     let content = if disable_highlighting {
                         Cow::from(content)
                     } else {
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index fc7a4b7c9..398d17371 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -2,12 +2,17 @@ mod best_proximity;
 mod heed_codec;
 mod iter_shortest_paths;
 mod query_tokens;
+mod transitive_arc;
 
 use std::borrow::Cow;
 use std::collections::{HashSet, HashMap};
+use std::fs::{File, OpenOptions};
 use std::hash::BuildHasherDefault;
+use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
+use std::sync::Arc;
 use std::time::Instant;
 
+use anyhow::Context;
 use cow_utils::CowUtils;
 use fst::{IntoStreamer, Streamer};
 use fxhash::{FxHasher32, FxHasher64};
@@ -15,12 +20,15 @@ use heed::types::*;
 use heed::{PolyDatabase, Database};
 use levenshtein_automata::LevenshteinAutomatonBuilder as LevBuilder;
 use log::debug;
+use memmap::Mmap;
 use once_cell::sync::Lazy;
+use oxidized_mtbl as omtbl;
 use roaring::RoaringBitmap;
 
 use self::best_proximity::BestProximity;
 use self::heed_codec::RoaringBitmapCodec;
 use self::query_tokens::{QueryTokens, QueryToken};
+use self::transitive_arc::TransitiveArc;
 
 // Building these factories is not free.
 static LEVDIST0: Lazy<LevBuilder> = Lazy::new(|| LevBuilder::new(0, true));
@@ -39,6 +47,8 @@ pub type Position = u32;
 
 #[derive(Clone)]
 pub struct Index {
+    // The database path, where the LMDB and MTBL files are.
+    path: PathBuf,
     /// Contains many different types (e.g. the documents CSV headers).
     pub main: PolyDatabase,
     /// A word and all the positions where it appears in the whole dataset.
@@ -49,20 +59,40 @@ pub struct Index {
     pub prefix_word_position_docids: Database<ByteSlice, RoaringBitmapCodec>,
     /// Maps a word and an attribute (u32) to all the documents ids that it appears in.
     pub word_attribute_docids: Database<ByteSlice, RoaringBitmapCodec>,
+    /// The MTBL store that contains the documents content.
+    documents: omtbl::Reader<TransitiveArc<Mmap>>,
 }
 
 impl Index {
-    pub fn new(env: &heed::Env) -> heed::Result<Index> {
+    pub fn new<P: AsRef<Path>>(env: &heed::Env, path: P) -> anyhow::Result<Index> {
+        let documents_path = path.as_ref().join("documents.mtbl");
+        let mut documents = OpenOptions::new().create(true).write(true).read(true).open(documents_path)?;
+        // If the file is empty we must initialize it like an empty MTBL database.
+        if documents.metadata()?.len() == 0 {
+            omtbl::Writer::new(&mut documents).finish()?;
+        }
+        let documents = unsafe { memmap::Mmap::map(&documents)? };
+
         Ok(Index {
+            path: path.as_ref().to_path_buf(),
             main: env.create_poly_database(None)?,
             word_positions: env.create_database(Some("word-positions"))?,
             prefix_word_positions: env.create_database(Some("prefix-word-positions"))?,
             word_position_docids: env.create_database(Some("word-position-docids"))?,
             prefix_word_position_docids: env.create_database(Some("prefix-word-position-docids"))?,
             word_attribute_docids: env.create_database(Some("word-attribute-docids"))?,
+            documents: omtbl::Reader::new(TransitiveArc(Arc::new(documents)))?,
         })
     }
 
+    pub fn refresh_documents(&mut self) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
+        let documents_path = self.path.join("documents.mtbl");
+        let documents = File::open(&documents_path)?;
+        let documents = unsafe { memmap::Mmap::map(&documents)? };
+        self.documents = omtbl::Reader::new(TransitiveArc(Arc::new(documents)))?;
+        Ok(())
+    }
+
     pub fn put_headers(&self, wtxn: &mut heed::RwTxn, headers: &[u8]) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         Ok(self.main.put::<_, Str, ByteSlice>(wtxn, "headers", headers)?)
     }
@@ -93,6 +123,21 @@ impl Index {
         }
     }
 
+    /// Returns a [`Vec`] of the requested documents. Returns an error if a document is missing.
+    pub fn documents<I: IntoIterator<Item=DocumentId>>(&self, iter: I) -> anyhow::Result<Vec<(DocumentId, Vec<u8>)>> {
+        iter.into_iter().map(|id| {
+            let key = id.to_be_bytes();
+            let content = self.documents.clone().get(&key)?.with_context(|| format!("Could not find document {}.", id))?;
+            Ok((id, content.as_ref().to_vec()))
+        })
+        .collect()
+    }
+
+    /// Returns the number of documents indexed in the database.
+    pub fn number_of_documents(&self) -> usize {
+        self.documents.metadata().count_entries as usize
+    }
+
     pub fn search(&self, rtxn: &heed::RoTxn, query: &str) -> anyhow::Result<(HashSet<String>, Vec<DocumentId>)> {
         let fst = match self.fst(rtxn)? {
             Some(fst) => fst,
diff --git a/src/transitive_arc.rs b/src/transitive_arc.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c25ee3e63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/transitive_arc.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+use std::sync::Arc;
+
+/// An `Arc<[u8]>` that is transitive over `AsRef<[u8]>`.
+pub struct TransitiveArc<T>(pub Arc<T>);
+
+impl<T: AsRef<[u8]>> AsRef<[u8]> for TransitiveArc<T> {
+    fn as_ref(&self) -> &[u8] {
+        self.0.as_ref().as_ref()
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T> Clone for TransitiveArc<T> {
+    fn clone(&self) -> TransitiveArc<T> {
+        TransitiveArc(self.0.clone())
+    }
+}