diff --git a/core/imageboard/search.php b/core/imageboard/search.php
index 0377f9cc..b89b70a6 100644
--- a/core/imageboard/search.php
+++ b/core/imageboard/search.php
@@ -6,6 +6,21 @@ namespace Shimmie2;
 
 use GQLA\Query;
 
+/**
+ * A small chunk of SQL code + parameters, to be used in a larger query
+ *
+ * eg
+ *
+ * $q = new Querylet("SELECT * FROM images");
+ * $q->append(new Querylet(" WHERE id = :id", ["id" => 123]));
+ * $q->append(new Querylet(" AND rating = :rating", ["rating" => "safe"]));
+ * $q->append(new Querylet(" ORDER BY id DESC"));
+ *
+ * becomes
+ *
+ * SELECT * FROM images WHERE id = :id AND rating = :rating ORDER BY id DESC
+ * ["id" => 123, "rating" => "safe"]
+ */
 class Querylet
 {
     /**
@@ -25,6 +40,9 @@ class Querylet
     }
 }
 
+/**
+ * When somebody has searched for a tag, "cat", "cute", "-angry", etc
+ */
 class TagCondition
 {
     public function __construct(
@@ -34,6 +52,10 @@ class TagCondition
     }
 }
 
+/**
+ * When somebody has searched for a specific image property, like "rating:safe",
+ * "id:123", "width:100", etc
+ */
 class ImgCondition
 {
     public function __construct(
@@ -45,10 +67,19 @@ class ImgCondition
 
 class Search
 {
-    /** @var list<string> */
+    /**
+     * The search code is dark and full of horrors, and it's not always clear
+     * what's going on. This is a list of the steps that the search code took
+     * to find the images that it returned.
+     *
+     * @var list<string>
+     */
     public static array $_search_path = [];
 
     /**
+     * Build a search query for a given set of tags and return
+     * the results as a PDOStatement (raw SQL rows)
+     *
      * @param list<string> $tags
      */
     private static function find_images_internal(int $start = 0, ?int $limit = null, array $tags = []): \FFSPHP\PDOStatement
@@ -203,10 +234,13 @@ class Search
     /**
      * Turn a human input string into a an abstract search query
      *
+     * (This is only public for testing purposes, nobody should be calling this
+     * directly from outside this class)
+     *
      * @param string[] $terms
      * @return array{0: TagCondition[], 1: ImgCondition[], 2: string}
      */
-    private static function terms_to_conditions(array $terms): array
+    public static function terms_to_conditions(array $terms): array
     {
         global $config;
 
@@ -234,10 +268,13 @@ class Search
     /**
      * Turn an abstract search query into an SQL Querylet
      *
+     * (This is only public for testing purposes, nobody should be calling this
+     * directly from outside this class)
+     *
      * @param TagCondition[] $tag_conditions
      * @param ImgCondition[] $img_conditions
      */
-    private static function build_search_querylet(
+    public static function build_search_querylet(
         array $tag_conditions,
         array $img_conditions,
         ?string $order = null,
diff --git a/ext/index/main.php b/ext/index/main.php
index 3bf49f95..d1bbfdf3 100644
--- a/ext/index/main.php
+++ b/ext/index/main.php
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ namespace Shimmie2;
 
 use Symfony\Component\Console\Command\Command;
 use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\{InputInterface,InputArgument};
+use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputOption;
 use Symfony\Component\Console\Output\OutputInterface;
 
 require_once "config.php";
@@ -149,6 +150,46 @@ class Index extends Extension
                 foreach ($items as $item) {
                     $output->writeln($item->hash);
                 }
+                return Command::SUCCESS;
+            });
+        $event->app->register('debug:search')
+            ->addArgument('query', InputArgument::REQUIRED)
+            ->addOption('count', null, InputOption::VALUE_NONE, 'Generate a count-only query')
+            ->addOption('page', null, InputOption::VALUE_REQUIRED, 'Page number', default: 1)
+            ->addOption('limit', null, InputOption::VALUE_REQUIRED, 'Number of results per page', default: 25)
+            ->setDescription('Show the SQL generated for a given search query')
+            ->setCode(function (InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output): int {
+                $search = Tag::explode($input->getArgument('query'), false);
+                $page = $input->getOption('page');
+                $limit = $input->getOption('limit');
+                $count = $input->getOption('count');
+
+                [$tag_conditions, $img_conditions, $order] = Search::terms_to_conditions($search);
+                if($count) {
+                    $order = null;
+                    $page = null;
+                    $limit = null;
+                }
+
+                $q = Search::build_search_querylet(
+                    $tag_conditions,
+                    $img_conditions,
+                    $order,
+                    $limit,
+                    (int)(($page - 1) * $limit),
+                );
+
+                $sql_str = $q->sql;
+                $sql_str = preg_replace("/\s+/", " ", $sql_str);
+                foreach($q->variables as $key => $val) {
+                    if(is_string($val)) {
+                        $sql_str = str_replace(":$key", "'$val'", $sql_str);
+                    } else {
+                        $sql_str = str_replace(":$key", (string)$val, $sql_str);
+                    }
+                }
+                $output->writeln(trim($sql_str));
+
                 return Command::SUCCESS;
             });
     }