diff --git a/iroh/examples/custom-protocol.rs b/iroh/examples/custom-protocol.rs
index 11a369412ed..71fe3e9028f 100644
--- a/iroh/examples/custom-protocol.rs
+++ b/iroh/examples/custom-protocol.rs
@@ -233,7 +233,7 @@ impl BlobSearch {
     /// Query the local database.
     ///
     /// Returns the list of hashes of blobs which contain `query` literally.
-    pub async fn query_local(&self, query: &str) -> Result<Vec<Hash>> {
+    pub fn query_local(&self, query: &str) -> Result<Vec<Hash>> {
         let db = self.index.lock().unwrap();
         db.iter()
             .filter_map(|(text, hash)| text.contains(query).then_some(*hash))