diff --git a/api/internal/crawl/cmd/crawler/crawler.go b/api/internal/crawl/cmd/crawler/crawler.go
index 63df31409..e94afb306 100644
--- a/api/internal/crawl/cmd/crawler/crawler.go
+++ b/api/internal/crawl/cmd/crawler/crawler.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"flag"
 	"fmt"
 	"log"
 	"net/http"
@@ -69,6 +70,10 @@ func Usage() {
 }
 
 func main() {
+	indexNamePtr := flag.String(
+		"index", "kustomize", "The name of the ElasticSearch index.")
+	flag.Parse()
+
 	githubToken := os.Getenv(githubAccessTokenVar)
 	if githubToken == "" {
 		fmt.Printf("Must set the variable '%s' to make github requests.\n",
@@ -77,7 +82,7 @@ func main() {
 	}
 
 	ctx := context.Background()
-	idx, err := index.NewKustomizeIndex(ctx)
+	idx, err := index.NewKustomizeIndex(ctx, *indexNamePtr)
 	if err != nil {
 		fmt.Printf("Could not create an index: %v\n", err)
 		return
diff --git a/api/internal/crawl/index/kustomize.go b/api/internal/crawl/index/kustomize.go
index cedea28bb..568f7e4ea 100644
--- a/api/internal/crawl/index/kustomize.go
+++ b/api/internal/crawl/index/kustomize.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"io/ioutil"
+	"log"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
@@ -97,14 +98,14 @@ type KustomizeIndex struct {
 }
 
 // Create index reference to the index containing the kustomize documents.
-func NewKustomizeIndex(ctx context.Context) (*KustomizeIndex, error) {
-	idx, err := newIndex(ctx, "kustomize")
+func NewKustomizeIndex(ctx context.Context, indexName string) (*KustomizeIndex, error) {
+	idx, err := newIndex(ctx, indexName)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
 	indicesExistsOp := idx.client.Indices.Exists
-	resp, err := indicesExistsOp([]string{"kustomize"},
+	resp, err := indicesExistsOp([]string{indexName},
 		indicesExistsOp.WithContext(idx.ctx),
 		indicesExistsOp.WithPretty())
 	if err != nil {
@@ -112,9 +113,9 @@ func NewKustomizeIndex(ctx context.Context) (*KustomizeIndex, error) {
 	}
 
 	if resp.StatusCode == 200 {
-		fmt.Printf("The kustomize index already exists\n")
+		log.Printf("The %s index already exists", indexName)
 	} else {
-		fmt.Printf("Creating the kustomize index\n")
+		log.Printf("Creating the %s index\n", indexName)
 		if err := idx.CreateIndex([]byte(IndexConfig)); err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}