Notex

中文 | English

A privacy-first, open-source alternative to NotebookLM

An AI-powered knowledge management application that lets you create intelligent notebooks from your documents.

Project URL: https://github.com/smallnest/notex

• Python clone: pynotex

✨ Features

• 📚 Multiple Source Types - Upload PDFs, text files, Markdown, DOCX, and HTML documents
• 🤖 AI-Powered Chat - Ask questions and get answers based on your sources
• ✨ Multiple Transformations - Generate summaries, FAQs, study guides, outlines, timelines, glossaries, quizzes, mindmaps, infographics and podcast scripts
• 📊 Infographic Generation - Create beautiful, hand-drawn style infographics from your content using Google's Gemini Nano Banana
• 🎙️ Podcast Generation - Create engaging podcast scripts from your content
• 💾 Full Privacy - Local SQLite storage, optional cloud backends
• 🔄 Multi-Model Support - Works with OpenAI, Ollama, and other compatible APIs
• 🎨 Academic Brutalist Design - Distinctive, research-focused interface

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Go 1.23 or later
• An LLM API key (OpenAI) or Ollama running locally

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/smallnest/notex.git
cd notex

# Install dependencies
go mod tidy

# Set your API key
export OPENAI_API_KEY=your_key_here

# Run the server
go run . -server

Open your browser to http://localhost:8080

Using Ollama (Local, Free)

# Make sure Ollama is running
ollama serve

# Run with Ollama
export OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434
go run . -server

Alternative: Build and Run

# Build the binary
go build -o notex .

# Run with OpenAI
export OPENAI_API_KEY=your_key_here
./notex -server

# Or run with Ollama
export OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434
./notex -server

📖 Usage

Creating Notebooks

1. Click "New Notebook" in the header
2. Enter a name and optional description
3. Click "Create Notebook"

Adding Sources

You can add content to your notebook in three ways:

File Upload

• Click the "+" button in the Sources panel
• Drag and drop or browse for files
• Supported: PDF, TXT, MD, DOCX, HTML

Paste Text

• Select the "Text" tab
• Enter a title and paste your content

From URL

• Select the "URL" tab
• Enter the URL and optional title

Chatting with Sources

1. Switch to the "CHAT" tab
2. Ask questions about your content
3. Responses include references to relevant sources

Transformations

Click any transformation card to generate:

Transformation	Description
📝 Summary	Condensed overview of your sources
❓ FAQ	Common questions and answers
📚 Study Guide	Educational material with learning objectives
🗂️ Outline	Hierarchical structure of topics
🎙️ Podcast	Conversational script for audio content
📅 Timeline	Chronological events from sources
📖 Glossary	Key terms and definitions
✍️ Quiz	Assessment questions with answer key
📊 Infographic	Hand-drawn style visual representation of your content
🧠 Mindmap	Visual hierarchical diagram of your sources using Mermaid.js

Or use the custom prompt field for any other transformation.

⚙️ Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI API key	Required (unless using Ollama)
OPENAI_BASE_URL	Custom API base URL	OpenAI default
OPENAI_MODEL	Model name	gpt-4o-mini
EMBEDDING_MODEL	Embedding model	text-embedding-3-small
OLLAMA_BASE_URL	Ollama server URL	http://localhost:11434
OLLAMA_MODEL	Ollama model name	llama3.2
GOOGLE_API_KEY	Google Gemini API key	Required for Infographics
SERVER_HOST	Server host	0.0.0.0
SERVER_PORT	Server port	8080
VECTOR_STORE_TYPE	Vector store backend	sqlite
STORE_PATH	Database path	./data/checkpoints.db
MAX_SOURCES	Max sources for RAG	5
CHUNK_SIZE	Document chunk size	1000
CHUNK_OVERLAP	Chunk overlap	200

Vector Store Options

• sqlite - Local SQLite database (default)
• memory - In-memory vectors
• supabase - Supabase vector store
• postgres / pgvector - PostgreSQL with pgvector
• redis - Redis with RediSearch

Example Configuration Files

docker-compose.yml (for PostgreSQL + pgvector)

version: '3.8'
services:
  postgres:
    image: pgvector/pgvector:pg16
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: notebook
      POSTGRES_USER: notebook
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: secret
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"

  app:
    build: .
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_URL=postgres://notebook:secret@postgres:5432/notebook
      - VECTOR_STORE_TYPE=postgres
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"

🔧 Development

Running Tests

go test -v ./...

Building

go build -o notex .

Code Quality

# Format
go fmt ./...

# Lint
golangci-lint run

# Vet
go vet ./...

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

📄 License

Apache License 2.0 - see LICENSE for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Inspired by Google's NotebookLM
• Built with LangGraphGo
• Inspired by open-notebook

📞 Support

• Report issues on GitHub
• Join discussions in the Notex community

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Notex - A privacy-first, open-source alternative to NotebookLM https://github.com/smallnest/notex