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<h3 align="center">Open Notebook</h3>
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An open source, privacy-focused alternative to Google's Notebook LM!
<br /><strong>Join our <a href="https://discord.gg/37XJPXfz2w">Discord server</a> for help, to share workflow ideas, and suggest features!</strong>
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<a href="https://www.open-notebook.ai"><strong>Checkout our website »</strong></a>
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<a href="docs/0-START-HERE/index.md">📚 Get Started</a>
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<a href="docs/3-USER-GUIDE/index.md">📖 User Guide</a>
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<a href="docs/2-CORE-CONCEPTS/index.md">✨ Features</a>
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Overview
Open Notebook is an open-source, privacy-first alternative to Google’s Notebook LM written primarily in TypeScript. It provides a self-hosted research workspace that ingests multi-modal content (PDFs, video, audio, web pages, Office docs), offers full-text and vector search, context-aware chat, and AI-assisted notes. Key concrete features from the README: support for 18+ AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, LM Studio, Google, etc.), professional multi-speaker podcast generation with Episode Profiles, a comprehensive REST API (available at port 5055 in the default setup), and multi-language UI (English, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Bengali).
Why It Matters
Privacy-first design: self-hosted deployment keeps sensitive research under your control rather than in a single cloud provider.
Multi-model flexibility: connect OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, LM Studio and other providers (see provider support matrix) to optimize cost, latency, or capability — plus a free local path via an Ollama compose example.
Extensible platform: Next.js frontend, SurrealDB backend, and a complete REST API enable automation and integration for teams and developers.
This repository is trending now (Rank: 7) after a surge of attention (212 stars today, 25,088 total) driven by recent milestone features listed in the roadmap: Next.js frontend, comprehensive REST API, multi-model support, and an advanced podcast generator — all concrete items called out in the README.
Getting started (concrete quick path)
Grab the example Docker compose: curl -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lfnovo/open-notebook/main/docker-compose.yml.
Edit the OPEN_NOTEBOOK_ENCRYPTION_KEY in docker-compose.yml to a secret value.
Start services: docker compose up -d and open the app at http://localhost:8502 (API docs available at http://localhost:5055/docs).
Configure AI providers in Settings → API Keys, then Test Connection → Discover Models → Register Models.
Who it's for
Researchers, privacy-conscious teams, indie developers, and podcast producers who want a self-hosted research notebook with multi-model LLM support, vector search, podcast generation, and a programmable REST API.
Notable details
Provider support matrix and examples include OpenAI-compatible endpoints and Ollama for local models.
Advanced content transformations, fine-grained context control, citations, and optional password protection for public deployments are explicitly documented in the README.
Why watch
Concrete recent completions (Next.js frontend, REST API, multi-model & podcast features), easy Docker quick-start, and a strong multi-provider strategy explain why the project is receiving a daily star spike and wide community interest.
A private, multi-model, 100% local, full-featured alternative to Notebook LM
In a world dominated by Artificial Intelligence, having the ability to think 🧠 and acquire new knowledge 💡, is a skill that should not be a privilege for a few, nor restricted to a single provider.
Open Notebook empowers you to:
🔒 Control your data - Keep your research private and secure
🤖 Choose your AI models - Support for 18+ providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, LM Studio, and more
📚 Organize multi-modal content - PDFs, videos, audio, web pages, and more
🎙️ Generate professional podcasts - Advanced multi-speaker podcast generation
🔍 Search intelligently - Full-text and vector search across all your content
💬 Chat with context - AI conversations powered by your research
🌐 Multi-language UI - English, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Japanese, Russian, and Bengali support
