Open Notebook

Open Notebook

An open source, privacy-focused alternative to Google's Notebook LM!
Join our Discord server for help, to share workflow ideas, and suggest features!
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📚 Get Started · 📖 User Guide · ✨ Features · 🚀 Deploy

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 16+ 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

Learn more about our project at https://www.open-notebook.ai

⚠️ IMPORTANT: v1.0 Breaking Changes

If you're upgrading from a previous version, please note:

• 🏷️ Docker tags have changed: The latest tag is now frozen at the last Streamlit version
• 🆕 Use v1-latest tag for the new React/Next.js version (recommended)
• 🔌 Port 5055 required: You must expose port 5055 for the API to work
• 📖 Read the migration guide: See MIGRATION.md for detailed upgrade instructions

New users: You can ignore this notice and proceed with the Quick Start below using the v1-latest-single tag.

🆚 Open Notebook vs Google Notebook LM

Why Choose Open Notebook?

• 🔒 Privacy First: Your sensitive research stays completely private
• 💰 Cost Control: Choose cheaper AI providers or run locally with Ollama
• 🎙️ Better Podcasts: Full script control and multi-speaker flexibility vs limited 2-speaker deep-dive format
• 🔧 Unlimited Customization: Modify, extend, and integrate as needed
• 🌐 No Vendor Lock-in: Switch providers, deploy anywhere, own your data

Built With

🚀 Quick Start

Docker Images Available:

• Docker Hub: lfnovo/open_notebook:v1-latest-single
• GitHub Container Registry: ghcr.io/lfnovo/open-notebook:v1-latest-single

Both registries contain identical images - choose whichever you prefer!

Choose Your Setup:

mkdir open-notebook && cd open-notebook

docker run -d \
  --name open-notebook \
  -p 8502:8502 -p 5055:5055 \
  -v ./notebook_data:/app/data \
  -v ./surreal_data:/mydata \
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY=your_key_here \
  -e SURREAL_URL="ws://localhost:8000/rpc" \
  -e SURREAL_USER="root" \
  -e SURREAL_PASSWORD="root" \
  -e SURREAL_NAMESPACE="open_notebook" \
  -e SURREAL_DATABASE="production" \
  lfnovo/open_notebook:v1-latest-single

mkdir open-notebook && cd open-notebook

docker run -d \
  --name open-notebook \
  -p 8502:8502 -p 5055:5055 \
  -v ./notebook_data:/app/data \
  -v ./surreal_data:/mydata \
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY=your_key_here \
  -e API_URL=http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:5055 \
  -e SURREAL_URL="ws://localhost:8000/rpc" \
  -e SURREAL_USER="root" \
  -e SURREAL_PASSWORD="root" \
  -e SURREAL_NAMESPACE="open_notebook" \
  -e SURREAL_DATABASE="production" \
  lfnovo/open_notebook:v1-latest-single

⚠️ Critical Setup Notes:

Both ports are required:

• Port 8502: Web interface (what you see in your browser)
• Port 5055: API backend (required for the app to function)

API_URL must match how YOU access the server:

• ✅ Access via http://192.168.1.100:8502 → set API_URL=http://192.168.1.100:5055
• ✅ Access via http://myserver.local:8502 → set API_URL=http://myserver.local:5055
• ❌ Don't use localhost for remote servers - it won't work from other devices!

Using Docker Compose (Recommended for Easy Management)

Create a docker-compose.yml file:

services:
  open_notebook:
    image: lfnovo/open_notebook:v1-latest-single
    # Or use: ghcr.io/lfnovo/open-notebook:v1-latest-single
    ports:
      - "8502:8502"  # Web UI
      - "5055:5055"  # API (required!)
    environment:
      - OPENAI_API_KEY=your_key_here
      # For remote access, uncomment and set your server IP/domain:
      # - API_URL=http://192.168.1.100:5055
      # Database connection (required for single-container)
      - SURREAL_URL=ws://localhost:8000/rpc
      - SURREAL_USER=root
      - SURREAL_PASSWORD=root
      - SURREAL_NAMESPACE=open_notebook
      - SURREAL_DATABASE=production
    volumes:
      - ./notebook_data:/app/data
      - ./surreal_data:/mydata
    restart: always

Start with: docker compose up -d

What gets created:

open-notebook/
├── docker-compose.yml # Your configuration
├── notebook_data/     # Your notebooks and research content
└── surreal_data/      # Database files

🆘 Quick Troubleshooting

How Open Notebook Works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Your Browser                                           │
│  Access: http://your-server-ip:8502                     │
└────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┘
                 │
                 ▼
         ┌───────────────┐
         │   Port 8502   │  ← Next.js Frontend (what you see)
         │   Frontend    │    Also proxies API requests internally!
         └───────┬───────┘
                 │ proxies /api/* requests ↓
                 ▼
         ┌───────────────┐
         │   Port 5055   │  ← FastAPI Backend (handles requests)
         │     API       │
         └───────┬───────┘
                 │
                 ▼
         ┌───────────────┐
         │   SurrealDB   │  ← Database (internal, auto-configured)
         │   (Port 8000) │
         └───────────────┘

Key Points:

• v1.1+: Next.js automatically proxies /api/* requests to the backend, simplifying reverse proxy setup
• Your browser loads the frontend from port 8502
• The frontend needs to know where to find the API - when accessing remotely, set: API_URL=http://your-server-ip:5055
• Behind reverse proxy? You only need to proxy to port 8502 now! See Reverse Proxy Guide

Star History

🛠️ Full Installation

For development or customization:

git clone https://github.com/lfnovo/open-notebook
cd open-notebook
make start-all

📖 Need Help?

• 🤖 AI Installation Assistant: We have a CustomGPT built to help you install Open Notebook - it will guide you through each step!
• New to Open Notebook? Start with our Getting Started Guide
• Need installation help? Check our Installation Guide
• Want to see it in action? Try our Quick Start Tutorial

Provider Support Matrix

Thanks to the Esperanto library, we support this providers out of the box!

*Supports LM Studio and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint

✨ Key Features

Core Capabilities

• 🔒 Privacy-First: Your data stays under your control - no cloud dependencies
• 🎯 Multi-Notebook Organization: Manage multiple research projects seamlessly
• 📚 Universal Content Support: PDFs, videos, audio, web pages, Office docs, and more
• 🤖 Multi-Model AI Support: 16+ providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, Google, LM Studio, and more
• 🎙️ Professional Podcast Generation: Advanced multi-speaker podcasts with Episode Profiles
• 🔍 Intelligent Search: Full-text and vector search across all your content
• 💬 Context-Aware Chat: AI conversations powered by your research materials
• 📝 AI-Assisted Notes: Generate insights or write notes manually

Advanced Features

• ⚡ Reasoning Model Support: Full support for thinking models like DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3
• 🔧 Content Transformations: Powerful customizable actions to summarize and extract insights
• 🌐 Comprehensive REST API: Full programmatic access for custom integrations
• 🔐 Optional Password Protection: Secure public deployments with authentication
• 📊 Fine-Grained Context Control: Choose exactly what to share with AI models
• 📎 Citations: Get answers with proper source citations

Three-Column Interface

1. Sources: Manage all your research materials
2. Notes: Create manual or AI-generated notes
3. Chat: Converse with AI using your content as context

📚 Documentation

Getting Started

• 📖 Introduction - Learn what Open Notebook offers
• ⚡ Quick Start - Get up and running in 5 minutes
• 🔧 Installation - Comprehensive setup guide
• 🎯 Your First Notebook - Step-by-step tutorial

User Guide

• 📱 Interface Overview - Understanding the layout
• 📚 Notebooks - Organizing your research
• 📄 Sources - Managing content types
• 📝 Notes - Creating and managing notes
• 💬 Chat - AI conversations
• 🔍 Search - Finding information

Advanced Topics

• 🎙️ Podcast Generation - Create professional podcasts
• 🔧 Content Transformations - Customize content processing
• 🤖 AI Models - AI model configuration
• 🔧 REST API Reference - Complete API documentation
• 🔐 Security - Password protection and privacy
• 🚀 Deployment - Complete deployment guides for all scenarios

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🗺️ Roadmap

Upcoming Features

• Live Front-End Updates: Real-time UI updates for smoother experience
• Async Processing: Faster UI through asynchronous content processing
• Cross-Notebook Sources: Reuse research materials across projects
• Bookmark Integration: Connect with your favorite bookmarking apps

Recently Completed ✅

• Next.js Frontend: Modern React-based frontend with improved performance
• Comprehensive REST API: Full programmatic access to all functionality
• Multi-Model Support: 16+ AI providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, LM Studio
• Advanced Podcast Generator: Professional multi-speaker podcasts with Episode Profiles
• Content Transformations: Powerful customizable actions for content processing
• Enhanced Citations: Improved layout and finer control for source citations
• Multiple Chat Sessions: Manage different conversations within notebooks

See the open issues for a full list of proposed features and known issues.

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🤝 Community & Contributing

Join the Community

• 💬 Discord Server - Get help, share ideas, and connect with other users
• 🐛 GitHub Issues - Report bugs and request features
• ⭐ Star this repo - Show your support and help others discover Open Notebook

Contributing

We welcome contributions! We're especially looking for help with:

• Frontend Development: Help improve our modern Next.js/React UI
• Testing & Bug Fixes: Make Open Notebook more robust
• Feature Development: Build the coolest research tool together
• Documentation: Improve guides and tutorials

Current Tech Stack: Python, FastAPI, Next.js, React, SurrealDB Future Roadmap: Real-time updates, enhanced async processing

See our Contributing Guide for detailed information on how to get started.

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📄 License

Open Notebook is MIT licensed. See the LICENSE file for details.

📞 Contact

Luis Novo - @lfnovo

Community Support:

• 💬 Discord Server - Get help, share ideas, and connect with users
• 🐛 GitHub Issues - Report bugs and request features
• 🌐 Website - Learn more about the project

🙏 Acknowledgments

Open Notebook is built on the shoulders of amazing open-source projects:

• Podcast Creator - Advanced podcast generation capabilities
• Surreal Commands - Background job processing
• Content Core - Content processing and management
• Esperanto - Multi-provider AI model abstraction
• Docling - Document processing and parsing

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