open-notebook

Sat, 06 Jun 2026 17:36:10 +0800

lfnovo/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!
Checkout our website »

📚 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 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

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

🆚 Open Notebook vs Google Notebook LM

Feature	Open Notebook	Google Notebook LM	Advantage
Privacy & Control	Self-hosted, your data	Google cloud only	Complete data sovereignty
AI Provider Choice	18+ providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, LM Studio, etc.)	Google models only	Flexibility and cost optimization
Podcast Speakers	1-4 speakers with custom profiles	2 speakers only	Extreme flexibility
Content Transformations	Custom and built-in	Limited options	Unlimited processing power
API Access	Full REST API	No API	Complete automation
Deployment	Docker, cloud, or local	Google hosted only	Deploy anywhere
Citations	Basic references (will improve)	Comprehensive with sources	Research integrity
Customization	Open source, fully customizable	Closed system	Unlimited extensibility
Cost	Pay only for AI usage	Free tier + Monthly subscription	Transparent and controllable

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 (2 Minutes)

Prerequisites

Docker Desktop installed
That’s it! (API keys configured later in the UI)

Step 1: Get docker-compose.yml

Option A: Download directly

`1`	`curl -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lfnovo/open-notebook/main/docker-compose.yml`

Option B: Create the file manually Copy this into a new file called docker-compose.yml:

services:
  surrealdb:
    image: surrealdb/surrealdb:v2
    command: start --log info --user root --pass root rocksdb:/mydata/mydatabase.db
    user: root
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    volumes:
      - ./surreal_data:/mydata
    restart: always

  open_notebook:
    image: lfnovo/open_notebook:v1-latest
    ports:
      - "8502:8502"
      - "5055:5055"
    environment:
      - OPEN_NOTEBOOK_ENCRYPTION_KEY=change-me-to-a-secret-string
      - SURREAL_URL=ws://surrealdb:8000/rpc
      - SURREAL_USER=root
      - SURREAL_PASSWORD=root
      - SURREAL_NAMESPACE=open_notebook
      - SURREAL_DATABASE=open_notebook
    volumes:
      - ./notebook_data:/app/data
    depends_on:
      - surrealdb
    restart: always

Step 2: Set Your Encryption Key

Edit docker-compose.yml and change this line:

`1`	`- OPEN_NOTEBOOK_ENCRYPTION_KEY=change-me-to-a-secret-string`

to any secret value (e.g., my-super-secret-key-123)

Step 3: Start Services

`1`	`docker compose up -d`

Wait 15-20 seconds, then open: http://localhost:8502

Step 4: Configure AI Provider

Go to Settings → API Keys
Click Add Credential
Choose your provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.)
Paste your API key and click Save
Click Test Connection → Discover Models → Register Models

Done! You’re ready to create your first notebook.

Need an API key? Get one from: OpenAI · Anthropic · Google · Groq (free tier)

Want free local AI? See examples/docker-compose-ollama.yml for Ollama setup

📚 More Installation Options

With Ollama (Free Local AI) - Run models locally without API costs
From Source (Developers) - For development and contributions
Complete Installation Guide - All deployment scenarios

📖 Need Help?

🤖 AI Installation Assistant: CustomGPT to help you install
🆘 Troubleshooting: 5-minute troubleshooting guide
💬 Community Support: Discord Server
🐛 Report Issues: GitHub Issues

Star History

Provider Support Matrix

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

Provider	LLM Support	Embedding Support	Speech-to-Text	Text-to-Speech
OpenAI	✅	✅	✅	✅
Anthropic	✅	❌	❌	❌
Groq	✅	❌	✅	❌
Google (GenAI)	✅	✅	✅	✅
Vertex AI	✅	✅	❌	✅
Ollama	✅	✅	❌	❌
Perplexity	✅	❌	❌	❌
ElevenLabs	❌	❌	✅	✅
Deepgram	❌	❌	❌	✅
Azure OpenAI	✅	✅	✅	✅
Mistral	✅	✅	✅	✅
DeepSeek	✅	❌	❌	❌
Voyage	❌	✅	❌	❌
xAI	✅	❌	❌	✅
OpenRouter	✅	✅	❌	❌
DashScope (Qwen)	✅	❌	❌	❌
MiniMax	✅	❌	❌	❌
OpenAI Compatible*	✅	✅	✅	✅

*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: 18+ 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

Podcast Feature

📚 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
🔌 MCP Integration - Connect with Claude Desktop, VS Code and other MCP clients
🔧 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: 18+ 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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📖 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

🤝 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

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open-notebook

lfnovo/open-notebook

Open Notebook

A private, multi-model, 100% local, full-featured alternative to Notebook LM

🆚 Open Notebook vs Google Notebook LM

Built With

🚀 Quick Start (2 Minutes)

Prerequisites

Step 1: Get docker-compose.yml

Step 2: Set Your Encryption Key

Step 3: Start Services

Step 4: Configure AI Provider

📚 More Installation Options

📖 Need Help?

Star History

Provider Support Matrix

✨ Key Features

Core Capabilities

Advanced Features

Podcast Feature

📚 Documentation

Getting Started

User Guide

Advanced Topics

🗺️ Roadmap

Upcoming Features

Recently Completed ✅

📖 Need Help?

🤝 Community & Contributing

Join the Community

Contributing

📄 License