MindVault

MindVault is a privacy-first, offline-capable local knowledge management app with semantic search and RAG capabilities. It allows you to take notes, index them locally, and ask questions using a local LLM.

Architecture

graph TD
    User((User)) --> Frontend[React Frontend]
    Frontend --> TipTap[TipTap Editor]
    Frontend --> API[FastAPI Backend]
    API --> SQLite[(SQLite Metadata)]
    API --> Chroma[(ChromaDB Vector Store)]
    API --> Ollama[Ollama LLM]
    API --> Filesystem[(Markdown Files)]

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Features

• Privacy-First: Everything runs locally. No cloud calls.
• Semantic Search: Find notes based on meaning, not just keywords.
• RAG Pipeline: Ask questions about your notes and get AI-generated answers using Ollama.
• Markdown Editor: TipTap-based editor with live preview and markdown support.
• Related Notes: Automatically see notes related to what you're currently writing.
• Import: Easily import your existing Obsidian vaults or markdown folders.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React, TypeScript, TailwindCSS, TipTap, Axios, Lucide
• Backend: FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, SQLite, ChromaDB, Ollama.
• Embeddings: sentence-transformers (all-MiniLM-L6-v2) running on the backend.
• LLM: Ollama (llama3).

Setup Instructions

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose
• Python 3.9+
• Node.js 18+
• Ollama installed and running locally.

1. Spin up Core Services

docker-compose up -d

This starts ChromaDB. Make sure Ollama is running on your host machine at http://localhost:11434.

2. Backend Setup

cd backend
pip install -r requirements.txt
cp ../env.example .env
uvicorn main:app --reload

3. Frontend Setup

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

4. Pull LLM Model

ollama pull llama3

User Flow

1. Create a Note: Click the "+" button in the sidebar.
2. Write Content: Use the TipTap editor to write in Markdown.
3. Semantic Search: Switch to the "AI Chat" view to ask questions about your notes.
4. Get Answers: The AI retrieves relevant context from your notes and answers via Ollama.