Verified project record

lfnovo/open-notebook

A self-hosted AI research notebook enabling data sovereignty over multi-modal research materials. It provides content ingestion, context-aware chat, search, multi-speaker podcast generation, and configurable AI model routing.

Project overview

Project type: MCP · RAG
Use cases: Knowledge Q&A
Deployment: Refer to project documentation
License: MIT

Best for

Researchers and general users needing a self-hosted research notebook with data sovereignty.
Users requiring multi-format content ingestion and synthesis, including text, audio, and video.

Key capabilities

Organizes and ingests multi-modal content including PDFs, videos, audio, web pages, and Office documents.
Provides AI conversations powered by ingested research materials.
Executes full-text and vector search across all ingested content.
Generates multi-speaker podcasts featuring 1-4 speakers with custom Episode Profiles.
Runs customizable actions to summarize and extract insights from content.
Supports 18+ AI providers for LLMs, embeddings, speech-to-text, and text-to-speech.
Provides full programmatic access for custom integrations.
Provides answers with basic source citations, with improvements planned.

Limitations and risks

Currently provides basic references, with comprehensive citations planned for future updates.

Getting started

Download the docker-compose.yml file, edit the encryption key, run docker compose up -d, and open the interface at http://localhost:8502.

Evidence and sources

GitHub project description: An Open Source implementation of Notebook LM with more flexibility and features
README: Open Notebook empowers you to: - 🔒 **Control your data** - Keep your research private and secure - 🤖 **Choose your AI models** - Support for 18+ providers including OpenAI, Anthro…
README: - 📚 **Universal Content Support**: PDFs, videos, audio, web pages, Office docs, and more - 🤖 **Multi-Model AI Support**: 18+ providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, Google,…
README: | **Privacy & Control** | Self-hosted, your data | Google cloud only | Complete data sovereignty |
README: - **🔧 Content Transformations**: Powerful customizable actions to summarize and extract insights - **🌐 Comprehensive REST API**: Full programmatic access for custom integrations

Reviewed at: 2026-07-21T06:19:51Z