RAG & Knowledge
insights-lm-public
Self-hosted NotebookLM alternative — chat with documents, get audio summaries.
★ 656 starsMIT
View guide →Air-gapped, open-source NotebookLM alternative that turns local documents into briefings, decks and podcasts.
SurfSense is an open-source rag & knowledge project by MODSetter (MODSetter/SurfSense on GitHub). It has 16,335 GitHub stars and 1,569 forks, is released under the Apache-2.0 license, and was last updated on GitHub on 7 October 2026.
SurfSense fits when files are too sensitive to upload to a hosted notebook tool and you still want cited answers and finished artifacts from them.
Get the signed installer for Windows, macOS or Linux from the project's releases or download page; no Docker, terminal or account is required.
Let the app pull a local model for you, or paste a base URL and key for any OpenAI-compatible API; keys are stored encrypted in your OS keychain.
Drop in PDFs, Office files or images, ask cited questions, then open Studio to generate a briefing, deck, study guide or podcast from the same sources.
Parsing, chunking and embedding happen on your computer into a local SQLite index; the app uploads nothing and has no telemetry.
Ask questions across all your documents and every answer cites the source it came from.
Turn sources into summaries, flashcards, quizzes, mind maps, editable .pptx slides, .docx reports, .xlsx spreadsheets, HTML pages and PDFs.
Generate a two-host audio conversation from your documents, voiced offline by the bundled Kokoro-82M model.
Use a local model the app downloads for you, or point SurfSense at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including your own local server.
Outbound connections are off by default, with an egress panel listing every destination the app can reach so you choose what to enable.
Clone the repo if you want the open-source Docker stack or to work on the code; most users simply download the desktop installer instead.
git clone https://github.com/MODSetter/SurfSense.git
cd SurfSenseInstall the signed desktop build for your platform from the releases page, which is the supported path in the README.
# Download SurfSense-Setup.exe / SurfSense-arm64.dmg / SurfSense.AppImage from GitHub Releases - see README for the exact linkOpen the app, let it pull a local model or add an OpenAI-compatible endpoint, then drop in your first documents.
# Launch SurfSense and follow the in-app model picker - see README for the exact commandIt is an open-source project by MODSetter and community contributors, with a Discord and GitHub Discussions for support and direction.
The app and its updates are free and the code is Apache-2.0 licensed. The README notes an optional licence that adds plugins and priority support but gates nothing else.
No. Every role can run locally: you can let the app download a local model and work with no account or API key, or optionally bring your own OpenAI-compatible key.
Both produce summaries, flashcards, quizzes, mind maps and audio overviews, but SurfSense runs offline on your machine with your choice of model, while NotebookLM uploads sources to Google and uses Gemini only.
Download the installer for your platform, pick a model in the app, drop in documents, and ask your first cited question - no terminal or Docker needed.
Self-hosted NotebookLM alternative — chat with documents, get audio summaries.
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