🧠 BrainVault

A local-first, privacy-focused note-taking app with AI-powered features. Your second brain, running entirely on your machine.

✨ Features

📝 Powerful Editor

• Rich markdown editing with live preview
• Wiki-style [[linking]] between notes
• #hashtag support for organization
• Code blocks with syntax highlighting
• Task lists, tables, and more

🔗 Knowledge Graph

• Interactive 3D visualization of your notes
• See connections at a glance
• Filter by tags, find orphan notes
• Hover preview for quick context

🤖 AI Assistant (Local-First)

• Summarize notes with one click
• Semantic search — find notes by meaning, not just keywords
• Related notes — discover hidden connections
• Works with Ollama for 100% local AI

📅 Daily Notes & Templates

• One-click daily note creation
• Built-in templates: Meeting Notes, Project, Journal
• Customizable template system
• Quick create from command palette

📥 Import & Export

• Import from Obsidian vaults (preserves [[links]])
• Import markdown files and folders
• Export as ZIP, JSON, or individual files
• Full backup with metadata

🚀 Built for Speed

• Instant search with Cmd+K
• Keyboard-first design
• No cloud dependencies
• Works offline, always

🎨 Beautiful & Customizable

• Dark/light mode with auto-detection
• Clean, distraction-free interface
• Focus mode for deep writing
• Split view editor/preview

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🆚 How BrainVault Compares

Feature	BrainVault	Obsidian	Notion
Local-first	✅ Local (except voice notes*)	✅ Local files	❌ Cloud-only
Free	✅ MIT License	⚠️ Freemium	⚠️ Freemium
Open source	✅	❌	❌
Wiki links	✅	✅	⚠️ Limited
Knowledge graph	✅ 3D Graph	✅ Graph view	❌
Local AI	✅ Ollama	❌	❌
Native desktop app	✅ Tauri	✅ Electron	❌ Web only
Mobile app	🚧 Planned	✅	✅
Offline support	✅ Full	✅ Full	⚠️ Limited
File format	Markdown	Markdown	Proprietary
Import from Obsidian	✅	N/A	⚠️ Manual

* Voice notes use the browser's Web Speech API, which in Chrome and Edge transcribes in the cloud rather than on-device. The app asks for consent before the microphone is opened and the feature stays off until you accept. See SECURITY.md.

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🚀 Quick Start

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/maximilliangrand/brainvault
cd brainvault

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start development server
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173 and start taking notes!

Desktop App

Build a native desktop app with Tauri:

# Install Tauri CLI (first time only)
cargo install tauri-cli

# Build the app
npm run tauri build

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🐳 Docker

Run BrainVault in a container:

# Quick start
docker compose up -d

# Access at http://localhost:3000

Or build and run manually:

# Build the image
docker build -t brainvault .

# Run the container
docker run -d -p 3000:80 --name brainvault brainvault

With Local AI (Ollama)

# Start with Ollama support
docker compose --profile ai up -d

# Pull a model
docker exec brainvault-ollama ollama pull llama2

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🤖 Setting Up Local AI

BrainVault works great without AI, but for the full experience:

1. Install Ollama

   brew install ollama  # macOS
   # or download from https://ollama.ai

2. Start Ollama

   ollama serve

3. Pull a model

   ollama pull llama2     # Fast, good quality
   ollama pull mistral    # Great for reasoning
   ollama pull codellama  # Best for code notes

4. Open BrainVault — AI features will automatically connect!

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⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
New note	Cmd+N
Daily note	Cmd+D
Search	Cmd+K
Toggle sidebar	Cmd+B
Switch view mode	Cmd+E
Graph view	Cmd+G
Save note	Cmd+S
Focus mode	Cmd+Shift+F
AI chat	Cmd+J
All shortcuts	Shift+/

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🛠️ Built With

Layer	Technology
Framework	React 19 + TypeScript
Desktop	Tauri 2.0 (Rust)
Editor	TipTap
State	Zustand
Styling	Tailwind CSS
Animations	Framer Motion
Graph	react-force-graph-3d
AI	Ollama (local inference)
Search	Fuse.js + custom semantic search

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📁 Project Structure

brainvault/
├── src/
│   ├── components/     # React components
│   │   ├── AI/         # AI chat interface
│   │   ├── Editor/     # Markdown editor
│   │   ├── Graph/      # Knowledge graph
│   │   ├── Import/     # Import modal
│   │   ├── Templates/  # Template modal
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── stores/         # Zustand state management
│   ├── lib/            # Utilities & helpers
│   │   ├── ai.ts       # AI/ML functions
│   │   ├── import.ts   # Import utilities
│   │   ├── templates.ts# Note templates
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── types/          # TypeScript types
│   └── styles/         # Global styles
├── src-tauri/          # Tauri (Rust) backend
├── server/             # Optional API server
├── docker/             # Docker configuration
└── public/             # Static assets

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🧪 Testing

# Run all tests
npm test

# Run with UI
npm run test:ui

# Run specific test file
npm test -- src/lib/__tests__/ai.test.ts

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing)
5. Open a Pull Request

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📄 License

MIT — do whatever you want with it.

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🙏 Acknowledgments

• Obsidian for inspiration
• Tauri for making desktop apps not suck
• Ollama for democratizing local AI

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Made with ❤️ because note-taking apps shouldn't sell your data.