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Alternatives

Products that do what Open-source semantic search over your local notes via CLI does

Introducing Nia Vault, a CLI that lets you query your local markdown/text files using natural language. What it does: Semantic search over local folders and notes Works across multiple synced directories RAG-style answers with citations from your own files How it works: Calls `POST /search/query` with `local_folders` Uses `search_mode: sources` to return answers + file references Example: vault ask "What are my notes about project planning?" OSS: https://github.com/chenxin-yan/nia-vault

  1. 1
    Obsidian432

    A powerful knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

    2020

  2. 2NI

    This lets you talk to local LLMs in Apple Notes. I saw Obsidian Ollama (https://github.com/hinterdupfinger/obsidian-ollama) and thought it was handy, but I'm too lazy to migrate away from the Apple ecosystem, so I quickly hacked this together. I tend to use Notes as a scratchpad for prompts, so it's nice to do some quick inference without leaving the app. Notes doesn't really support plugins so I'm using the macOS accessibility API for reading selections and then stream responses using the clipboard (not ideal but it works).

    2024 · smallest.app

  3. 3
    note.md243

    Local-first markdown based workspace for research writings

    May 2026 · notemd.org

  4. 4NC

    Thank you for your comments, just some context: - The app is available for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, and the Web. - The Web version is implemented as a Progressive Web Application that is very responsive, local first, offline first, can be installed, and is entirely free to use. - Native (hybrid) versions do not require subscription fees and have small one-time payment. - You can store your notes in Git using any Git provider such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket. However, it has the best built-in integration with GitHub. Self-hosted scenarios like Gitea are also…

    2024 · about.noteshub.app

  5. 5SG

    Sep 2025 · github.com

  6. 6
    note.md280

    your notes and research documentation now a local LLM Memory

    Jun 2026 · notemd.org

  7. 7SS

    I wrote this tool to get familiar with CLIP model, I know many people have written similar tools with CLIP before, but I'm new to machine learning and writing a classic tool helps my study. The unusual thing with my version is, it is in pure Node.js, with the power of node-mlx, a Node.js machine learning framework. The repo in the link is mostly about implementing indexing and CLI, the code of the model implementation lives as a Node.js module: https://github.com/frost-beta/clip . Hope this helps other learners!

    2024 · github.com

  8. 8SS

    Oct 2025 · nga.demo.mixedbread.com

  9. 9

    Notes, tasks, and AI — offline-first, no SaaS bill.

    May 2026 · notecove.io

  10. 10SS
  11. 11

    Semantic search over your own Claude Code session history

    12d ago · github.com

  12. 12

    Local semantic search for AI agents

    Aug 2026 · tryreference.com

  13. 13

    Import your Obsidian Vault to Apple Notes

    2025

  14. 14

    Local AI search for your messy files

    Jun 2026 · vault-seek.vercel.app

  15. 15IB

    After getting frustrated with macOS's Spotlight search, e.g., typing "driver license" doesn't give me anything unless the file name matches exactly, I thought, why not index my entire Documents folder? This way, I can find that one PDF or image buried deep in subfolders using natural language queries. So I built SmartSearch; it uses SentenceTransformers for embeddings and FAISS for fast similarity search. Best of all, it runs locally on your computer. Github: https://github.com/neberej/smart-search/ Demo:…

    2025 · github.com

  16. 16VA

    Dear HN Community, I am a long time fan and first-time contributor. I just launched a developer focused semantic search platform and wanted to share it with the community. The idea is simple: upload structured or unstructured documents, select the fields you want to index and tag as metadata, and instantly get a clean search API you can use in your own app. Here is what it currently supports: - Manage your own tenants and projects - Upload .json and .txt files (support for .pdf, .docx, .xlsx, .yml, etc. coming soon) - Expose 3 APIs: search, upload document (embeddings), and delete document -…

    2025 · aisearch.vpuna.com

  17. 17VA

    Hi HN, We have open-sourced Voiden. Most API tools are built like platforms. They are heavy because they optimize for accounts, sync, and abstraction - not for simple, local API work. Voiden treats API tooling as files. It’s an offline-first, Git-native API tool built on Markdown, where specs, tests, and docs live together as executable Markdown in your repo. Git is the source of truth. No cloud. No syncing. No accounts. No telemetry.Just Markdown, Git, hotkeys, and your damn specs. Voiden is extensible via plugins (including gRPC and WSS). Repo:…

    Feb 2026 · github.com

  18. 18SS

    2023 · github.com

  19. 19

    Local markdown notes linked with relations and properties

    Jul 2026 · grimoire.im

  20. 20SS

    The sprawling world of NFTs would benefit from a semantic search app. So we made one. Try text queries like “a city in space”, “monet”, or “cat wearing a red hat”. Or image queries by uploading an image or by clicking on one of NFTs on the right. Enjoy!

    2022 · nyckel.com

  21. 21AT

    Hi HN, I built a simple TUI for viewing and editing .md files in the terminal. More and more markdown files keep appearing in our projects, and I found myself needing a quick way to view(with syntax highlighting) and edit them without leaving the terminal, so I built this

    Apr 2026 · mdee.bkh.dev

  22. 22AF

    Hello, Motivated by this discussion https://goo.gl/te4BFv, I have created a simple (free and open-source) command line note organizer. The tool, called npmnotes, take a folder with notes (written in markdown/texdown) and creates a webpage that lets you search and browse through the notes. You can then publish this webpage or use it locally. The result (built with npmnotes) looks something like this https://npmnotes.org. Currently, this is just a (working) prototype and I plan to add more features soon (based on the feedback I get). What do you think of it?

    2018

  23. 23SS

    Hello Hacker News! I built Sleuth, an open source search tool for your workspace. I originally started off with Slack but quickly learned that Confluence search is a well documented problem: https://twitter.com/beajammingh/status/1273742155731791872?s... Sleuth solves this problem using semantic search to find relevant Confluence pages and Slack messages for your query. You can ask Sleuth questions about HR policies, technical documentation, product decisions, and more. Sleuth is open source and can be self-hosted, although there are dependencies on OpenAI and…

    2023 · github.com

  24. 24
    Cairn9

    Native task views for Markdown files you already own

    Jul 2026 · cairn-app-support.bossama.chatgpt.site

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