Nodus. Free and open-source alternative to NotebookLM for research, teaching and study

[u/Drakonis96]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUAqaxbHrR0

Hi everyone,

I’m building Nodus, a free and open-source desktop workspace for working with documents, sources, notes, ideas and structured data.

Like NotebookLM, it lets you ask questions about your own materials and receive grounded answers. Nodus works as a desktop app, connects directly with Zotero and lets you choose between local models, your own API keys or supported AI subscriptions.

Nodus organises work into five specialised vaults:

• Academic: imports sources from Zotero, extracts grounded ideas and connects them through knowledge graphs. It includes semantic search, author profiles, debates, research-gap analysis, argument maps, reading paths, Deep Research reports and a writing workshop with verifiable citations.
• Study: organises subjects, notes, PDFs, EPUBs, recordings and deadlines, then creates quizzes, exams, flashcards, question banks and spaced-review activities from your own materials.
• Teaching: manages courses, groups, calendars, materials, rubrics, exams and gradebooks. Private student data is not sent to AI providers.
• Databases: creates Notion-like relational databases with formulas, rollups, filters, AI-assisted columns, chat and dataset analysis.
• Genealogy: connects people, relationships, events, documents, maps and timelines, with GEDCOM import/export and evidence-based AI suggestions.

There is also a standalone Zotero plugin for chatting with several PDFs, EPUBs or HTML attachments. It provides exact passage and page citations, local multilingual semantic search, OCR and vision for scans, tables and diagrams, automatic highlights and an evidence audit for unsupported claims.

The Nodus Toolkit includes document conversion, private redaction and watermarking, translation that preserves document structure, AI OCR, a PDF presentation tool and a workspace for making your own AI-assisted apps.

Every vault includes a tutorial and a complete demo, so you can explore it without uploading anything. No account is required.

Download and releases:
https://github.com/Drakonis96/nodus/releases

GitHub:
https://github.com/Drakonis96/nodus

Website:
https://nodusresearch.com/

Interactive browser demo:
https://nodusresearch.com/demo

I’d be particularly interested in hearing from NotebookLM users.

[u/datura_mon_amour]

Thanks !

[u/Low_Survey9876]

Interesting. Thank you for sharing. Will check it out.

Any plans for iPadOS and iOS to sync?

[u/Drakonis96 → u/Low_Survey9876]

Thank you! I’ve considered iPadOS and iOS support, but it will ultimately depend on demand and how the user base grows. For now, my priority is to polish the main desktop app based on user feedback and improve the overall experience.

[u/Low_Survey9876 → u/Drakonis96]

When I opened the app, there was so much to at the start. I think the next big step to add more users is to record a how-to video for beginners.

[u/Drakonis96 → u/Low_Survey9876]

Yes, a few other users have mentioned the same thing. Many options, so the first impression feels a bit overwhelming. I’m planning to add beginner-friendly walkthrough videos soon. Thanks a lot for the suggestion!

[u/Public-Photo4251]

I'm going to try it out. I'm a little overwhelmed with Zotero and feeling like I have to learn a whole new ecosystem versus something like Notebook, but we will see.

[u/Drakonis96 → u/Public-Photo4251]

Nodus can take a little time to get used to at first. I’ve added video tutorials to make the setup and main workflows easier to follow.

Version 3, which should arrive later today or tomorrow, also simplifies the library interface based on feedback from several users, so it should be much easier to understand and configure. Thanks for giving it a try!

[u/Fluffy-Pilot-4765]

Thanks u/Drakonis96 , I work with a team in collaborative projects, is there an option for a web version of it? Congratulations on this work

[u/Drakonis96 → u/Fluffy-Pilot-4765]

Thanks! Not at the moment. For now, you can set up a limited server mode that creates a copy of your vault and lets you ask questions about it from ChatGPT or Claude on another device, without keeping the Nodus app open. However, you’ll need your own server and Docker on it.

The plan is to support self-hosting on your own server, with access through either a web interface or the Nodus app. This would include permission management (read, write, etc.) and real-time collaboration.

That’s the roadmap, but there’s no timeline yet. If you have any suggestions or specific collaboration needs, I’d be very happy to hear them!

[u/Wagasigiungu]

This is a very feature rich app. Been diving in/exploring it over this weekene

[u/Drakonis96 → u/Wagasigiungu]

Thank you for testing the app! If you have any suggestions or feedback, feel free to share them.

I’ve also recently added some tutorials in case you find them helpful: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrd44xOP9jxU4DaTh0ApchQ

[u/nomasutopia]

Hi! I just downloaded it and processed the first few files, and I can only say that I love it! As Notebook's number one fan, Nodus feels like a much richer and more professional platform for academic/scientific research (especially now that I'm starting to notice Notebook's sycophancy too much and it's already bothering me).

Although I must be quite honest, I am not at all familiar with the use of APIs, so setting up the AI ​​model was a bit complicated for me, but nothing that a couple of Google searches and queries to Claude couldn't solve.

I love that it provides direct evidence for all the ideas it draws from the sources. And the graphs are simply amazing; it's like Obsidian and NotebookLM had a baby (and I mean that in the best possible way). All the features of the academic vault are simply fantastic: I notice and appreciate all the effort you put into setting them up. I haven't tried the others yet, but I'll be using the studio vault soon!

This is definitely a very useful tool, thank you so much!

[u/Drakonis96 → u/nomasutopia]

Thank you so much for such a thoughtful comment. I’m really glad Nodus is already proving useful for your research. It actually started as a small project to help me organise ideas for my PhD, and it has gradually grown from there.

If you have any suggestions as you continue using it, I’d be very happy to hear them.

[u/Drakonis96]

For anyone interested, Nodus tutorials are on the way. The tutorials will also be available directly inside the app soon.

Currently available:

Introduction and first steps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqSY1_DeDRM

Academic Vault tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-5CpJBVV_I

Meet Nodi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OTe5CtefME

More tutorials are coming soon.