Khoj

// Overview

Khoj is an open-source personal AI app that the project calls your "AI second brain." You can run it privately on your own computer or use the hosted cloud app. It connects to any local or online language model, so you can pick the model that fits your needs, from Llama 3 and Mistral running on your machine to GPT, Claude, Gemini, or DeepSeek in the cloud.

What sets Khoj apart from a plain chatbot is that it answers from your own material. It reads your documents, including PDFs, Markdown, Word files, Notion pages, org-mode notes, and images, and it can also pull answers from the internet. Semantic search helps you find the right document quickly, and you can build custom agents with their own knowledge, persona, model, and tools.

Khoj is self-hostable and open-source, and it reaches you where you already work: a browser, Obsidian, Emacs, a desktop or phone app, and WhatsApp. It can also automate repetitive research, send personal newsletters and notifications, generate images, and read messages aloud.

// What it does

• Chat with any local or online LLM, including Llama 3, Qwen, Gemma, Mistral, GPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek
• Get answers from your own documents (PDF, Markdown, Word, Notion, org-mode) and from the internet
• Semantic search to find relevant documents quickly
• Build custom agents with their own knowledge, persona, chat model, and tools
• Use it from the browser, Obsidian, Emacs, desktop, phone, or WhatsApp
• Automate research with personal newsletters and smart notifications, plus image generation and text-to-speech

// Getting started

You can try Khoj instantly on the hosted cloud app, or self-host it on your own machine. The commands below come from the official setup docs for a local, single-user install.

https://app.khoj.dev

python -m pip install 'khoj[local]'

USE_EMBEDDED_DB="true" khoj --anonymous-mode

Commands and code are distilled from the project's own documentation — always check the official repo for the latest.

// When to use it

• Build a private knowledge base that answers questions across your PDFs, notes, and Notion docs without sending data to a third party
• Run a self-hosted personal assistant that combines local or cloud LLMs with semantic search over your own files
• Create custom agents with a specific persona, knowledge set, and tools for recurring tasks like research summaries
• Automate repetitive research and receive personal newsletters and smart notifications in your inbox

// How Khoj compares

Khoj alongside other open-source assistants & chatbots tools AI/TLDR tracks, ranked by GitHub stars.