SurfSense: An Open-Source Self-Hosted, Offline Alternative to NotebookLM
FurtiveMirth · reddit · 2026-09-29
Reddit user FurtiveMirth, a maintainer of SurfSense, introduced a self-hosted, offline alternative to NotebookLM whose core pitch is that nothing leaves your machine and there's no artificial source limit.
Stack: llama.cpp for local inference, stable-diffusion.cpp for image/video generation models, and audio.cpp for TTS.
Current features:
- Chat with sources with citations
- Podcast/audio overview generation
- Summaries and mind maps
- Flashcards and quizzes
- Editable .pptx/.docx files, .xlsx spreadsheets, and infographics
Limitations: no video overviews yet, weaker audio quality, file-based input only (PDF/DOCX/PPTX/XLSX/HTML/CSV/MD/TXT/images), and community-supported Docker setup with no SLA.
Source is on GitHub (MODSetter/SurfSense); the author is soliciting feedback from self-hosters.
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