# Show HN: Pith – A local-first desktop LLM wiki without vector DBs or embeddings

> Source: <https://github.com/l-zhi/pith-wiki>
> Published: 2026-06-25 13:32:07+00:00

中文版 →

[README.zh-CN.md]

**A local-first LLM knowledge base.** Drop in your notes, PDFs, and emails — pith
hydrates each into a dense Markdown entry an LLM can read, then lets you chat with
your whole library, retrieved by keyword + link traversal. **No embeddings, no
vector DB.** Everything stays in plain files on your disk.

*Drop a note into your Obsidian vault — pith auto-ingests it into an entry the LLM
can pull from mid-conversation.*

- 🗂️
**Plain files, not a black box**— every entry is Markdown + YAML frontmatter; Obsidian, VS Code, and Git open them natively. - 🔍
**Retrieval you can reason about**— weighted keyword search + link-graph traversal + exact grep. No embedding drift, no vendor lock-in. - 💬
**Chat that writes back**— the agent reads your library through file/wiki tools;`/digest`

distills a conversation into a new entry. - 🤖
**Auto-ingest + schedule**— watch a folder for new files; run agent tasks on a cron (e.g. a daily digest of yesterday's additions). - 🔒
**Local-first**— all data under`~/.pith-wiki/`

; outbound PII filtering on by default. No cloud, no lock-in.

Design philosophy: data engineering > retrieval algorithms.Don't dump raw docs into a store and hope embeddings pull them back. Use an LLM tohydrateeach source into a high-density Markdown entry, then retrieve by keyword + link traversal. Simple, file-based, human-readable.

Input formats: `.docx`

`.eml`

`.htm`

`.html`

`.md`

`.pdf`

`.txt`

. The product is
**pith**; the npm package and repo are historically named `pith-wiki`

.

**Desktop app (recommended)** — the full experience: chat, inbox, dashboard, link
graph, skills, and a scheduled-tasks calendar, all over the same engine and
on-disk library. No packaged installer yet, so run it from source:

```
git clone https://github.com/l-zhi/pith-wiki.git
cd pith-wiki/desktop
npm install
npm run dev      # electron-vite dev (HMR)
```

**CLI** *(optional — for automation / headless use)*:

```
npm install -g pith-wiki
pith-wiki        # launch the REPL
```

On first launch, onboarding walks you through setup — pick a provider, paste an
API key, and point it at a notes folder to watch. Everything lives under
`~/.pith-wiki/`

(config + wiki data); set `PITH_WIKI_HOME`

for an isolated
profile.

**Platforms**: macOS + Linux are CI-tested (Node 20 / 22); Windows is usable but
not yet CI-covered. Dev scripts: `npm test`

/ `npm run typecheck`

/ `npm run build`

(inside `desktop/`

, or repo root for engine/core). See [CONTRIBUTING.md](/l-zhi/pith-wiki/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).

**1. Hydrate** — compress raw documents (markdown / PDF / DOCX / HTML / email)
into Markdown entries roughly 30% of the original size. Strip filler, keep
signal. LLMs read these directly.

**2. Retrieve** — no embeddings, no vector DB. Weighted keyword search (title × 2,
tags × 2, summary × 1, content × 0.5) + BFS link traversal, plus exact
substring/regex search (`wiki_grep`

) and date-range filters (when an entry was
added to the library, or the content's own date). Boring on purpose. Entries are
plain Markdown; Obsidian, VS Code, and Git all open them natively.

**3. Chat** — the agent talks to your library through file + wiki tools
(`wiki_query`

fuzzy search, `wiki_grep`

exact search, `wiki_get`

,
`wiki_read_source`

, `wiki_ingest`

, `read_file`

/ `write_file`

/ `list_dir`

, …).
Every turn writes a transcript; `/digest`

distills the conversation back into a
wiki entry, closing the loop chat → store → retrieve.

**4. Auto-ingest** — point a watch folder (Obsidian vault, inbox, etc.) at pith
in Settings, and changes are auto-enqueued for a background worker to hydrate.
Built-in health checks flag orphan links, broken frontmatter, and ID collisions.

**5. Schedule** *(desktop)* — set tasks that run an agent prompt on a schedule
(once, or cron) — e.g. a daily digest of everything added yesterday. Each fire
opens a fresh session you can reopen; `${yyyy-mm-dd -1}`

-style date placeholders
are resolved at run time so "yesterday" is always correct.

| Document | When to read it |
|---|---|
|

`additionalReadPaths`

, on-disk layout[docs/config.example.json](/l-zhi/pith-wiki/blob/main/docs/config.example.json)`~/.pith-wiki/config.json`

example (multi-provider + watchDirs + queue)[docs/entry-format.md](/l-zhi/pith-wiki/blob/main/docs/entry-format.md)[docs/architecture.md](/l-zhi/pith-wiki/blob/main/docs/architecture.md)[docs/security-model.md](/l-zhi/pith-wiki/blob/main/docs/security-model.md)[docs/usage.md](/l-zhi/pith-wiki/blob/main/docs/usage.md)[SECURITY.md](/l-zhi/pith-wiki/blob/main/SECURITY.md)[CONTRIBUTING.md](/l-zhi/pith-wiki/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md)[CHANGELOG.md](/l-zhi/pith-wiki/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md)[Apache 2.0](/l-zhi/pith-wiki/blob/main/LICENSE) · Copyright (c) 2026 lizhi