explaingit

khuedoan/qmd

Analysis updated 2026-08-15 · repo last pushed 2026-03-21

Audience · developerComplexity · 2/5MaintainedSetup · moderate

TLDR

A local search engine that finds things across all your notes and documents using everyday language. It combines keyword matching, meaning-based search, and local AI to rank results, all running on your own machine so your files stay private.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Local search engine
      Natural language queries
      Private on your machine
    How it searches
      Keyword matching
      Semantic meaning search
      AI re-ranking results
    Use cases
      Search personal notes
      Connect to Claude assistant
      Let AI agents find docs
    Tech stack
      Node.js
      Bun runtime
      SQLite database
    Audience
      Product managers
      Developers
      AI assistant users

Code map

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Point it at your notes and docs folders to search everything in everyday language.

USE CASE 2

Connect it to Claude Desktop or Claude Code so your AI assistant can search your personal files.

USE CASE 3

Let your AI coding agent find relevant documentation before writing code.

USE CASE 4

Use it as a standalone command-line tool to quickly find old meeting notes or project docs.

What is it built with?

Node.jsBunSQLiteLocal AI models

How does it compare?

khuedoan/qmd000madz000/rfid-attendance00kaku/gallery-slider-block
LanguageTypeScriptJavaScript
Last pushed2026-03-212024-07-222021-05-19
MaintenanceMaintainedDormantDormant
Setup difficultymoderateeasyeasy
Complexity2/52/52/5
Audiencedeveloperdevelopergeneral

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires a recent Node.js or Bun version, and on macOS a specific SQLite version is needed for certain features.

No license information was provided in the explanation, so the usage terms are unknown.

In plain English

QMD is a search engine that runs entirely on your own machine and helps you find things across all your scattered notes, meeting transcripts, documentation, and knowledge bases. Instead of digging through folders trying to remember where you wrote something down, you point it at your files and then search using everyday language. What makes it interesting is that it combines three different search approaches. First, it does traditional keyword matching, finding exact words like a standard search bar. Second, it does semantic search, understanding the meaning of your question to find related concepts even if the exact words don't appear. Third, it uses a local AI model to re-rank the best candidates, sorting the final results by true relevance. Everything runs locally, meaning your files never leave your computer and you don't need to pay for external AI API calls. The tool is built for people who work with AI assistants and agents. If you use something like Claude Desktop or Claude Code, you can connect this search engine directly to it so your AI assistant can search your personal notes and documents. A product manager could use it to instantly pull up old meeting notes about a specific project timeline, or a developer could use it to let their AI agent find relevant documentation before writing code. You can also use it as a standalone command-line tool just to find your own files. You can use it as a simple command-line tool, plug it into an AI assistant like Claude, or embed it directly into your own applications using its software library. The only notable requirement is that you need a relatively recent version of Node.js or Bun installed on your computer, and on macOS you need a specific version of the database software SQLite for certain features to work properly.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Set up QMD to search my local notes folder and find all mentions of project timelines using natural language queries.
Prompt 2
Connect QMD to Claude Desktop so my AI assistant can search my personal meeting transcripts and documentation.
Prompt 3
Use the QMD library to embed local semantic search into my own Node.js application so users can find documents by meaning not just keywords.

Frequently asked questions

What is qmd?

A local search engine that finds things across all your notes and documents using everyday language. It combines keyword matching, meaning-based search, and local AI to rank results, all running on your own machine so your files stay private.

Is qmd actively maintained?

Maintained — commit in last 6 months (last push 2026-03-21).

What license does qmd use?

No license information was provided in the explanation, so the usage terms are unknown.

How hard is qmd to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is qmd for?

Mainly developer.

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