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magic-meet/retrieve-pro-plus

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

31JavaAudience · developerComplexity · 4/5Setup · hard

TLDR

A self-hosted system for uploading, parsing, and searching academic PDF papers with keyword, semantic, and hybrid search.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((retrieve-pro-plus))
    What it does
      Uploads and parses PDFs
      Extracts structured paper data
      Keyword and semantic search
    Tech stack
      Java
      Python
      MySQL and Elasticsearch
      Vue 3
    Use cases
      Build a searchable paper library
      Search by meaning not just words
      Browse extracted paper details
    Audience
      Researchers
      Backend developers

Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Upload a batch of academic PDFs and have the system extract titles, authors, and references automatically.

USE CASE 2

Run a keyword search to find papers whose text contains specific matching words.

USE CASE 3

Run a semantic search to find papers with similar meaning even when the wording differs.

USE CASE 4

Browse and view details of stored papers through the Vue 3 web interface.

What is it built with?

JavaPythonMySQLElasticsearchVue 3Docker

How does it compare?

magic-meet/retrieve-pro-plusbell11213442/ruby-clientispointer/repairip
Stars313230
LanguageJavaJavaJava
Setup difficultyhardmoderatemoderate
Complexity4/52/53/5
Audiencedevelopergeneraldeveloper

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

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · hard Time to first run · 1h+

Runs as a Docker Compose stack of several services and needs at least 8 GB of RAM, 16 GB recommended.

License terms are not stated in the description, check the repository directly before using or redistributing this code.

In plain English

This system handles uploading, parsing, storing, and searching academic PDF papers. The README is written in Chinese, the description below is drawn from that documentation. When a user uploads a PDF, the system breaks it into chunks and sends those pieces through a message queue for asynchronous processing. A Python-based parser using a tool called GROBID reads the PDF and extracts structured information about the paper, including its title, authors, sections, paragraphs, and references. That structured data is saved to a MySQL database. From there, two parallel processes prepare the content for search. A change-tracking component called Canal monitors the database for new or updated records and pushes those changes into Elasticsearch, a search engine that enables fast text matching. A separate Python service generates a numerical vector representation of each paper using an AI language model called Qwen3 Embedding, and that vector is also stored in Elasticsearch. This setup supports three types of search. Keyword search finds papers whose text contains matching words. Semantic search converts a query into a vector and finds papers with similar meaning even if the exact words differ. Hybrid search combines both approaches. The frontend is a web interface built with Vue 3 where users can upload papers, browse the list, view details, and run searches. The entire system is packaged as a Docker Compose configuration, so all components, including the database, message queue, search engine, file storage, and AI model service, start with a single command. The system requires at least 8 GB of RAM, and 16 GB or more is recommended when running all components simultaneously, since the AI embedding model is memory-intensive.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Walk me through starting retrieve-pro-plus with Docker Compose on my machine.
Prompt 2
Explain how retrieve-pro-plus turns an uploaded PDF into structured, searchable data.
Prompt 3
Show me the difference between keyword, semantic, and hybrid search in this system.
Prompt 4
Help me check whether my machine has enough RAM to run retrieve-pro-plus.

Frequently asked questions

What is retrieve-pro-plus?

A self-hosted system for uploading, parsing, and searching academic PDF papers with keyword, semantic, and hybrid search.

What language is retrieve-pro-plus written in?

Mainly Java. The stack also includes Java, Python, MySQL.

What license does retrieve-pro-plus use?

License terms are not stated in the description, check the repository directly before using or redistributing this code.

How hard is retrieve-pro-plus to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated hard, with roughly 1h+ to a first successful run.

Who is retrieve-pro-plus for?

Mainly developer.

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