Local Deep Research

🚀 What is Local Deep Research?

AI research assistant you control. Run locally for privacy, use any LLM and build your own searchable knowledge base. You own your data and see exactly how it works.

⚡ Quick Start

Option 1: Docker Run (Linux)

# Step 1: Pull and run Ollama
docker run -d -p 11434:11434 --name ollama ollama/ollama
docker exec ollama ollama pull gpt-oss:20b

# Step 2: Pull and run SearXNG for optimal search results
docker run -d -p 8080:8080 --name searxng searxng/searxng

# Step 3: Pull and run Local Deep Research
docker run -d -p 5000:5000 --network host \
  --name local-deep-research \
  --volume "deep-research:/data" \
  -e LDR_DATA_DIR=/data \
  localdeepresearch/local-deep-research

Option 2: Docker Compose

CPU-only (all platforms):

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LearningCircuit/local-deep-research/main/docker-compose.yml && docker compose up -d

With NVIDIA GPU (Linux):

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LearningCircuit/local-deep-research/main/docker-compose.yml && \
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LearningCircuit/local-deep-research/main/docker-compose.gpu.override.yml && \
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.gpu.override.yml up -d

Open http://localhost:5000 after ~30 seconds. For GPU setup, environment variables, and more, see the Docker Compose Guide.

Option 3: pip install

pip install local-deep-research

Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux. SQLCipher encryption is included via pre-built wheels — no compilation needed. PDF export on Windows requires Pango (setup guide). If you encounter issues with encryption, set export LDR_BOOTSTRAP_ALLOW_UNENCRYPTED=true to use standard SQLite instead.

More install options →

🏗️ How It Works

Research

You ask a complex question. LDR:

• Does the research for you automatically
• Searches across web, academic papers, and your own documents
• Synthesizes everything into a report with proper citations

Choose from 20+ research strategies for quick facts, deep analysis, or academic research.

New: LangGraph Agent Strategy — An autonomous agentic research mode where the LLM decides what to search, which specialized engines to use (arXiv, PubMed, Semantic Scholar, etc.), and when to synthesize. Early results are promising — it adaptively switches between search engines based on what it finds and collects significantly more sources than pipeline-based strategies. Select langgraph-agent in Settings to try it.

Build Your Knowledge Base

flowchart LR
    R[Research] --> D[Download Sources]
    D --> L[(Library)]
    L --> I[Index & Embed]
    I --> S[Search Your Docs]
    S -.-> R

Every research session finds valuable sources. Download them directly into your encrypted library—academic papers from ArXiv, PubMed articles, web pages. LDR extracts text, indexes everything, and makes it searchable. Next time you research, ask questions across your own documents and the live web together. Your knowledge compounds over time.

🛡️ Security

flowchart LR
    U1[User A] --> D1[(Encrypted DB)]
    U2[User B] --> D2[(Encrypted DB)]

Your data stays yours. Each user gets their own isolated SQLCipher database encrypted with AES-256 (Signal-level security). No password recovery means true zero-knowledge—even server admins can't read your data. Run fully local with Ollama + SearXNG and nothing ever leaves your machine.

In-memory credentials: Like all applications that use secrets at runtime — including password managers, browsers, and API clients — credentials are held in plain text in process memory during active sessions. This is an industry-wide accepted reality, not specific to LDR: if an attacker can read process memory, they can also read any in-process decryption key. We mitigate this with session-scoped credential lifetimes and core dump exclusion. Ideas for further improvements are always welcome via GitHub Issues. See our Security Policy for details.

Supply Chain Security: Docker images are signed with Cosign, include SLSA provenance attestations, and attach SBOMs. Verify with:

cosign verify localdeepresearch/local-deep-research:latest

Security Transparency: Scanner suppressions are documented with justifications in Security Alerts Assessment, Scorecard Compliance, Container CVE Suppressions, and SAST Rule Rationale. Some alerts (Dependabot, code scanning) can only be dismissed or are very difficult to suppress outside the GitHub Security tab, so the files above do not cover every dismissed finding.

Detailed Architecture → | Security Policy → | Security Review Process →

🔒 Privacy & Data

Local Deep Research contains no telemetry, no analytics, and no tracking. We do not collect, transmit, or store any data about you or your usage. No analytics SDKs, no phone-home calls, no crash reporting, no external scripts. Usage metrics stay in your local encrypted database.

The only network calls LDR makes are ones you initiate: search queries (to engines you configure), LLM API calls (to your chosen provider), and notifications (only if you set up Apprise).

Since we don't collect any usage data, we rely on you to tell us what works, what's broken, and what you'd like to see next — bug reports, feature ideas, and even which features you love or never use all help us improve LDR.

📊 Performance

~95% accuracy on SimpleQA benchmark (preliminary results)

• Tested with GPT-4.1-mini + SearXNG + focused-iteration strategy
• Comparable to state-of-the-art AI research systems
• Local models can achieve similar performance with proper configuration

🧭 Picking a model? Use the community benchmarks

Not sure which local model to run with LDR? The community-maintained LDR Benchmarks dataset on Hugging Face tracks accuracy across models, search engines, and research strategies — it's the fastest way to see which Ollama / LM Studio / llama.cpp models actually work well for deep research before you download multi-GB weights.

• Browse leaderboards & download CSVs on Hugging Face →
• Submit your own results on GitHub →

✨ Key Features

🔍 Research Modes

• Quick Summary - Get answers in 30 seconds to 3 minutes with citations
• Detailed Research - Comprehensive analysis with structured findings
• Report Generation - Professional reports with sections and table of contents
• Document Analysis - Search your private documents with AI

🛠️ Advanced Capabilities

• LangChain Integration - Use any vector store as a search engine
• REST API - Authenticated HTTP access with per-user databases
• Benchmarking - Test and optimize your configuration
• Analytics Dashboard - Track costs, performance, and usage metrics
• Journal Quality System - Automatic journal reputation scoring with 212K+ indexed sources, predatory detection, and quality dashboard. Powered by OpenAlex (CC0), DOAJ (CC0), and Stop Predatory Journals (MIT).
• Real-time Updates - WebSocket support for live research progress
• Export Options - Download results as PDF or Markdown
• Research History - Save, search, and revisit past research
• Adaptive Rate Limiting - Intelligent retry system that learns optimal wait times
• Keyboard Shortcuts - Navigate efficiently (ESC, Ctrl+Shift+1-5)
• Per-User Encrypted Databases - Secure, isolated data storage for each user

📰 News & Research Subscriptions

• Automated Research Digests - Subscribe to topics and receive AI-powered research summaries
• Customizable Frequency - Daily, weekly, or custom schedules for research updates
• Smart Filtering - AI filters and summarizes only the most relevant developments
• Multi-format Delivery - Get updates as markdown reports or structured summaries
• Topic & Query Support - Track specific searches or broad research areas

🌐 Search Sources

Free Search Engines

• Academic: arXiv, PubMed, Semantic Scholar
• General: Wikipedia, SearXNG
• Technical: GitHub, Elasticsearch
• Historical: Wayback Machine
• News: The Guardian, Wikinews

Premium Search Engines

• Tavily - AI-powered search
• Google - Via SerpAPI or Programmable Search Engine
• Brave Search - Privacy-focused web search

Custom Sources

• Local Documents - Search your files with AI
• LangChain Retrievers - Any vector store or database
• Meta Search - Combine multiple engines intelligently

LDR respects robots.txt and identifies itself honestly when fetching web pages — no stealth or anti-detection techniques. In rare cases this means a page that blocks automated access won't be fetched, which we consider the right trade-off.

Full Search Engines Guide →

📦 Installation Options

For most users, the Quick Start above is all you need.

Method	Best for	Guide
Docker Compose	Most users (recommended)	Docker Compose Guide
Docker	Minimal setup	Installation Guide
pip	Developers, Python integration	pip Guide
Unraid	Unraid servers	Unraid Guide

All installation options →

💻 Usage Examples

Python API

from local_deep_research.api import LDRClient, quick_query

# Option 1: Simplest - one line research
summary = quick_query("username", "password", "What is quantum computing?")
print(summary)

# Option 2: Client for multiple operations
client = LDRClient()
client.login("username", "password")
result = client.quick_research("What are the latest advances in quantum computing?")
print(result["summary"])

HTTP API

The code example below shows the basic API structure - for working examples, see the link below

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

# Create session and authenticate
session = requests.Session()
login_page = session.get("http://localhost:5000/auth/login")
soup = BeautifulSoup(login_page.text, "html.parser")
login_csrf = soup.find("input", {"name": "csrf_token"}).get("value")

# Login and get API CSRF token
session.post("http://localhost:5000/auth/login",
            data={"username": "user", "password": "pass", "csrf_token": login_csrf})
csrf = session.get("http://localhost:5000/auth/csrf-token").json()["csrf_token"]

# Make API request
response = session.post("http://localhost:5000/api/start_research",
                       json={"query": "Your research question"},
                       headers={"X-CSRF-Token": csrf})

🚀 Ready-to-use HTTP API Examples → examples/api_usage/http/

• ✅ Automatic user creation - works out of the box
• ✅ Complete authentication with CSRF handling
• ✅ Result retry logic - waits until research completes
• ✅ Progress monitoring and error handling

Command Line Tools

# Run benchmarks from CLI
python -m local_deep_research.benchmarks --dataset simpleqa --examples 50

# Manage rate limiting
python -m local_deep_research.web_search_engines.rate_limiting status
python -m local_deep_research.web_search_engines.rate_limiting reset

🔗 Enterprise Integration

Connect LDR to your existing knowledge base:

from local_deep_research.api import quick_summary

# Use your existing LangChain retriever
result = quick_summary(
    query="What are our deployment procedures?",
    retrievers={"company_kb": your_retriever},
    search_tool="company_kb"
)

Works with: FAISS, Chroma, Pinecone, Weaviate, Elasticsearch, and any LangChain-compatible retriever.

Integration Guide →

🔌 MCP Server (Claude Integration)

LDR provides an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that allows AI assistants like Claude Desktop and Claude Code to perform deep research.

⚠️ Security Note: This MCP server is designed for local use only via STDIO transport (e.g., Claude Desktop). It has no built-in authentication or rate limiting. Do not expose over a network without implementing proper security controls. See the MCP Security Guide for network deployment requirements.

Installation

# Install with MCP extras
pip install "local-deep-research[mcp]"

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "local-deep-research": {
      "command": "ldr-mcp",
      "env": {
        "LDR_LLM_PROVIDER": "openai",
        "LDR_LLM_OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code Configuration

Add to your .mcp.json (project-level) or ~/.claude/mcp.json (global):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "local-deep-research": {
      "command": "ldr-mcp",
      "env": {
        "LDR_LLM_PROVIDER": "ollama",
        "LDR_LLM_OLLAMA_URL": "http://localhost:11434"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Tool	Description	Duration	LLM Cost
search	Raw results from a specific engine (arxiv, pubmed, wikipedia, ...)	5-30s	None
quick_research	Fast research summary	1-5 min	Yes
detailed_research	Comprehensive analysis	5-15 min	Yes
generate_report	Full markdown report	10-30 min	Yes
analyze_documents	Search local collections	30s-2 min	Yes
list_search_engines	List available search engines	instant	None
list_strategies	List research strategies	instant	None
get_configuration	Get current config	instant	None

Individual Search Engines

The search tool lets you query specific search engines directly and get raw results (title, link, snippet) — no LLM processing, no cost, fast. This is especially useful for monitoring and subscriptions where you want to check for new content regularly without burning LLM tokens.

# Search arXiv for recent papers
search(query="transformer architecture improvements", engine="arxiv")

# Search PubMed for medical literature
search(query="CRISPR clinical trials 2024", engine="pubmed")

# Search Wikipedia for quick facts
search(query="quantum error correction", engine="wikipedia")

# Search OpenClaw for legal case law
search(query="copyright fair use precedents", engine="openclaw")

# Use list_search_engines() to see all available engines

Example Usage

"Use quick_research to find information about quantum computing applications"
"Search arxiv for recent papers on diffusion models"
"Generate a detailed research report on renewable energy trends"

📊 Performance & Analytics

Benchmark Results

Early experiments on small SimpleQA dataset samples:

Configuration	Accuracy	Notes
gpt-4.1-mini + SearXNG + focused_iteration	90-95%	Limited sample size
gpt-4.1-mini + Tavily + focused_iteration	90-95%	Limited sample size
gemini-2.0-flash-001 + SearXNG	82%	Single test run

Note: These are preliminary results from initial testing. Performance varies significantly based on query types, model versions, and configurations. Run your own benchmarks →

Full community leaderboard: The community maintains a growing collection of benchmark results across models, strategies, and search engines in a dedicated repo with CI-validated submissions and auto-generated leaderboards:

• GitHub: LearningCircuit/ldr-benchmarks — submit your results here
• Hugging Face: local-deep-research/ldr-benchmarks — browse leaderboards and download CSVs

Benchmark Contributors

Thanks to the community members who have contributed benchmark runs:

See all contributors →

Built-in Analytics Dashboard

Track costs, performance, and usage with detailed metrics. Learn more →

🤖 Supported LLMs

Local Models

• Ollama — connect to its native API (default http://localhost:11434)
• LM Studio — connect to its OpenAI-compatible server (default http://localhost:1234/v1)
• llama.cpp — connect to llama-server's OpenAI-compatible endpoint (default http://localhost:8080/v1); start with llama-server -m <model.gguf>
• Common models: Llama 3, Mistral, Gemma, DeepSeek, Qwen
• LLM processing stays local (search queries still go to web). No API costs.

💡 Which local model should I pick? Check the LDR Benchmarks dataset on Hugging Face — community-submitted accuracy numbers across local and cloud models, so you can compare before downloading. Also on GitHub if you want to submit your own runs.

Cloud Models

• OpenAI (GPT-4, GPT-3.5)
• Anthropic (Claude 3)
• Google (Gemini)
• 100+ models via OpenRouter

Model Setup →

Upgrading from earlier versions

• llm.model no longer has a default. Pre-1.7 installs auto-filled gemma3:12b (Ollama) when no model was configured, which silently downloaded a multi-GB binary. The field is now empty by default — pick a model in Settings → LLM, or research will fail loudly with a clear error.
• The llamacpp provider now uses HTTP instead of in-process loading. If you previously set llm.llamacpp_model_path to a local .gguf file, that setting is no longer read. Instead, run llama-server -m <your-model.gguf> (it ships with every modern llama.cpp build) and the default llm.llamacpp.url of http://localhost:8080/v1 will pick it up. Optional API key support is available via llm.llamacpp.api_key if you put llama-server behind an auth proxy.

📚 Documentation

Getting Started

• Installation Guide
• Frequently Asked Questions
• API Quickstart
• Configuration Guide
• Full Configuration Reference

Core Features

• All Features Guide
• Search Engines Guide
• Analytics Dashboard

Advanced Features

• LangChain Integration
• Benchmarking System
• Elasticsearch Setup
• SearXNG Setup

Development

• Docker Compose Guide
• Development Guide
• Security Guide
• Release Guide

Examples & Tutorials

• API Examples
• Benchmark Examples
• Optimization Examples

📰 Featured In

"Local Deep Research deserves special mention for those who prioritize privacy... tuned to use open-source LLMs that can run on consumer GPUs or even CPUs. Journalists, researchers, or companies with sensitive topics can investigate information without queries ever hitting an external server."

— Medium: Open-Source Deep Research AI Assistants

News & Articles

• Korben.info - French tech blog ("Sherlock Holmes numérique")
• Roboto.fr - "L'alternative open-source gratuite à Deep Research d'OpenAI"
• KDJingPai AI Tools - AI productivity tools coverage
• AI Sharing Circle - AI resources coverage

Community Discussions

• Hacker News - 190+ points, community discussion
• LangChain Twitter/X - Official LangChain promotion
• LangChain LinkedIn - 400+ likes

International Coverage

🇨🇳 Chinese

• Juejin (掘金) - Developer community
• Cnblogs (博客园) - Developer blogs
• GitHubDaily (Twitter/X) - Influential tech account
• Zhihu (知乎) - Tech community
• A姐分享 - AI resources
• CSDN - Installation guide
• NetEase (网易) - Tech news portal

🇯🇵 Japanese

• note.com: 調査革命：Local Deep Research徹底活用法 - Comprehensive tutorial
• Qiita: Local Deep Researchを試す - Docker setup guide
• LangChainJP (Twitter/X) - Japanese LangChain community

🇰🇷 Korean

• PyTorch Korea Forum - Korean ML community
• GeekNews (Hada.io) - Korean tech news

Reviews & Analysis

• BSAIL Lab: How useful is Deep Research in Academia? - Academic review by contributor @djpetti
• The Art Of The Terminal: Use Local LLMs Already! - Comprehensive review of local AI tools, featuring LDR's research capabilities (embeddings now work!)

Related Projects

• SearXNG LDR-Academic - Academic-focused SearXNG fork with 12 research engines (arXiv, Google Scholar, PubMed, etc.) designed for LDR
• DeepWiki Documentation - Third-party documentation and guides

Note: Third-party projects and articles are independently maintained. We link to them as useful resources but cannot guarantee their code quality or security.

🤝 Community & Support

• Discord - Get help and share research techniques
• Reddit - Updates and showcases
• GitHub Issues - Bug reports

🚀 Contributing

We welcome contributions of all sizes — from typo fixes to new features. The key rule: keep PRs small and atomic (one change per PR). For larger changes, please open an issue or start a discussion first — we want to protect your time and make sure your effort leads to a successful merge rather than a misaligned PR. See our Contributing Guide to get started.

Acknowledgements

Local Deep Research is built on the work of many open-access initiatives, academic databases, and open-source projects. We are grateful to:

Academic & Research Data

Source	What It Provides	License
OpenAlex	Academic metadata for ~280K sources and ~120K institutions, including DOAJ status	CC0
DOAJ	Directory of Open Access Journals — open-access verification (via OpenAlex)	CC0
arXiv	Preprints in physics, mathematics, CS, and more	Various (see arXiv license)
PubMed / NCBI	Biomedical and life sciences literature	Public domain (US Gov)
Semantic Scholar	Cross-discipline academic search with citation data	Terms
NASA ADS	Astrophysics, physics, and astronomy papers	Terms
Zenodo	Open research data, datasets, and software	Various per record
PubChem	Chemistry and biochemistry database	Public domain (US Gov)
Stop Predatory Journals	Predatory journal/publisher blacklist	MIT
JabRef	Journal abbreviation database	CC0

Knowledge & Content Sources

Wikipedia • OpenLibrary • Project Gutenberg • GitHub • Stack Exchange • The Guardian • Wayback Machine

Infrastructure & Frameworks

LangChain • Ollama • SearXNG • FAISS

Support Open Access

These projects run on donations and grants, not paywalls. If Local Deep Research is useful to you, consider giving back to the open-access ecosystem that makes it possible:

• arXiv — free preprints for physics, math, CS, and more
• PubMed / NLM — open biomedical literature
• Wikipedia / Wikimedia — the free encyclopedia
• Internet Archive — the Wayback Machine and open digital library
• DOAJ — curating and verifying open-access journals worldwide
• OpenAlex — open scholarly metadata (sponsored by OurResearch)
• Project Gutenberg — free ebooks since 1971

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file.

Dependencies: All third-party packages use permissive licenses (MIT, Apache-2.0, BSD, etc.) - see allowlist