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wtf is qmd?

tobi/qmd — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

24,231TypeScriptAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5LicenseSetup · moderate

TL;DR

A local-first search engine for your Markdown notes that uses keyword matching, semantic search, and AI re-ranking, all on your computer, no cloud.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Search Markdown files
      Three search methods
      Local AI re-ranking
    How it works
      BM25 keyword search
      Vector semantic search
      LLM result ranking
    Setup
      Organize collections
      Generate embeddings
      Query from CLI
    Use cases
      Personal knowledge base
      Meeting notes search
      Documentation lookup
    Tech stack
      TypeScript Node.js
      GGUF models
      MCP protocol

Code map

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filefunction / class

Why would anyone build with this?

REASON 1

Search through hundreds of personal notes and meeting transcripts without scrolling through files manually.

REASON 2

Build a private knowledge base that understands meaning, searching 'deploy' finds docs about 'shipping to production'.

REASON 3

Let Claude or other AI assistants look up relevant documents during conversations using the MCP server.

What's in the stack?

TypeScriptNode.jsBunGGUFMCP

How it stacks up

tobi/qmdelectron-react-boilerplate/electron-react-boilerplaterahuldkjain/github-profile-readme-generator
Stars24,23124,24424,213
LanguageTypeScriptTypeScriptTypeScript
Setup difficultymoderatemoderateeasy
Complexity3/53/52/5
Audiencedeveloperdevelopervibe coder

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

How do you spin it up?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires downloading GGUF model files which can be large and slow depending on internet speed.

Use freely for any purpose including commercial, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

Wtf does this do

QMD (Query Markup Documents) is a command-line search engine that runs entirely on your own computer and lets you search through your personal collection of Markdown files, notes, meeting transcripts, documentation, knowledge bases, or any text files. The core problem it solves is that when you have hundreds of notes scattered across folders, finding what you're looking for by scrolling through files becomes impractical. It combines three different search techniques to give the most relevant results. BM25 is classic keyword matching, similar to how search engines worked before AI, fast and precise for exact phrases. Vector search is semantic search, meaning it understands meaning rather than just matching words, so searching "how to deploy" also finds documents about "shipping to production." LLM re-ranking uses a language model to reorder the top results by relevance after the initial search. All three run locally using GGUF model files (a compact format for running AI models on a laptop), so none of your data ever leaves your machine. You organize your files into named collections (like "notes" or "meetings"), generate search embeddings once, and then query from the command line. QMD is also designed to integrate with AI coding assistants and agents, it exposes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server so tools like Claude can use it to look up relevant documents during conversations. A developer, researcher, or knowledge worker who takes many notes and wants a fast, private, AI-enhanced way to search them would use QMD. It is written in TypeScript and runs on Node.js or Bun.

Yoink these prompts

Prompt 1
How do I set up QMD to search my Markdown notes collection and what commands do I run to query it?
Prompt 2
Show me how to integrate QMD with Claude so it can search my notes while we chat.
Prompt 3
How does QMD's vector search work and why would I use it instead of just keyword search?
Prompt 4
I have 500 notes in different folders, how do I organize them into collections and generate embeddings for QMD?

Frequently asked questions

wtf is qmd?

A local-first search engine for your Markdown notes that uses keyword matching, semantic search, and AI re-ranking, all on your computer, no cloud.

What language is qmd written in?

Mainly TypeScript. The stack also includes TypeScript, Node.js, Bun.

What license does qmd use?

Use freely for any purpose including commercial, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

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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