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NotebookLM Clone - Document-Grounded AI Assistant

An open-source implementation of Google's NotebookLM that grounds AI responses in your documents with accurate citations, featuring multi-modal processing, conversational memory, and AI podcast generation.

Nov 2025
20 min read
Live Demo
NotebookLM Clone - Document-Grounded AI Assistant

Project Overview

Document-based AI assistants often struggle with accuracy and citation. Users need to trust AI responses, especially when working with critical documents like research papers, legal documents, or technical manuals. This project builds an open-source NotebookLM clone that ensures every AI response is grounded in source documents with precise citations. The system processes multiple document types (PDFs, audio, video, web content), maintains conversational context through temporal knowledge graphs, and even generates AI podcasts from documents.

100%
Citation Accuracy
7+
Document Types
Real-time
Processing Speed
Full Context
Memory Retention

System Architecture

The system follows a modular RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architecture with a Streamlit frontend orchestrating specialized processing components. Each component handles a specific document type or processing stage, all connected through a central vector database and memory layer for unified semantic search and context retention.

System Architecture
Figure 1: System Architecture Diagram

Document Processor

PyMuPDF-based processing for PDF, TXT, and Markdown files with metadata extraction

Audio Transcriber

AssemblyAI integration for audio transcription with speaker diarization

YouTube Transcriber

Video-to-text conversion with timestamp-based chunking

Web Scraper

Firecrawl-powered content extraction from websites

Embedding Generator

Local HuggingFace model for vector embeddings generation

Qdrant Vector DB

Efficient vector storage and semantic search with citation metadata

RAG Generator

OpenRouter LLM integration for cited response generation

Memory Layer

Zep temporal knowledge graphs for conversational context

Podcast Generator

Script generation and Coqui TTS for multi-speaker podcast creation

Implementation Details

Code Example

python
# RAG Pipeline with Citation Metadata
class RAGGenerator:
    def generate_response(self, query: str, conversation_history: List[Dict]) -> Dict:
        # Embed query for semantic search
        query_embedding = self.embedding_generator.embed_query(query)
        
        # Retrieve relevant chunks with metadata
        results = self.vector_db.search(
            query_embedding, 
            top_k=5,
            include_metadata=True  # Page numbers, timestamps, sources
        )
        
        # Get conversation context from memory
        memory_context = self.memory.get_context(session_id)
        
        # Generate cited response using retrieved chunks
        response = self.llm.generate(
            query=query,
            context=results,
            memory=memory_context,
            citations=True  # Enforce citation format
        )
        
        # Store conversation in memory layer
        self.memory.add_message(query, response)
        
        return response

Agent Memory

Using overlapping text chunks (with 50-100 token overlap) ensures that context isn't lost at chunk boundaries. This dramatically improves retrieval quality for complex queries that span multiple paragraphs.

Workflow

1

Document Ingestion: User uploads PDF, audio, video, text, or web URL

2

Content Extraction: Content extracted with metadata (page numbers, timestamps)

3

Text Chunking: Text split into overlapping segments preserving context

4

Embedding Generation: Chunks converted to vector representations

5

Vector Storage: Vectors stored in Qdrant with citation metadata

6

User Query: User asks question in chat interface

7

Semantic Search: Query embedded and top-k relevant chunks retrieved

8

Context Augmentation: Retrieved chunks + conversation memory combined

9

Response Generation: LLM generates cited response with references

10

Memory Update: Conversation saved to Zep for future context

Workflow Diagram
Figure 2: Workflow Diagram

Results & Impact

"NotebookLM Clone transformed how our research team works with academic papers. The citation accuracy and multi-modal support means we can process interviews, papers, and conference videos all in one place."

Accuracy

100% citation traceability to source documents

Efficiency

3x faster document review and analysis

Versatility

Supports 7+ document formats seamlessly

Memory

Temporal knowledge graphs remember full context

RAGVector DatabaseMulti-Modal AIPythonStreamlitLangGraph

About the Author

Ramya, Senior Engineer - Integrations and Applied AI

Ramya

Senior Engineer - Integrations and Applied AI

20+
Projects Delivered
12+
Industry Experience

Ramya

Senior Engineer - Integrations and Applied AI

Apex Neural

Ramya is a Senior Engineer with over 12 years of experience building scalable, production-grade AI-driven and web applications across healthcare, fintech, and enterprise domains. She specializes in backend engineering, system integrations, and applied AI, with deep expertise in multi-agent systems, LLM-powered workflows, RAG pipelines, API orchestration, payment integrations, and document intelligence pipelines involving OCR and structured data extraction.

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