AI Notes Assistant

AI-powered study tool — upload notes, ask questions with RAG retrieval, and generate practice quizzes.

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React + Vite + Tailwind CSS
Backend	Node.js + Express
Database	PostgreSQL + Prisma
Vector Search	pgvector
Embeddings	Xenova/all-MiniLM-L6-v2 (local)
LLM	Groq (Llama 3.3 70B)
Auth	JWT + bcryptjs

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• PostgreSQL with pgvector extension (Supabase, Neon, Railway, or local with CREATE EXTENSION vector)

Setup

1. Clone & Install

# Backend
cd backend
npm install

# Frontend
cd ../frontend
npm install

2. Configure Environment

# Backend — copy and edit
cp backend/.env.example backend/.env
# Set your DATABASE_URL, GROQ_API_KEY, and JWT_SECRET

# Frontend — copy and edit
cp frontend/.env.example frontend/.env

3. Database Setup

Make sure your PostgreSQL has pgvector enabled:

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS vector;

Then run Prisma migrations:

cd backend
npx prisma migrate dev --name init

This creates all tables and the vector column.

Note: If Prisma migration doesn't create the embedding column (due to Unsupported type), run this SQL manually:

ALTER TABLE "NoteChunk" ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS embedding vector(384);
CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS note_chunk_embedding_idx ON "NoteChunk" USING hnsw (embedding vector_cosine_ops);

4. Run

# Terminal 1 — Backend
cd backend
npm run dev

# Terminal 2 — Frontend
cd frontend
npm run dev

• Frontend: http://localhost:5173
• Backend: http://localhost:5000
• API Health: http://localhost:5000/api/health

Features

• Auth: Signup, login, JWT-based session, protected routes
• Upload: PDF and TXT files, auto-chunked and embedded
• RAG Q&A: Ask questions, get answers from your notes with source citations
• Quiz Generator: MCQ quizzes with adjustable difficulty, interactive answer reveal
• Dashboard: View all notes, status tracking, auto-refresh during processing

API Endpoints

Method	Route	Description
POST	/api/auth/signup	Create account
POST	/api/auth/login	Login
GET	/api/auth/me	Get current user
GET	/api/notes	List user notes
POST	/api/notes/upload	Upload file
GET	/api/notes/:id	Get note
DELETE	/api/notes/:id	Delete note
POST	/api/chat/:noteId/ask	Ask question (RAG)
GET	/api/chat/:noteId/history	Chat history
POST	/api/quiz/:noteId/generate	Generate quiz
GET	/api/quiz/:noteId/history	Quiz history

Deployment

Frontend (Vercel/Netlify)

• Build: npm run build
• Output: dist/
• Set VITE_API_URL to your backend URL

Backend (Render/Railway)

• Build: npm install
• Start: npm start
• Set all env vars from .env.example
• Ensure PostgreSQL addon with pgvector support

Project Structure

ai-notes/
├── frontend/          # React + Vite + Tailwind
│   └── src/
│       ├── api/       # API client layer
│       ├── components/# UI, layout, notes, chat, quiz
│       ├── contexts/  # Auth context
│       └── pages/     # Landing, Login, Signup, Dashboard, NoteWorkspace
├── backend/           # Express + Prisma
│   ├── prisma/        # Schema & migrations
│   └── src/
│       ├── config/    # Environment config
│       ├── controllers/
│       ├── lib/       # Prisma, Groq, file parser
│       ├── middleware/ # Auth, upload, validation, errors
│       ├── routes/
│       └── services/  # Core business logic
└── README.md