Parcourse is an open-source app that transforms YouTube videos into structured learning experiences. Paste any URL and get AI-generated sections, summaries, and quiz questions with instant feedback. The app builds a personal knowledge graph mapping your growth across topics, supports multi-user administration, and works with any provider LiteLLM reaches (OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq, a local Ollama, and more), configured from the Settings page and stored encrypted.
You need Docker and an API key from a provider of your choice.
cp .env.example .env
docker compose upYouTube refuses transcript requests from datacenter addresses, so a server
rented anywhere is told to prove it is not a bot while the same app on a home
machine works untouched. Point YTDLP_PROXY at any proxy and only the YouTube
fetches go through it. A second deployment file runs a VPN alongside
the app for this, and any provider's proxy works just as well:
docker compose -f docker-compose.ghcr-vpn.yml upSet JWT_SECRET and ENCRYPTION_KEY in .env. Generate the encryption key with:
python3 -c "from cryptography.fernet import Fernet; print(Fernet.generate_key().decode())"The app is on http://localhost:5173 and the API on http://localhost:8000. The first visit walks you through creating an admin account and connecting a provider; you can skip the provider and add it from Settings later although the app will nudge you to do it anyway.
The app ships with a Postgres container, but it will talk to any Postgres you already have, including Supabase and Neon. Point DATABASE_URL at it and use the compose file that leaves the database out:
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@host:5432/postgres docker compose -f docker-compose.external-db.yml upPaste the connection string exactly as your provider gives it; postgresql:// and postgres:// both work. Set DB_SCHEMA if you would rather the tables sat somewhere other than public, and the schema is created for you.
Set LOG_LEVEL to debug, info, warning, error or critical to change how much the backend says for itself; it defaults to info.
docker compose exec backend python -m unittest discover -s testsThe Parcourse logo is inspired by one of the many potential interrobangs from the Inter font by @rsms, from this GitHub thread.
Licensed under Apache 2.0. See LICENSE.