Chat2Book

Chat2Book is a RAG-based platform for uploading a book, extracting its main characters, and chatting with them in character.

Overview

• Upload a book and process it into searchable RAG context
• Extract the main characters and generate lightweight character profiles
• Start a character conversation grounded in the source material

Screenshots

Home

Characters

Chat

Prerequisites

• Java 21
• Node.js 22 via nvm
• pnpm
• Docker and Docker Compose
• OPENAI_API_KEY

Quick Start

1. Start infrastructure

docker-compose up -d

PostgreSQL is exposed on localhost:5433.

2. Configure environment

export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-xxx

Optional:

export OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com

3. Start the backend

cd backend
./mvnw spring-boot:run

Backend runs on http://localhost:8080.

4. Start the frontend

cd frontend
pnpm install
pnpm dev

Frontend runs on http://localhost:5173.

Common Development Commands

Backend

cd backend
./mvnw test

Frontend

cd frontend
pnpm lint

Repository Layout

• backend/: Spring Boot backend
• frontend/: React frontend
• spec/: canonical design and planning documents

Troubleshooting

Database connection issues

docker-compose ps

OpenAI API errors

echo $OPENAI_API_KEY

Frontend cannot reach backend

Verify:

• backend is running on http://localhost:8080
• frontend is running on http://localhost:5173