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RAGShelf compares 38 self-hosted and desktop tools that let a local model answer questions from your PDFs, Office files, scans, and notes, without sending them to the cloud. Filter by license, hardware, document type, and whether it can run fully offline.

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๐Ÿ—‚ Browse by category: PDFs ยท Ollama ยท Desktop apps (beginner) ยท Docker servers ยท Knowledge graph ยท Scans & OCR ยท Team KB

โž• Built a local RAG tool? Submit it to RAGShelf. Free listings, reviewed weekly.

๐ŸŸฉ New: Local RAG on NVIDIA DGX Spark: which tools work on GB10/ARM64, what fits in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB, and single vs dual vs quad Spark stacks.

๐ŸŸจ New: Best local models (Oct 2026): the top 10 open models for document Q&A, with memory needs, hardware fit and sources.

๐ŸŸฆ New: People to follow on X: 37 active accounts covering local models, inference tooling, RAG, research and the DGX Spark community.

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Retrieval: Vector vs. vectorless RAG โ†’

Filters only use what each listing's data supports; tools with unknown hardware or use case stay untagged. Difficulty: desktop app = Easy, server/Docker = Medium, developer library = Hard. Filtered views are shareable: copy the URL.

How we know: Docs only = taken from the project's own README/docs, not tested by us. Community report = an owner published a working (or problem) report; links to the source. Vendor guide = an official NVIDIA playbook exists. We have not hands-on tested any tool yet, so nothing here says "Tested by RAGShelf".

ToolLicenseHardwareDocumentsFully offlineRetrievalโ˜… StarsLast commitLast checked
AirLLM New
Active Difficulty: Hard Docs only
Apache-2.0Python inference library for low-VRAM GPUs (project reports 70B in ~4GB); CPU inference supported; macOS on Apple silicon (Llama-style models only); needs lots of fast diskNone: backend inference library, no document ingestion or retrievalโœ… YesNo retrieval (runner/parser)40,8142026-10-262026-10-26
AnythingLLM
Active Difficulty: Easy DGX Spark: Reported working Community report
MITDesktop or Docker; built-in engine runs CPU or GPU (NVIDIA CUDA, AMD/Intel Vulkan)PDF, DOCX, TXT, CSV, web pages, audioโœ… YesVector search67,5792026-10-252026-10-26
Cherry Studio
Active Difficulty: Easy Docs only
AGPL-3.0Desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux)PDF, Office docs, images, text (OCR options)โœ… YesHybrid (vector + keyword)52,9972026-10-262026-10-26
Dify
Active Difficulty: Medium DGX Spark: Reported working Community report
Dify Open Source License (Apache-2.0 + conditions)Docker; minimum 2 CPU cores, 4GB RAMPDF, DOCX, XLSX, HTML, MDโœ… YesHybrid (vector + keyword)159,5922026-10-262026-10-26
Docling
Active DGX Spark: Reported working Community report
MITCPU OK, GPU fasterPDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, HTML, EPUB, images, audio, email (EML/MSG), LaTeXโœ… YesNo retrieval (runner/parser)69,6152026-10-262026-10-26
DocsGPT New
Active Difficulty: Medium Docs only
MITDocker (installer runs Docker Compose; pip, Kubernetes and air-gapped installs documented)PDF, Office files, web pages, audio; synced connectors (Google Drive, SharePoint, Confluence, GitHub, S3)โœ… YesVector search Graph RAG Agentic / iterative18,3352026-10-262026-10-26
Flowise
Active Difficulty: Medium Docs only
Apache-2.0 (enterprise dir separate)Node serverAny via loadersโœ… YesVector search55,5292026-08-132026-10-26
GPT4All (LocalDocs)
Stale (no release in 12+ months) Difficulty: Easy Docs only
MITDesktop; CPU OKPDF, TXT, MD, DOCX foldersโœ… YesVector search77,3562025-05-272026-10-26
h2oGPT
Stale (no release in 12+ months) Docs only
Apache-2.0GPU recommendedPDF, images, audio, DOCX, XLSXโœ… YesVector search11,9322025-10-092026-10-26
Haystack
Active Difficulty: Hard DGX Spark: Reported working Community report
Apache-2.0FrameworkAny via convertersโœ… YesVector search Agentic / iterative26,8472026-10-262026-10-26
Jan
Active Difficulty: Easy Docs only
Apache-2.0 per repo (GitHub reports NOASSERTION)Desktop; CPU/GPU (Vulkan, Metal, CUDA, ROCm). macOS: 8GB RAM for 3B, 16GB for 7B, 32GB for 13B modelsFile attachmentsโœ… YesVector search Full-context Agentic / iterative45,0922026-10-262026-10-26
Khoj
Active Difficulty: Medium Docs only
AGPL-3.0Server; GPU optionalPDF, Markdown, Org, Word, Notion, imagesโœ… YesVector search37,8342026-08-022026-10-26
KoboldCpp
Active Difficulty: Easy Docs only
AGPL-3.0Single binary; CPU/GPUText DB / file uploadโœ… YesVector search12,0652026-10-252026-10-26
Kotaemon
Active Difficulty: Medium Docs only
Apache-2.0Docker; GPU optionalPDF, HTML, MHTML, XLSX in lite image; DOCX and more need the full image (Unstructured)โœ… YesHybrid (vector + keyword) Agentic / iterative Graph RAG25,8292026-07-142026-10-26
Langflow
Active Difficulty: Medium Docs only
MITPython serverAny via componentsโœ… YesVector search156,0302026-10-262026-10-26
LibreChat
No tracked release Difficulty: Medium DGX Spark: Reported working Community report
MITServer + separate RAG API with pgvectorPDF, DOCX, TXTโš ๏ธ Needs configVector search Agentic / iterative Full-context46,3422026-10-262026-10-26
LightRAG
Active Docs only
MITDepends on chosen LLM; graph extraction wants a 14B+ modelText, PDF, DOCX; images/tables/Office via RAG-Anythingโœ… YesGraph RAG Vector search40,3442026-10-222026-10-26
LlamaIndex
Active Difficulty: Hard Docs only
MITFrameworkAny via readersโœ… YesVector search Agentic / iterative52,6702026-10-232026-10-26
LocalAI
Active DGX Spark: Reported working Community report
MITCPU/GPUBackend (LLM, embeddings, rerank)โœ… YesNo retrieval (runner/parser)49,9702026-10-262026-10-26
LocalGPT
No tracked release Docs only
MITGPU recommendedPDF, TXT, DOCXโœ… YesHybrid (vector + keyword)22,1892026-08-262026-10-26
MaxKB New
Active Difficulty: Medium Docs only
GPL-3.0Docker (PostgreSQL + pgvector)Uploaded documents and crawled web docs; text, image, audio and video inputโœ… YesAgentic / iterative23,0392026-10-262026-10-26
Microsoft GraphRAG
Active Docs only
MITIndexing is LLM-heavyText, CSVโœ… YesGraph RAG36,4522026-10-262026-10-26
Msty Studio
No tracked release Difficulty: Easy Docs only
Proprietary (free tier; Aurum $149/yr; lifetime $349)Desktop appPDF, DOCX, TXT, folders, YouTubeโš ๏ธ Needs configHybrid (vector + keyword) Full-context Agentic / iterativeโ€”โ€”2026-10-26
Ollama
Active DGX Spark: Official NVIDIA playbook Vendor guide
MITCPU/GPU/AppleBackendโœ… YesNo retrieval (runner/parser)184,8452026-10-262026-10-26
Onyx
Active Difficulty: Medium Docs only
MIT core + enterprise (GitHub NOASSERTION)Docker; 16GB RAM suggested40+ connectors, PDFs, Officeโœ… YesHybrid (vector + keyword) Agentic / iterative32,9962026-10-262026-10-26
Open Notebook
Active Difficulty: Medium DGX Spark: Reported working Community report
MITDockerPDF, web, audio, videoโœ… YesHybrid (vector + keyword)40,6012026-10-252026-10-26
Open WebUI
Active Difficulty: Medium DGX Spark: Official NVIDIA playbook Vendor guide
Custom (BSD-3 based, branding clause)Light server; LLM via OllamaPDF, DOCX, TXT, webโœ… YesHybrid (vector + keyword) Full-context156,8072026-10-262026-10-26
paperless-gpt
Active Docs only
MITNeeds Paperless-ngx + LLMScanned docsโœ… YesNo retrieval (runner/parser)2,7892026-10-202026-10-26
Paperless-ngx
Active Docs only
GPL-3.0Low (Raspberry Pi OK)Scans, PDFs, images, emailโœ… YesNo retrieval (runner/parser)47,1062026-10-262026-10-26
PipesHub
Active Difficulty: Medium Docs only
Apache-2.0Docker stackOffice docs, connectorsโœ… YesGraph RAG Agentic / iterative3,8502026-10-262026-10-26
PrivateGPT
Active Docs only
Apache-2.08GB+ RAM; GPU recommendedPDF, DOCX, TXT, CSV (tabular via tools), EPUBโœ… YesVector search Agentic / iterative57,6152026-10-262026-10-26
Quivr
Stale (no release in 12+ months) Difficulty: Hard Docs only
MITPython libraryPDF, TXT, MD, DOCXโš ๏ธ Needs configHybrid (vector + keyword)39,6042026-10-262026-10-26
R2R
Stale (no release in 12+ months) Difficulty: Medium Docs only
MITDocker, PostgresPDF, DOCX, images, audioโš ๏ธ Needs configHybrid (vector + keyword) Graph RAG Agentic / iterative8,0432025-11-072026-10-26
RAG Web UI
Active Difficulty: Medium Docs only
Apache-2.0DockerPDF, DOCX, MD, TXTโœ… YesVector search3,3012026-04-062026-10-26
RAGFlow
Active Difficulty: Medium DGX Spark: Known issues Community report
Apache-2.04 cores, 16GB RAM, 50GB disk recommended (Docker)PDF, scans, DOCX, XLSX, PPT, imagesโœ… YesHybrid (vector + keyword) Graph RAG Agentic / iterative Layout / ToC tree92,8952026-10-262026-10-26
SurfSense New
Active Difficulty: Easy Docs only
Apache-2.0Desktop app (Windows x64, macOS Apple Silicon, Linux x64); pick a local or remote modelPDF (incl. scanned), DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, CSV, images (OCR), Markdown, text, HTML, audio recordings (transcribed locally)โœ… YesAgentic / iterative16,6052026-10-262026-10-26
Unstructured (OSS)
Active Docs only
Apache-2.0CPU; hi_res needs more25+ formats incl. scans, emailโœ… YesNo retrieval (runner/parser)15,6262026-10-252026-10-26
Verba
Stale (no release in 12+ months) Difficulty: Medium Docs only
BSD-3-ClauseDocker + WeaviatePDF, DOCX, TXT, CSVโœ… YesVector search7,6932026-06-082026-10-26

Missing a tool? Submit a tool Free listing, reviewed weekly.

"Fully offline: yes" means it can run with no cloud calls once configured with local models. "Needs config" means a default (e.g. OpenAI embeddings or a cloud reranker) must be swapped out. New = added to RAGShelf in the last 14 days. Last checked = when we last reviewed the listing. Stale = no release in over 12 months. Stars and last commit (last push) come from the GitHub API, fetched '+GHDATE+'; click a column header to sort.

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Updates on X: @mkjerman