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Introduction

Vault Assistant is a local application that drafts grounded, natural text based on files in your Obsidian vault. A single Bun process serves a React web interface and a terminal interface (TUI), and an optional desktop app wraps the web interface in a native window.

What it does​

When you paste a prompt or a specific question, the application:

  1. Gathers context directly from your local vault files.
  2. Drafts an answer in your personal style using your chosen local or API-based model.
  3. Automatically runs a humanizing step to remove common AI writing patterns.

Each session or tab in the interface acts as an independent conversation. You can refine drafts using follow-up text prompts.

Core concepts​

  • Grounded context: The model does not make up facts. It uses only the information found inside your vault. If your vault lacks details to support a claim, the application leaves it out.
  • Single process runtime: A single Bun server hosts the frontend static files, handles the JSON/SSE API routes, and manages the local model executables.
  • RAG mode for token savings: You can switch on RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) for any tab. When RAG is active, the system indexes your vault and sends only the most relevant excerpts to the model rather than reading the entire vault.
  • Local privacy: Your vault contents never leave your machine. The application runs local CLI models or uses your existing Claude Code credentials directly.

Three ways to use it​

One backend serves three frontends. The web interface is the default and has every feature, including tabs, split view, and quick notes. The desktop app wraps that same interface in a native window with a bundled runtime. The terminal interface covers the core workflow from a shell, with a few of the visual features left out.

Quick start​

The fastest route is the npm package:

npm install -g @jairik/vault-assistant
vault-assistant

Then open the printed URL, http://localhost:5173 by default. Add --tui for the terminal interface. The Installation page covers this route in detail, plus the desktop app download and running from source.

From a source checkout, ./run.sh starts the same server (bun run dev for hot reloading, bun run tui for the terminal interface).