# MODSetter/SurfSense

Open-source NotebookLM alternative. Research the open web with live data(Reddit, YT, IG, TikTok, Indeed, Google Search, Maps etc) through one platform, API or MCP server. Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/ejRNvftDp9

Repository: https://github.com/MODSetter/SurfSense
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/surfsense
Homepage: https://www.surfsense.com
Language: Python
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: ai, fastapi, langchain, nextjs, rag, python, typescript, notebooklm, ollama, agent, agents, langgraph, notebooklm-alternative, web-scraping
Last push: 2026-08-25T21:32:33+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 90/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 98, longevity 54
- inputs: {"age_days": 764, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 12, "gap_med": 6.5, "n_releases_24m": 31}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 16017, forks 1529 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:14.682617+00:00)

## What it is
SurfSense is an open-source, self-hostable NotebookLM alternative that combines a personal knowledge base with live open-web research connectors (Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Google Search, Google Maps, Indeed, and more). It exposes its capabilities through a web UI, REST API, and MCP server, with scheduled agents that produce cited briefs, reports, podcasts, and alerts.

## Use cases
- research what Reddit says about a product or competitor
- monitor Google search rankings and AI Overview citations
- build a searchable knowledge base with cited chat answers
- scrape YouTube comments and transcripts for sentiment analysis
- give AI agents live web data through an MCP server
- automate scheduled research briefs and alerts
- self-host an alternative to NotebookLM for documents and web sources

## When to choose
- you want agents to reason over live web data instead of a static index
- you need a self-hosted, open-source NotebookLM alternative with citations
- you want platform-native scraping APIs (Reddit, YouTube, SERP) without official API quotas
- you need MCP or REST access to web research for your own agent stack

## When to avoid
- you only need simple document Q&A without web research
- you require a fully permissive OSS license (license is listed as NOASSERTION)
- you want a fully managed hosted service with no self-hosting setup
- your use case depends on connectors SurfSense does not yet offer

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: rag, web-scraping, agent-framework, search-engine, mcp, chatbot, api-framework, self-hosted
- domain: artificial-intelligence, crawlers, self-hosted, developer-tools
- platform: self-hosted, python, cross-platform
- tags: notebooklm-alternative, live-web-research, data-connectors, serp-api, knowledge-base, fastapi, nextjs, langchain, ollama, automations, citations, ai-agents, retrieval-augmented-generation, search, web-server, docker, nodejs, desktop

## Member repositories
- MODSetter/SurfSense (main) score 90

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:14.682617+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:05:16.924347+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/MODSetter/SurfSense (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:14.682617+00:00, sha d2fccc3d45f7)
  - homepage: https://www.surfsense.com (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:07.948971+00:00, sha 1a94fae9e0ef)
  - site_page: https://www.surfsense.com/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:07.964979+00:00, sha 9dafd74a5d17)
  - site_page: https://www.surfsense.com/pricing (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:07.957253+00:00, sha 8ea8275be18f)
  - site_page: https://www.surfsense.com/reddit (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:07.959331+00:00, sha 49a701e213b6)
  - site_page: https://www.surfsense.com/youtube (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:07.961250+00:00, sha 3ccf8c77ef6f)
  - site_page: https://www.surfsense.com/google-search (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:07.963045+00:00, sha 55efc99a31d7)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.