edit-mind

Edit Mind: Local Video Knowledge Base

Edit Mind lets you index your videos (including transcription, frame analysis, and multi-model embedding), and you can search your videos (or specific video scenes) using natural language.

Development Status: Edit Mind is currently in active development and not yet production-ready. Expect incomplete features and occasional bugs. We welcome contributors to help us reach v1.0!

Prefer a one-click install? Desktop app available →

Note: (Edit Mind name is coming from Video Editor Mind, so this will be the editor's second brain and companion in the future)

Sponsors of this project

Showcase Video

Click to watch a walkthrough of Edit Mind's core features.

Why Edit Mind?

• Search videos by spoken words, objects, faces, etc...
• Runs fully locally, respecting privacy.
• Works on any computer or server with Docker installed.
• Uses AI for rich metadata extraction and semantic search.

Core Features

• Video Indexing and Processing: A background service watches for new video files and queues them for AI-powered analysis.
• AI-Powered Video Analysis: Extracts metadata like face recognition, transcription, object & text detection, scene analysis, and more.
• Vector-Based Semantic Search: Powerful natural language search capabilities on video content using ChromaDB.

Core Technologies

Getting Started

Edit Mind uses Docker Compose to run everything in containers.

Desktop App

Want Edit Mind without Docker or any terminal setup? The commercial desktop app packages everything into a one-click installer for macOS and Windows with the same features (plus Davinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro direct integration). This will help us support the development of the community's version.

I built the self-hosted version because a lot of people asked for it. I built the desktop app because I got couple of emails and calls people doesn't wanna run this as server. The self hosted version, It's free. It's not going anywhere. The desktop app is for the people who want it to just work on their Mac or Windows or the ones with Apple chips and wanna utilize Apple GPU because using Docker, we cannot utilize that.

Preorder the Desktop App →

Early bird pricing · Lifetime license · one year of updates included · 14-day refund guarantee (starting when the app ships) The desktop app will be delivered by email when the app ships.

Setup Video

Click to watch a walkthrough of Edit Mind's setup guide.

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop installed and running.
• That's it! Everything else runs in containers.

Easy Mode:

You can install and configure this project using this bash script:

curl -sSL https://get.edit-mind.com | sh

Advanced Mode:

1. Project Setup

mkdir edit-mind
cd edit-mind

2. Configure Docker File Sharing

Important: Before proceeding, configure Docker to access your media folder.

macOS/Windows:

1. Open Docker Desktop
2. Go to Settings → Resources → File Sharing
3. Add the path where your videos are stored (e.g., /Users/yourusername/Videos)
4. Click Apply & Restart

Linux: File sharing is typically enabled by default.

3. Configure Environment Variables

Edit Mind uses a two-file environment configuration:

• .env - Your personal configuration (required)
• .env.system - System defaults (required)

Step 3.1: Create Your Personal Configuration

Copy the example file and customize it:

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IliasHad/edit-mind/refs/heads/main/.env.example -o .env
curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IliasHad/edit-mind/refs/heads/main/.env.system.example -o .env.system
curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IliasHad/edit-mind/refs/heads/main/docker-compose.yml -o docker-compose.yml

If you have NVIDIA GPU, use docker-compose.cuda.yml file instead

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IliasHad/edit-mind/refs/heads/main/docker-compose.cuda.yml -o docker-compose.yml

Edit the .env file and configure these critical settings:

# 1. SET YOUR VIDEO FOLDER PATH (REQUIRED)
# Must match the path you added to Docker File Sharing
HOST_MEDIA_PATH="/Users/yourusername/Videos"

# 2. CHOOSE AI MODEL (Pick one option)
# Option A: Use Ollama (more private, requires model download)
USE_OLLAMA_MODEL="true"
OLLAMA_HOST="http://172.17.0.1"
OLLAMA_PORT="11434"
OLLAMA_MODEL="qwen2.5:7b-instruct"

# Please make sure to run ollama server first using this command 

# OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0:11434 ollama serve
# and pull the ollama model first 
# ollama pull qwen2.5:7b-instruct

# Option B: Use Gemini API (requires API key)
USE_GEMINI="true"
GEMINI_API_KEY="your-gemini-api-key-from-google-ai-studio"

# 3. GENERATE SECURITY KEYS (REQUIRED)
# Generate with: openssl rand -base64 32
ENCRYPTION_KEY="your-random-32-char-base64-key"
# Generate with: openssl rand -hex 32
SESSION_SECRET="your-random-session-secret"

Quick Key Generation:

# Generate ENCRYPTION_KEY
openssl rand -base64 32

# Generate SESSION_SECRET
openssl rand -hex 32

4. Start the Services

Start all services with a single command:

docker compose up

5. Access the Applications

Once all services are running (look for "ready" messages in logs):

• Web App: http://localhost:3745

If you're using Safari, use http://127.0.0.1:3745

6. Add Your First Videos

1. Navigate to the web app at http://localhost:3745
2. Login using admin@example.com and the password is admin
3. Navigate to the web app at http://localhost:3745/app/settings
4. Click "Add Folder"
5. Select a folder from your HOST_MEDIA_PATH location
6. Navigate to the folder details page and click on Rescan
7. The background job service will automatically start processing your videos and will start watching for new video file events

Special Thanks

A huge thank you to the r/selfhosted community on Reddit for their amazing support, valuable feedback, and encouragement.

Original discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1ogis3j/i_built_a_selfhosted_alternative_to_googles_video/

Contributing

We welcome contributions of all kinds! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for details on our code of conduct and the process for submitting pull requests.

Development Setup

Follow the steps below if you want to extend the app functionality or fix bugs.

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/iliashad/edit-mind
cd edit-mind

2. Setup dev environment

cp .env.system.example docker/.env.system
cp .env.example docker/.env.dev

3. Start docker container in dev mode

pnpm install
cd docker 
docker-compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up --build

Featured Videos

Watch the Edit Mind featured at Syntax.fm (starts at 41:21)

License

This project is licensed under the Edit Mind License - see the LICENSE.md file for details.