FAIRplexica is an open-source AI assistant for research data management (RDM). It is based on Perplexica, uses the metasearch engine SearXNG to retrieve relevant RDM resources and local LLMs (via Ollama) to answer user questions. API providers like OpenAI, Groq, Anthropic, Google as well as custom API endpoints are available as well.

1. Local installation with docker
2. Server installation with docker

1. Ensure Docker is installed and running on your system.

2. Clone the FAIRplexica repository:

   git clone https://github.com/UB-Mannheim/FAIRplexica

3. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd FAIRplexica

4. Duplicate the sample.config.toml file and rename it to config.toml.

   • Fill in the empty fields depending on the LLM Providers you want to use; i.e. provide valid API keys for OpenAI, Anthropic etc.
   • Set your SearXNG URL
   • Set your Ollama URL if you have Ollama running and want to use it

     Note: You can change API keys after starting FAIRplexica inside the Settings dashboard.

5. Navigate to the ui folder inside the project's directory:

   cd ui

6. Make sure you can locate a file named .env.example in this folder.

7. Duplicate this file and rename it to .env. It should look like this:

   NEXT_PUBLIC_WS_URL=ws://localhost:3001
   NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=http://localhost:3001/api
   
   # Admin section
   ADMIN_USERNAME=""  
   ADMIN_PASSWORD="" # Provide a secure password
   
   # Provide a base64 string with a length of at least 32 characters
   NEXTAUTH_SECRET=""
   
   # Set to canonical URL of your site
   NEXTAUTH_URL="http://localhost:3001/"
   
   # Enable to show beta UI features
   NEXT_PUBLIC_ADMIN_MODE=false
   

8. Fill out the following fields and save your .env.

   • ADMIN_USERNAME
   • ADMIN_PASSWORD
   • NEXTAUTH_SECRET

     Note: You can create your NEXTAUTH_SECRET with a common shell command like: openssl rand -base64 32.

9. Change to the main project directory (containing the docker-compose.yaml) and execute:

   docker compose up -d

   Docker will pull the images, install everything and start the server. This may take a while.

10. Open http://localhost:3000/ in your browser, to check if everything works correctly.

11. Navigate to http://localhost:3000/settings and log into the Admin Settings with the ADMIN_USERNAME and ADMIN_PASSWORD you have set in section 7.

    • Inside the dashboard you can set your LLM and embedding models as well as API keys and your Ollama URL.

1. Follow steps 1 to 6 from the Local installation with docker section.

2. Duplicate the .env.example file and rename it to .env. It should look like this:

   NEXT_PUBLIC_WS_URL=wss://yourdomain.com
   NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=https://yourdomain.com/api
   
   # Admin section
   ADMIN_USERNAME=""  
   ADMIN_PASSWORD="" # Provide a secure password
   
   # Provide a base64 string with a length of at least 32 characters
   NEXTAUTH_SECRET=""
   
   # Set to canonical URL of your site
   NEXTAUTH_URL="https://yourdomain.com/"
   
   # Enable to show beta UI features
   NEXT_PUBLIC_ADMIN_MODE=false
   

3. Adjust out the following fields and save your .env.

   • NEXT_PUBLIC_WS_URL
   • NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL
   • ADMIN_USERNAME
   • ADMIN_PASSWORD
   • NEXTAUTH_SECRET

     Note: You can create your NEXTAUTH_SECRET with a common shell command like: openssl rand -base64 32.

   • NEXTAUTH_URL

4. Change to the main project directory (containing the docker-compose.yaml). Create a backup of the docker-compose.yaml file.

5. Replace the content of the docker-compose.yaml with the following and adjust perplexica-frontend args to your domain:

   services:
   searxng:
       image: docker.io/searxng/searxng:latest
       volumes:
       - ./searxng:/etc/searxng:rw
       ports:
       - 4000:8080
       networks:
       - perplexica-network
       restart: unless-stopped
   
   perplexica-backend:
       build:
       context: .
       dockerfile: backend.dockerfile
       image: itzcrazykns1337/perplexica-backend:main
       environment:
       - SEARXNG_API_URL=http://searxng:8080
       depends_on:
       - searxng
       ports:
       - 3001:3001
       volumes:
       - backend-dbstore:/home/perplexica/data
       - uploads:/home/perplexica/uploads
       - ./config.toml:/home/perplexica/config.toml
       networks:
       - perplexica-network
       restart: unless-stopped
   
   perplexica-frontend:
       build:
       context: .
       dockerfile: app.dockerfile
       args:
           - NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=https://yourdomain.com/api
           - NEXT_PUBLIC_WS_URL=wss://yourdomain.com
       image: itzcrazykns1337/perplexica-frontend:main
       depends_on:
       - perplexica-backend
       ports:
       - 3000:3000
       networks:
       - perplexica-network
       restart: unless-stopped
   
   networks:
   perplexica-network:
   
   volumes:
   backend-dbstore:
   uploads:

6. Execute the following command:

   docker compose up -d

   Docker will pull the images, install everything and start the server. This may take a while.

7. Open https://yourdomain.com/ in your browser, to check if everything works correctly.

8. Navigate to https://yourdomain.com/settings and log into the Admin Settings with the ADMIN_USERNAME and ADMIN_PASSWORD you have set in section 7.

   • Inside the dashboard you can set your LLM and embedding models as well as API keys and your Ollama URL.