Note-IT AI: Next-Gen Academic Learning & Research Studio

---

Note-IT AI is a state-of-the-art personal knowledge, learning, and research companion designed for scholars, researchers, and students. Powered by advanced Gemini and OpenAI models under a secure BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) architecture, the system ingests multi-format lectures, documents, and transcripts to synthesize study materials, track weak topics, map knowledge graphs, and enable grounded Q&A.

---

Key Features

• 🛡️ Secure BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) Integration

  • Connect your own Gemini or OpenAI API keys directly.
  • Keys are encrypted client-side using AES-256-GCM before being securely synchronized to Firebase, ensuring maximum user privacy.

• 🎙️ Live Lecture Capture & Synthesis Engine

  • Record live lecture audio or upload existing media and document files (PDFs, .docx, .pptx, .xlsx, and YouTube links).
  • The synthesis engine generates structured study guides, detailed transcripts, concise summaries, flashcards, and conceptual cheat sheets.

• 🔍 RAG-Powered Research Hub (Research Studio)

  • Engage in grounded conversations with your library of documents.
  • Every answer includes precise citations, mapping directly to specific document page numbers or audio timestamps ([MM:SS]).

• 🎯 Cognitive Weak Topics Radar (Tracker)

  • Real-time diagnostic telemetry visualizes your learning progression.
  • Automatically assesses quiz and recall telemetry to build a personalized action plan for subjects like Calculus, Stereochemistry, Neural Networks, etc.

• 📝 Interactive Presenter & Quiz Workspace

  • Dual-pane workspaces to view original source materials next to generated study notes.
  • Practice mock tests across three custom difficulty tiers (Easy, Medium, Hard).
  • Built-in visual Knowledge Studio maps relationships between key terms dynamically.

• ✨ Rich Aesthetics & Micro-Animations

  • Dark-mode first design using custom HSL palettes and glassmorphism.
  • Seamless layout transitions powered by Framer Motion (motion/react) and responsive structures using Tailwind CSS v4.

---

Technology Stack

Frontend

• Framework: React 19 (TypeScript)
• Bundler: Vite 6
• Styling: Tailwind CSS v4
• Animation: Framer Motion (via motion/react)
• Icons: Lucide React

Backend

• Server: Node.js + Express
• Runtime Compiler: tsx
• Document Parsers: pdf-parse, mammoth (Word), officeparser (PowerPoint), xlsx (Excel), @mozilla/readability & jsdom (Web Scraping)
• YouTube API: youtube-transcript

Cloud Infrastructure

• Database & Auth: Firebase Auth & Firestore
• Storage: Azure Blob Storage (with automated Local Uploads folder fallback)

---

Environment Setup

Clone the repository and copy the environment template to configure your local setup:

cp .env.example .env

Open .env and fill in the necessary keys:

Key	Description
GEMINI_API_KEY	Your primary Google Gemini API Key
ENCRYPTION_SECRET	A secure 32-character key used for AES encrypting user API keys
VITE_FIREBASE_*	Firebase project configurations (Auth, Database, Storage)
VITE_API_URL	Public URL of the deployed Express API, used by the frontend build
AZURE_STORAGE_*	Credentials for Azure Blob Storage (optional; fallbacks to local upload directories if missing)
FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID, FIREBASE_CLIENT_EMAIL, FIREBASE_PRIVATE_KEY	Firebase Admin service-account credentials for backend token verification

---

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or higher recommended)
• Firebase Project setup

Installation

1. Install backend and frontend dependencies:

   npm install

2. Configure the database rules on Firebase or review firestore.rules.

Running Locally

To run Note-IT AI, you need to spin up both the Vite client server and the Express backend API.

1. Start the Frontend Client (Vite):

   npm run dev

   The client runs by default on http://localhost:5173

2. Start the Backend API Server:

   npm start

   The backend starts by default on http://localhost:3002

3. Production Build:

   npm run build

Deploy with your own Firebase and Render

The source no longer includes the previous team's Firebase project values. The React app reads only VITE_FIREBASE_* values supplied at build time, and the Express API reads FIREBASE_* Admin SDK credentials at runtime.

1. In your Firebase project, create a Web App and copy its configuration into the VITE_FIREBASE_* fields. Enable the sign-in providers you use, create Firestore and Storage, then create a service-account key for the API.
2. Push this repository and create a Render Blueprint from render.yaml. It creates noteit-api (Node/Express) and noteit-web (the Vite static site).
3. Add the Firebase Admin values to noteit-api. Add the Firebase Web App values to noteit-web. Keep private keys and AI-provider keys only on the API service.
4. Once Render gives the API its https://…onrender.com URL, set that exact URL as VITE_API_URL on noteit-web, then redeploy the static site.
5. In Firebase Authentication, add the final noteit-web.onrender.com domain to Authorized domains.

VITE_* settings are embedded into the public web bundle, so never place a Firebase Admin private key or an AI-provider secret in a VITE_* variable.

---