🤖 Oliver's Personal AI Assistant

Talk to your documents using AI! 💬

This is a smart chatbot that reads your documents and answers questions about them. It's like having a personal assistant who has read everything you've written!

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🎯 What Does This Do?

Imagine you have hundreds of pages of documents - resumes, LinkedIn profiles, papers, company info. Instead of searching through them manually, you can just ask questions like:

• "What projects did I work on?"
• "What are my skills?"
• "Tell me about my experience"

The AI reads all your documents and gives you answers! ✨

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📋 What You Need Before Starting

Don't worry - we'll explain everything step by step!

1️⃣ A Computer

• Mac, Windows, or Linux - any computer works!

2️⃣ Python Installed

• Python is a programming language
• Download it here: python.org
• Choose version 3.8 or newer

3️⃣ An OpenAI Account (for the AI brain 🧠)

• Go to: openai.com
• Sign up for a free account
• You'll need to add a payment method (costs about $0.01 per chat!)

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🚀 How to Set This Up (Step by Step)

Step 1: Download This Project

Option A - Easy Way (Download ZIP):

1. Click the green "Code" button at the top of this page
2. Click "Download ZIP"
3. Unzip the file on your computer

Option B - Using Git (if you know how):

git clone https://github.com/pppop00/personalAI.git
cd personalAI

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Step 2: Open Terminal/Command Prompt

On Mac:

• Press Command + Space
• Type "Terminal"
• Press Enter

On Windows:

• Press Windows key
• Type "cmd" or "Command Prompt"
• Press Enter

On Linux:

• Press Ctrl + Alt + T

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Step 3: Go to the Project Folder

In the Terminal/Command Prompt, type:

On Mac/Linux:

cd Desktop
cd "Personal AI"

On Windows:

cd Desktop
cd "Personal AI"

💡 Tip: The folder might be in "Downloads" instead if you downloaded the ZIP file!

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Step 4: Install the Required Tools

Copy and paste this command, then press Enter:

pip install -r requirements.txt

⏰ This might take 2-5 minutes. Don't close the window! You'll see lots of text - that's normal.

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Step 5: Get Your OpenAI API Key

1. Go to: platform.openai.com/api-keys
2. Click "Create new secret key"
3. Give it a name like "Personal AI"
4. Copy the key (it looks like: sk-abc123xyz...)
5. ⚠️ Save it somewhere safe! You can only see it once!

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Step 6: Create Your Secret Key File

1. In the project folder, create a new file called .env

   • On Mac: Right-click → New File → name it .env
   • On Windows: New → Text Document → name it .env (remove the .txt)

2. Open the .env file with any text editor (Notepad, TextEdit, etc.)

3. Type this (replace your-key-here with your actual key):

   OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-abc123xyz...your-actual-key-here
   

4. Save and close the file

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Step 7: Add Your Documents

1. In the project folder, you should see a folder called oliver-knowledge-base

2. Inside it, create folders for different types of documents:

   • Linkedin - put LinkedIn profile info here
   • ResumeLetter - put resumes and cover letters
   • Git - put GitHub project info
   • Paper - put research papers
   • Company - put company information
   • Any other folders you want!

3. Save your documents as .md files (Markdown format)

   • You can convert Word docs to .md using online converters
   • Or just create .md files in any text editor

📝 Example: Save a file as my-resume.md

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Step 8: Run the App! 🎉

In Terminal/Command Prompt, type:

python app.py

✅ Success! You'll see:

• Text appearing in the terminal
• A web browser will open automatically
• You'll see a chat interface

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💬 How to Use It

1. The app will open in your web browser
2. You'll see a chat box
3. Type any question about your documents
4. Press Enter and wait for the AI to respond!

Example Questions:

• "What jobs have I worked at?"
• "What are my technical skills?"
• "Summarize my education background"
• "What projects did I work on at [company name]?"

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💰 Cost Information

This uses OpenAI's GPT-4o-mini model, which is very cheap:

• About $0.01 for 100 questions
• A full month of heavy use might cost $1-3

You can check your usage at: platform.openai.com/usage

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🆓 Want to Use It for FREE?

You can use local models (runs on your computer, no cost):

1. Install Ollama: ollama.com
2. In Terminal, type: ollama pull llama3.2
3. In app.py, find this line:

   llm = ChatOpenAI(temperature=0.7, model_name=MODEL)

4. Comment it out and uncomment the next line:

   # llm = ChatOpenAI(temperature=0.7, model_name=MODEL)
   llm = ChatOpenAI(temperature=0.7, model_name='llama3.2', base_url='http://localhost:11434/v1', api_key='ollama')

Now it's completely free! 🎉

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🛠️ Troubleshooting (If Something Goes Wrong)

Problem: "pip: command not found"

Solution: Install Python first from python.org

Problem: "No module named 'gradio'"

Solution: Run pip install -r requirements.txt again

Problem: "OpenAI API key not found"

Solution:

• Make sure your .env file is in the right folder
• Make sure it's named .env (not .env.txt)
• Check that your API key is correct

Problem: "No documents found"

Solution:

• Add .md files to your oliver-knowledge-base folder
• Make sure they're in subfolders

Problem: Browser doesn't open automatically

Solution:

• Look for a link in the terminal like http://127.0.0.1:7860
• Copy and paste it into your web browser

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📁 Project Structure

Personal AI/
├── app.py                    # Main program (don't change this!)
├── requirements.txt          # List of tools needed
├── .env                      # Your secret API key (create this!)
├── oliver-knowledge-base/    # Put your documents here!
│   ├── Linkedin/            # LinkedIn profiles (.md files)
│   ├── ResumeLetter/        # Resumes and letters (.md files)
│   ├── Git/                 # GitHub project info (.md files)
│   └── ...                  # Add more folders as needed!
└── vector_db/               # Created automatically (don't touch!)

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🎓 How It Works (Simple Explanation)

1. 📖 Reading: The app reads all your .md documents
2. 🧩 Chunking: Breaks them into small pieces
3. 🔢 Embedding: Converts text into numbers the AI understands
4. 💾 Storing: Saves everything in a database
5. ❓ Questioning: When you ask a question, it finds relevant pieces
6. 🤖 Answering: Sends those pieces to OpenAI to generate an answer

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🔒 Privacy & Security

• ✅ Your documents are stored only on your computer
• ✅ Only the relevant parts are sent to OpenAI when you ask questions
• ✅ OpenAI doesn't train on your data (when using API)
• ⚠️ Don't share your .env file - it has your secret key!

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🆘 Need More Help?

1. Create an Issue: Click the "Issues" tab above and describe your problem
2. Check Documentation: See SETUP_LOCAL_LLM.md for advanced options
3. OpenAI Help: help.openai.com

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📝 Credits

• Built with LangChain
• Powered by OpenAI
• UI by Gradio
• Vector Database: Chroma

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📜 License

This project is open source and free to use!

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⭐ Like This Project?

Give it a star ⭐ on GitHub to help others find it!

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Made with ❤️ by Oliver

Last updated: October 17, 2025