README

Project NOMAD
 Knowledge That Never Goes Offline







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Project NOMAD is a self-contained, offline-first knowledge and education server packed with critical tools, knowledge, and AI to keep you informed and empowered — anytime, anywhere.

 Installation & Quickstart
Project NOMAD can be installed on any Debian-based operating system (we recommend Ubuntu 26.04 LTS; 24.04 LTS and Debian 12 are also supported). Installation is completely terminal-based, and all tools and resources are designed to be accessed through the browser, so there's no need for a desktop environment if you'd rather setup NOMAD as a "server" and access it through other clients.

Before you start: NOMAD itself needs about 5 GB of disk and under 1 GB of RAM. The offline content you add afterwards is what actually fills a drive, and the AI Assistant is what drives the memory requirement up. See Device Requirements for both, and the FAQ for individual content sizes.

Note: sudo/root privileges are required to run the install script

 Quick Install (Debian-based OS Only)
bash
sudo apt-get update && \
sudo apt-get install -y curl && \
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Crosstalk-Solutions/project-nomad/refs/heads/main/install/install_nomad.sh \
  -o install_nomad.sh && \
sudo bash install_nomad.sh


Project NOMAD is now installed on your device! Open a browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080 (or http://DEVICE_IP:8080) to start exploring!

For a complete step-by-step walkthrough (including Ubuntu installation), see the Installation Guide. For Windows users, see the WSL2 install guide — community-supported path covering native Docker and Docker Desktop install routes.

 Advanced Installation
For more control over the installation process, copy and paste the Docker Compose template into a docker-compose.yml file and customize it to your liking (be sure to replace any placeholders with your actual values). Then, run docker compose up -d to start the Command Center and its dependencies. Note: this method is recommended for advanced users only, as it requires familiarity with Docker and manual configuration before starting.

 How It Works
NOMAD is a management UI ("Command Center") and API that orchestrates a collection of containerized tools and resources via Docker. It handles installation, configuration, and updates for everything — so you don't have to.

Built-in capabilities include:
- AI Chat with Knowledge Base — local AI chat powered by Ollama or you can use OpenAI API compatible software such as LM Studio or llama.cpp, with document upload and semantic search (RAG via Qdrant)
- Information Library — offline Wikipedia, medical references, ebooks, and more via Kiwix
- Education Platform — Khan Academy courses with progress tracking via Kolibri
- Offline Maps — downloadable regional maps via ProtoMaps
- Data Tools — encryption, encoding, and analysis via CyberChef
- Notes — local note-taking via FlatNotes
- System Benchmark — hardware scoring with a community lea

Top issues

Discussions

Latest release

Version 1.35.1 - October 5, 2026

 Features
 Bug Fixes
- AI: probe a model the list reports without vision before disabling image attachments, so gemma3 accepts images again (1409). Thanks @chriscrosstalk for the contribution!
- Translate: forward upstream redirects instead of following them, so books open styled and their article links resolve (1379). Thanks @chriscrosstalk for the contribution!
- Translate: download every released language instead of crashing on pre-release models, and list all supported languages in the docs (1405). Thanks @chriscrosstalk for the contribution!
 Improvements