Local or API Key-Based AI Integration

[ysfemreAlbyrk]

Users need AI-powered features such as quick summarization, content generation, translation, Q&A, and smart search during note-taking, document management, or project planning. However, most existing solutions are cloud-based, raising privacy concerns-especially for enterprise users or those handling sensitive data. There is a demand for local (offline) or user-controlled API key-based AI integration to address these issues.

• Local AI Model Integration: Allow users to integrate open-source AI models (e.g., Llama, Mistral) running on their own machines.

• API Key Support: Enable users to input API keys for external AI services (e.g., OpenAI, Mistral, Google AI) and use them directly within the platform.

• Privacy-First Design: Ensure data is processed locally or in the cloud based on user preference, with transparent data handling policies.

• Use Cases:

  • Automatic summarization of notes
  • Document translation
  • Smart search and Q&A
  • Project planning suggestions

• Notion AI: Cloud-based, with privacy concerns.

• Obsidian + Local Plugins: Local AI plugins exist, but integration and usability are limited.

• Logseq + API Plugins: API integration is possible, but not user-friendly.

[astudentinearth]

This would be a controversial thing to implement right now. I won't add any sort of AI feature in the near future, except for an MCP server (I'll explain my reasoning below), but I'll keep the issue open to see what the opinions of other users are.

The lack of AI features is by design, and Notion's intrusive AI push might be the single biggest motivator for me to keep maintaining this app. An AI button in the corner, 5 in the formatting menu, multiple AI buttons in the sidebar, and the worst of all, the giant AI chat box that pops up if you hit space on an empty line. Adding AI features overall would add more friction to general users who just want a non-intrusive text editor, while providing marginal value to the few people that use it.

The 5 AI buttons in the formatting menu isn't a joke, Notion took their perfectly fine bubble menu and added 5 more buttons to make it a tall rectangle. Now your mouse needs to travel upwards and to the right, just to hit "bold". This is just one case of AI being something that's hard to integrate without ruining the core value of an application. They can drop a new AI feature every week, but they can't port their Electron app to Linux😶‍🌫️

I don't know about everyone else, but for my use case, AI lives in a browser tab and I use it rarely when writing pretty much anything. I think this is the case for most of the population as well, who are just looking for a cake recipe.

I doubt many users want the next LLM wrapper to live inside Darkwrite, I've even had users who reached out asking not to introduce AI into this app as well.

However, the use cases you mentioned are perfectly valid, but I don't think they need to clutter the UI within Darkwrite. This is why I'm leaning more towards an MCP server, as this would accomplish these use cases better than an integrated chat UI. We already have hundreds of chat UIs. Giving tools to a model is more maintainable long-term as well, since that is just maintaining an API and it doesn't make the UI a Frankenstein of chat and notes.

For now, the priorities will remain as databases and a self-hosted server (for collaboration and sync). Working on AI features now would make this project lose its focus. I know right after "rephrasing" comes "prompt libraries, more providers, rag, embedding" and eventually, "this AI can't do anything".

As always, everything is open for discussion, which is why this issue isn't getting a "wontfix" label. Anyone who wants an AI feature is free to share how they feel about it and they'll be considered as well🙂