RAG with Gemini and ChromaDB for Obsidian notes with a TUI interface

Step-by-step setup

1. Create config and env files:
   • Copy config.example.json to config.json.
   • Copy .env.example to .env.
2. Edit config.json:
   • vault_path: absolute path to your Obsidian vault.
   • chroma_persist_dir: where to store the local Chroma DB (default ./chroma-data).
   • embedding_model and chat_model: keep defaults or change as needed.
3. Edit .env and set GOOGLE_API_KEY.
4. (Optional) Set RAG_CONFIG_PATH to point to a different config file:
   • Example: export RAG_CONFIG_PATH=/path/to/config.json
5. Install dependencies:
   • uv sync

Indexing behavior

• Incremental by default: only new or changed chunks are embedded.
• Stale chunks are removed automatically if a file changes or is deleted.
• Full rebuild: uv run build_index.py --reindex deletes the collection and reindexes everything.

Typical workflow

1. Build or update the index:
   • uv run build_index.py
2. Run the TUI chat:
   • uv run chat.py

Notes

• Chroma runs in embedded mode using ./chroma-data.