ResearchVault 🦞

Local-first research orchestration engine.

ResearchVault manages persistent state, synthesis, and autonomous verification for agents.

Security & Privacy (Local First)

• Local Storage: All data is stored in a local SQLite database (~/.researchvault/research_vault.db). No cloud sync.
• Network Transparency: Outbound connections occur ONLY for user-requested research or Brave Search (if configured).
• SSRF Hardening: Strict internal network blocking by default. Local/private IPs (localhost, 10.0.0.0/8, etc.) are blocked. Use --allow-private-networks to override.
• Manual Opt-in Services: Background watchers and MCP servers are in scripts/services/ and must be started manually.
• Strict Control: disable-model-invocation: true prevents the model from autonomously starting background tasks.

Installation

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

Quick Start

• Initialize Project:

python scripts/vault.py init --objective "Analyze AI trends" --name "Trends-2026"

• Ingest Data:

python scripts/vault.py scuttle "https://example.com" --id "trends-2026"

• Autonomous Strategist:

python scripts/vault.py strategy --id "trends-2026"

Portal (Manual Opt-In)

Start the portal explicitly:

./start_portal.sh

• Backend: 127.0.0.1:8000
• Frontend: 127.0.0.1:5173
• Backend auth strictly uses RESEARCHVAULT_PORTAL_TOKEN
• ./start_portal.sh loads/generates .portal_auth and exports RESEARCHVAULT_PORTAL_TOKEN before backend launch
• Token login: URL hash #token= (token from .portal_auth)
• Allowed DB roots are controlled by RESEARCHVAULT_PORTAL_ALLOWED_DB_ROOTS (default ~/.researchvault,/tmp)
• OpenClaw workspace DBs are never discovered or selectable in Portal mode
• Provider secrets are env-only (BRAVE_API_KEY, SERPER_API_KEY, SEARXNG_BASE_URL) and are not injected into vault subprocesses
• Both hosts are supported for browser access:
• http://127.0.0.1:5173/#token=
• http://localhost:5173/#token=

./start_portal.sh --status
./start_portal.sh --stop

Security parity with CLI:

• SSRF blocking is on by default (private/local/link-local targets denied).
• Portal toggle Allow private networks is equivalent to CLI --allow-private-networks.

Optional Services (Manual Start)

• MCP Server: python scripts/services/mcp_server.py
• Watchdog: python scripts/services/watchdog.py --once

Provenance & Maintenance

• Maintainer: lraivisto
• License: MIT
• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Security: See SECURITY.md