Everything, in one folder

Answers you can trust,
because they cite the source.

PaperTrail turns a folder of documents into a private assistant you can question. Drop files in, ask in plain English, and get grounded answers with a page reference, all on your own machine.

Grounded & cited

Ask in plain English. Get the page.

Every answer is pulled straight from your documents and tagged with the source file and page, so you can verify it in one click instead of trusting a black box.

Which vendor has the shortest notice period?

Northwind requires 30 days' written notice, the shortest of the three contracts on file. vendor-contract.pdf · p.4

Drop in PDFs & decks

Put .pdf and .pptx files in the rag/ folder. Subfolders are scanned too. That's the whole setup.

Fully offline

The model runs on your CPU. After first setup there is no internet call, no account, and no API key to manage.

Smart re-indexing

PaperTrail fingerprints your folder and only rebuilds the index when files actually change, so re-runs are fast.

Truly portable

Copy the folder to a USB stick and run it on the next machine. Windows, macOS and Linux launchers are included.

Semantic search

Local embeddings find the right passage even when your wording is nothing like the document's.

Your data stays put

Documents, index and model all live in the folder. Nothing is uploaded, logged, or sold.

Browser interface

A clean chat window opens in your browser at localhost:7860. No app to install, no build step.

Under the hood

From folder to answer, all local

PaperTrail reads your files, breaks them into passages, and stores a searchable index. When you ask a question, it retrieves the closest passages and a local model writes the answer from them.

Runs on your CPU Stored in your folder Answer cites its source

Try it right here

Ask a sample library a question

Pick a question below. This is a scripted preview of how PaperTrail answers from three sample documents, complete with the page it pulled the answer from.

Sample library

3 documents indexed · pick a question

Choose a question on the left and PaperTrail will answer from the sample documents.

Preview only. The real app runs on your machine and reads your own files.

Private by design

Your documents, only yours

Confidential contracts, HR files, board decks: the documents you most want to search are the ones you least want to upload. PaperTrail keeps every one of them on your hardware.

No cloud surfaceNothing to breach, because nothing is uploaded.

Yours foreverRuns offline off your own drive, no expiry.

Verifiable answersEvery reply points back to a page you can read.

Open formatsPlain files in, plain files out. No lock-in.

Open-source parts, assembled for privacy

PyMuPDF extraction python-pptx slides LangChain chunking all-MiniLM-L6-v2 embeddings ChromaDB vector store Qwen 2.5 1.5B local model Gradio chat UI

Available for Windows, macOS & Linux

Put a private analyst
on your own hardware.

A portable folder you drop on a USB stick and run on any machine. Tell us about your documents and we'll get you set up.

Windows macOS Linux

Inquire about PaperTrail Back to b4Help

Portable build · no installer · needs about 5 GB free · runs fully offline after first setup.

Answers you can trust,because they cite the source.