I built ToucanDB – an open source ML-first vector DB engine for AI and semantic search projects

Hey opensource lovers,

I’ve been working on an open source project that I’m genuinely excited to share here. Over the past few months, I kept running into limitations with existing vector database solutions. They’re great for big setups, but often too heavy or complex for smaller ML-first projects that still need fast similarity search.

So, I decided to build ToucanDB. It’s a minimal, ML-first vector database engine that stores unstructured data as vector embeddings and retrieves similar objects efficiently. My main goal was to create a tool that integrates seamlessly with LLM pipelines and AI-powered apps without the bloat.

I use it for semantic search tasks, AI-powered recommendations, automatic classification, and similarity-based retrieval. It’s micro in design but powerful enough to handle typical AI search workflows with simplicity and security in mind.

The project is still in active development, but I’ve made it available on GitHub for anyone interested in exploring, using, or contributing. If you’re curious, here’s the repo: https://github.com/pH-7/ToucanDB

I’d love to hear feedback from other developers and data engineers here, especially around features you’d prioritise for AI + vector DB integrations. Any thoughts, ideas, or even critiques are deeply appreciated.

Thanks for reading – excited to keep improving this project with the open source community’s insights.

https://redd.it/1pxnzjv
@r_opensource

I built ToucanDB – an open source ML-first vector DB engine for AI and semantic search projects

Hey opensource lovers,

I’ve been working on an open source project that I’m genuinely excited to share here. Over the past few months, I kept running into limitations with existing vector database solutions. They’re great for big setups, but often too heavy or complex for smaller ML-first projects that still need fast similarity search.

So, I decided to build ToucanDB. It’s a minimal, ML-first vector database engine that stores unstructured data as vector embeddings and retrieves similar objects efficiently. My main goal was to create a tool that integrates seamlessly with LLM pipelines and AI-powered apps without the bloat.

I use it for semantic search tasks, AI-powered recommendations, automatic classification, and similarity-based retrieval. It’s micro in design but powerful enough to handle typical AI search workflows with simplicity and security in mind.

The project is still in active development, but I’ve made it available on GitHub for anyone interested in exploring, using, or contributing. If you’re curious, here’s the repo: https://github.com/pH-7/ToucanDB

I’d love to hear feedback from other developers and data engineers here, especially around features you’d prioritise for AI + vector DB integrations. Any thoughts, ideas, or even critiques are deeply appreciated.

Thanks for reading – excited to keep improving this project with the open source community’s insights.

https://redd.it/1pxnzjv
@r_opensource

How to find early users?

I have built a small vector database from scratch,
It's not that bad, it do performs well. Just using it for myself isn't point I'm building, I want people to try this out, I want feedback, issues etc.

How it happens? How expose my github project with more people, maybe strangers (developers).

Small Dinoscription:
Vector Database is primarily written is C++, and a api layer using Go.
It do perform all the standard vector db operations.
Currently working on search query, currently it's using brut force vector search, and now moving toward HNSW.
Maybe in future I will try to move projects towards distributed system.

Please DM, happy to share repo.

https://redd.it/1pxqwxl
@r_opensource

Open-source alternatives to Finary? (bank sync, investments, net worth)

Hi everyone,

I’m currently using tools like Finary and I’m wondering if there are serious open-source alternatives out there.

What I’m looking for ideally:

Bank account connections
Investments tracking (stocks, ETFs, maybe crypto)
Budgeting & expenses
Net worth / wealth overview
Preferably self-hosted or at least fully open source

I know that bank synchronization is usually the hardest part in open source, and that many projects rely on external aggregators that’s totally fine.

I’ve already looked at things like:

Firefly III
Ghostfolio
Maybe Finance

But none of them seem to fully cover the “all-in-one” experience that Finary provides.

Do you know any open-source projects (active or experimental) that are aiming to solve this problem well?
Or maybe interesting tool combinations that work well together?

Thanks a lot for your feedback and experience 🙏

https://redd.it/1pxr9up
@r_opensource

An Author of GPL-3.0 Repository Objects to Publishing My Fork

Hi,

Around two months ago, I submitted a Feature Request and a PR to a repository that had a GPL-3.0 license. The PR was rejected because it conflicted with a feature of another project of the author. He explicitly marked the FR as "not planned". I’ve told him that I’ll continue with this change in a fork. He wasn’t objecting to that. After that, during a period of roughly two months, I added a couple of unique features and was frequently merging upstream into my fork (merging also became more difficult with time). And because I put quite a lot of effort into the fork, also complying with the GPL-3.0 license, I started to think about making a public release. I’ve reached out to the author to see what he was thinking about it. I’ve tried to be friendly, but the farther the discussion went, the stranger his behavior became. At first, he said that he had stabilized his features, and now we can work together on merging my fork. I asked him to give me a day or two to think about it because I’ve put a lot of effort into the fork, and still prefer to publish. Then he told that he will change his license from GPL-3.0 (which gives permission to publish) to one that requires explicit permission from the author. I agreed and said that I will respect it and won’t merge the upstream repo into mine. And he did update the license, and I’ve merged till the latest GPL-3.0 commit, updated the readme, and renamed my repository.

But quickly he changed his mind and started objecting to me making the public release, also saying that he will implement all features that I have in his repo, and put all efforts to prevent my fork from going public.

I can relate to his feelings partially, but he chose GPL-3.0 in the first place. Before even submitting the first PR, I’ve carefully considered the license terms, because I knew that if I made a PR and the author decide to reject it, then I can continue working on the fork and even publish it later. And with this assumption in mind, I implemented several features in the fork and fixed a couple of bugs. I wouldn’t make a single modification to the source repo if not GPL-3.0.

What would you suggest? How is it usually handled? I’m a single developer and don’t want to deal with legal staff (though I always followed the license terms and tried to be respectful to the original repository's efforts, never claiming credit for what was implemented there).

https://redd.it/1pxsj01
@r_opensource

Self-hosting Huly (or equivalent) in Podman?

I was looking at self-hosting Huly but the option they recommend uses Docker.

Has anyone had any luck self hosting Huly or an equivalent in Podman?

This is a proof of concept for working on projects that are Official or Official Sensitive and I have heard auditors really frown upon Docker.

https://redd.it/1pxpzki
@r_opensource

Lightweight FaaS: go-faas (v0.4.0)
https://github.com/pardnchiu/go-faas

https://redd.it/1pxwf4h
@r_opensource

Should i make my Web App open source?

I've been using sveltekit to work on a web app (a social media site) for about past year and a half. The question that has been going through my mind multiple times is if I should make it open source. I know there are definitely benefits like community assistance but I also plan on monetizing it in the future in case it were to take off (with ads and subnoscriptions) and was unsure whether open-sourcing it would be beneficial or perhaps detrimental. I was also contemplating the security risks yet I believe open source could help patch any vulnerabilities I might have in the code. what's your opinion? thanks for reading

https://redd.it/1pxwprr
@r_opensource

Contributing to open source project

I would like to find some open source projects to contribute to, as a dev. But I wonder what would be the best way to find projects in need of contributor, and for stacks/tech I would like to contribute.

Got any advice to search for anything like that?

Specifically, I would like to contribute to rust project. Any tips?

https://redd.it/1pxy4uv
@r_opensource

WayOS - A mini-OS made by 2 teens with a lot of time and Python.

Hey guys! Me and my friend made a shitty mini-OS in Python called WayOS.
It's an early version with a simple UI, some basic games (Snake, Calculator, etc.), a mini file manager, and terminal commands like help, joke, insult...

We just want to share it and see if anyone wants to tinker with it, contribute, or send tips!

Repo link: https://github.com/pocofan1264/WayOS-1.0

NOTE: It's super early and probably has bugs. If you find any issues or have ideas, feel free to open an issue or email us at thewayosteam@gmail.com

Thanks! Hope you enjoy the chaos :D

https://redd.it/1py016m
@r_opensource

Libredesk - Modern, open source, self-hosted customer support desk. Single binary app.



Libredesk.io is a 100% free and open-source customer support desk, the backend is written in Go and the frontend is in Vue JS with ShadnCN for UI components.


Unlike many "open-core" alternatives that lock essential features behind enterprise plans, Libredesk is fully open-source and plans to always stay this way.


I built this because I wanted a truly open, self-hosted alternative to platforms like Freshdesk, Intercom, and Zendesk.


GitHub: https://github.com/abhinavxd/libredesk
Demo: https://demo.libredesk.io/ (Best viewed on desktop, Ideally there should be a mobile app)

https://redd.it/1py2f2i
@r_opensource

The simplest reading light

I don't have a desk lamp so I use my monitor to read physical books. Wikipedia's white page hurts my eyes (I use wikipedia as desk lamp).

1. New tab → about:blank
2. F12 → Console
3. Paste this noscript

Enjoy your eyes.

Edit: hosting it on github pages now.

https://redd.it/1py0luf
@r_opensource

Reasoning over images and videos: modular CV pipelines vs end-to-end VLMs



https://redd.it/1pxzrli
@r_opensource

Collaborative project APK editor plus

https://github.com/FabioSilva11/Apk-Editor-Plus/tree/master#-autor

https://redd.it/1pxywac
@r_opensource

Would this be useful for people distributing Python libraries? Looking for honest feedback

Hey folks,

I recently used a Python service that was available via pip. Most of the code was readable, but the core features were obfuscated. The package tracked usage using API keys and would limit functionality once a certain threshold was reached.

Honestly, I didn’t hate this approach. It felt like a reasonable middle ground between open code and sustainable monetization — free/visible parts stay open, and the high-value stuff is paid and usage-limited.

That got me thinking: why isn’t there a simple, standardized way for library authors to do this themselves?

So I started exploring an idea where:

You can distribute a normal Python package
Explicitly mark which functions are just tracked vs. paid
Track usage at the function level
Optionally obfuscate only the paid parts
Handle limits and plans without turning the library into a full hosted SaaS

I put together a small concept page to explain the flow with a Python example:
\[Link in comment\]

I’m not trying to sell anything — just genuinely curious:

Would this be useful if you maintain or distribute libraries?
Does this feel reasonable, or does it cross a line?
How have you handled monetization for code you ship?

Looking for honest feedback (even if the answer is “this is a bad idea”).

https://redd.it/1pxyctg
@r_opensource

Palettd - Open Source Color Palette Generator (Github Readme's, etc) - With Hosted CDN

I worked on a cool little open source project over the weekend (among many projects). I was working on a personal project, and wanted a quick way to display the intended color palette on my Github README file. Looked around, nothing incredibly easy to use -- so I made one (which frankly, is how most of my open source releases go).

This one is actually my first NPM release!

Then, I might've taken it a bit further, and launched a website where you can test it out (Playground), and even an open API where you can generate the images, on the fly, without even downloading from NPM (I mean, unless you want to -- that's cool as well)

https://palettd.com/

Go ahead, test it out. It simply includes a super easy way to generate a color palette via form, or via API - and hosted via CDN (supports both SVG and PNG)

(Btw, the display image you're seeing on LinkedIn, generated from Palettd automatically)


https://github.com/mpge/palettd

https://www.npmjs.com/package/palettd

https://palettd.com/api/palette/6366F1,EC4899,F59E0B,10B981.noscript?t=1766985014442
Example:

https://redd.it/1pyekk4
@r_opensource

Tool for personal project/task management that allows collaborating with one or two other people

I'm an entrepreneur and also active in various initiatives to help out people in need in the community, as well as being a busy parent. As a result, I have lots of tasks fighting for priority in my life, both at the pro and personal levels. I need a way to keep it all organized and track progress. Looking for something that is hopefully free, respects user data privacy, and allows to have at least one collaborator as I'd love to have some projects/tasks shared with my partner so we can see each other's tasks and have shared projects. Any ideas?

https://redd.it/1pyei90
@r_opensource

Which smartphone OS should I use?

I have been looking to move away from my android and have been looking into opensource OS such as GrapheneOS and others.

While LegacyOS supports many phone models, they are still out of budget. I have a VIVO V2027 phone lying around. Which opensource OS can I use with it? Can I install the OS as it is on the phone that current has android on it? Or does it need some other specifications?

Would like some help with this. Thanks

https://redd.it/1pyikxi
@r_opensource

Open-source security tooling: what monetization models stay community-friendly (open-core vs dual license vs services

I’m building an open-source runtime security tool and trying to design a sustainable business model without pulling the rug on indie users.

Constraints that matter to me:

Explanations over “magic scores” (teach devs why something is flagged)
Runs offline/on-device (CPU/edge), so sensitive data doesn’t have to leave the environment

I’m exploring: paid support/training, enterprise packaging (SSO/RBAC/audit/compliance), and/or dual licensing.

Questions for folks who’ve done this well

1. What models have you seen work that don’t “enshittify” the community edition?
2. If you did open-core, what did you keep paid without backlash?
3. If dual-licensing: how did you handle contributors + CLAs and avoid future pain?
4. Any “landmines” you wish you knew early?

(Not linking anything here—happy to share details if someone asks.)

https://redd.it/1pyj128
@r_opensource

Blinter The Linter - A Cross Platform Batch Script Linter
https://github.com/tboy1337/Blinter

https://redd.it/1pyiisx
@r_opensource

SnippetMotion - Turn code into animated videos/GIFs in seconds inspired from carbon.sh

I have been using carbon a lot for the past few years and suddengly though of why cant we do short gifs/videos with simple animated typing with syntax highlighting, so I created SnippetMotion, an open-source tool to generate animated code videos and GIFs for social media, README files, and tutorials.

Key features:
\- Type-in animation with customizable speed
\- mobile and desktop aspect ratios with nice mockups
\- 5+ syntax themes (cyberpunk, ocean, sunset, etc..,
\- Export as MP4 or GIF
\- syntax highlighting
\- per line pause like checkpoints
\- No login required just try it

Built with React + TypeScript, inspired by carbon.now.sh

Use_cases:

\- GitHub README tutorials
\- Twitter/LinkedIn code posts
\- Documentation and blog posts
\- Educational content

Live demo: https://snippetmotion.vercel.app
GitHub: https://github.com/Gururagavendra/snippetmotion

roast it, Open to feedback and contributions!

https://redd.it/1pylhw3
@r_opensource