RAGLite — a local RAG cache (not a memory replacement)
RAGLite is a local-first RAG cache.
It does not replace model memory or chat context. It gives your agent a durable place to store and retrieve information the model wasn’t trained on — especially useful for local/private knowledge (school work, personal notes, medical records, internal runbooks).
Why it’s better than “paid RAG” / knowledge bases (for many use cases)
- Local-first privacy: keep sensitive data on your machine/network.
- Open-source building blocks: Chroma 🧠 + ripgrep ⚡ — no managed vector DB required.
- Compression-before-embeddings: distill first → less fluff/duplication → cheaper prompts + more reliable retrieval.
- Auditable artifacts: the distilled Markdown is human-readable and version-controllable.
If you later outgrow local, you can swap in a hosted DB — but you often don’t need to.
What it does
1) Condense ✍️
Turns docs into structured Markdown outputs (low fluff, more “what matters”).
2) Index 🧠
Embeds the distilled outputs into a Chroma collection (one DB, many collections).
3) Query 🔎
Hybrid retrieval:
- vector similarity via Chroma
- keyword matches via ripgrep (
rg)
Default engine
This skill defaults to OpenClaw 🦞 for condensation unless you pass --engine explicitly.
Prereqs
- Python 3.11+
- For indexing/query:
- Chroma server reachable (default
http://127.0.0.1:8100)
- Chroma server reachable (default
- For hybrid keyword search:
rginstalled (brew install ripgrep)
- For OpenClaw engine:
- OpenClaw Gateway
/v1/responsesreachable OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKENset if your gateway requires auth
- OpenClaw Gateway
Install (skill runtime)
This skill installs RAGLite into a skill-local venv:
./scripts/install.sh
It installs from GitHub:
git+https://github.com/VirajSanghvi1/raglite.git@main
Usage
One-command pipeline (recommended)
./scripts/raglite.sh run /path/to/docs \
--out ./raglite_out \
--collection my-docs \
--chroma-url http://127.0.0.1:8100 \
--skip-existing \
--skip-indexed \
--nodes
Query
./scripts/raglite.sh query ./raglite_out \
--collection my-docs \
--top-k 5 \
--keyword-top-k 5 \
"rollback procedure"
Outputs (what gets written)
In --out you’ll see:
*.tool-summary.md*.execution-notes.md- optional:
*.outline.md - optional:
*/nodes/*.mdplus per-doc*.index.mdand a rootindex.md - metadata in
.raglite/(cache, run stats, errors)
Troubleshooting
- Chroma not reachable → check
--chroma-url, and that Chroma is running. - No keyword results → install ripgrep (
rg --version). - OpenClaw engine errors → ensure gateway is up and token env var is set.
Pitch (for ClawHub listing)
RAGLite is a local RAG cache for repeated lookups.
When you (or your agent) keep re-searching for the same non-training data — local notes, school work, medical records, internal docs — RAGLite gives you a private, auditable library:
- Distill to structured Markdown (compression-before-embeddings)
- Index locally into Chroma
- Query with hybrid retrieval (vector + keyword)
It doesn’t replace memory/context — it’s the place to store what you need again.