Dev Notes AI

A full-stack application that helps developers organize and query their technical knowledge using AI. Built with custom MCP server integration, Redis caching, and background job processing.

Key Features

• AI-powered search and knowledge retrieval - Natural language queries across your knowledge base
• Custom MCP server for tool integration - Extensible architecture for adding new capabilities
• Redis caching - Fast query responses and optimized performance
• Background job processing - Async indexing and data processing
• Modern tech stack - Next.js, TypeScript, FastAPI, PostgreSQL

Demo

• Live Demo - Try it out (rate-limited for security)
• Video Walkthrough - 5-minute feature overview

Tech Stack

Frontend:

• Next.js 14 (App Router)
• TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS
• React Context (auth state management)

Backend:

• Python 3.10+
• FastAPI
• SQLAlchemy
• PostgreSQL
• JWT Authentication

AI/Integration:

• Anthropic Claude API
• Custom MCP Server (FastMCP) implementation
• Agentic tool loop

Architecture

• User submits query through Next.js frontend
• Request reaches FastAPI backend
• Redis cache checks for existing results
• If cache miss, MCP server processes query with Claude API
• Background jobs handle indexing and data updates
• Results returned and cached for future queries

Local Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Python 3.11+
• PostgreSQL
• Redis

Setup

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/pamelagilmour/dev-notes-ai.git
cd dev-notes-ai

Frontend Setup

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Backend Setup

cd backend
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
uvicorn main:app --reload

MCP Server Setup

cd mcp-server
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python knowledge_base_server.py

Environment Variables

backend/.env

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://localhost:5432/knowledge_base
SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key-here
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-your-key-here

🧪 Testing

# Backend tests (coming soon)
pytest

# Test MCP server
mcp dev mcp-server/knowledge_base_server.py

# API docs (auto-generated)
http://localhost:8000/docs

📈 System Design Highlights

Current:

• RESTful API with proper status codes and error handling
• JWT authentication with 24hr token expiration
• Password hashing with bcrypt
• Database indexes for query performance
• Input validation with Pydantic models
• CORS configuration
• Agentic AI loop with tool orchestration
• Redis caching (target: 80%+ cache hit rate)
• Rate limiting

Security Features

• Rate limiting on AI queries
• API key management

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Built by Pam Gilmour | LinkedIn | GitHub