An Open-Source Platform to create AI-powered podcasts, audiobooks, and audio articles.
Parallax is an open-source AI platform solution that gives users the power to generate their own podcasts, audiobooks, and audio articles from prompts, documents, images and web search.
A lot of services today are either closed-source, slow, have bad UX, or to complex to self-host. Parallax is different.
- ✅ Open-Source – No hidden agendas, fully transparent.
- 🦾 AI Driven - Enhance your podcasts with Agents & LLMs.
- 🔒 Data Privacy First – Your projects, your data. No tracking, no selling, no middlemen.
- ⚙️ Self-Hosting Freedom – Run your own app with ease.
- 🎨 Customizable UI & Features – Tailor your platform experience the way you want it.
- 🚀 Developer-Friendly – Built with extensibility and integrations in mind.
Parallax is built with modern and reliable technologies:
- Frontend: Next.js, React, TypeScript, TailwindCSS, Shadcn UI
- Backend: Node.js, Drizzle ORM, Redis, AI SDK
- Database: PostgreSQL
- Authentication: Better Auth, Google OAuth, Github OAuth
- Payment: Polar
Required Versions:
Before running the application, you'll need to set up services and configure environment variables. For more details on environment variables, see the Environment Variables section.
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Clone and Install
# Clone the repository git clone https://github.com/iboughtbed/ai-podcast.git cd ai-podcast # Install dependencies pnpm install
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Set Up Environment
- Copy
.env.exampleto.envin bothapps/webandpackages/dbfolderscp apps/web/.env.example apps/web/.env && cp packages/db/.env.example packages/db/.env - Configure your environment variables (see below)
- Initialize the database:
pnpm run db:push
- Copy
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Start the App
pnpm run dev
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Open in Browser
Visit http://localhost:3000
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Better Auth Setup
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Open the
.envfile and change the BETTER_AUTH_SECRET to a random string. (Useopenssl rand -hex 32to generate a 32 character string)BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=your_secret_key
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Google OAuth Setup (Required for Gmail integration)
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Go to Google Cloud Console
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Create a new project
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Add the following APIs in your Google Cloud Project: People API, Gmail API
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Enable the Google OAuth2 API
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Create OAuth 2.0 credentials (Web application type)
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Add authorized redirect URIs:
- Development:
http://localhost:3000/api/auth/callback/googlehttp://localhost:3000/api/auth/google/callback
- Production:
https://your-production-url/api/auth/callback/googlehttps://your-production-url/api/auth/google/callback
- Development:
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Add to
.env:GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret
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Add yourself as a test user:
- Go to
Audience - Under 'Test users' click 'Add Users'
- Add your email and click 'Save'
- Go to
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GitHub OAuth Setup (Optional)
Click to expand GitHub OAuth setup instructions
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Go to GitHub Developer Setting
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Create a new OAuth App
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Add authorized redirect URIs:
- Development:
http://localhost:3000/api/auth/callback/github - Production:
https://your-production-url/api/auth/callback/github
- Development:
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Add to
.env:GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret
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Copy .env.example located in the apps/web folder to .env in the same folder and configure the following variables:
# Auth
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET= # Required: Secret key for authentication
# Google OAuth (Required for Gmail integration)
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID= # Required for Gmail integration
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET= # Required for Gmail integration
# GitHub OAuth (Optional)
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID= # Optional: For GitHub authentication
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET= # Optional: For GitHub authentication
# Database
DATABASE_URL= # Required: PostgreSQL connection string for backend connection
# Redis
REDIS_URL= # Redis URL for caching (http://localhost:8079 for local dev)
REDIS_TOKEN= # Redis token (upstash-local-token for local dev)DATABASE_URL= # Required: PostgreSQL connection string for migrationsFor local development a connection string example is provided in the .env.example file located in the same folder as the database.
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Database Commands
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Set up database tables:
pnpm run db:push
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Create migration files (after schema changes):
pnpm run db:generate
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Apply migrations:
pnpm run db:migrate
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View database content:
pnpm run db:studio
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Please refer to the contributing guide.
If you'd like to help with translating Zero to other languages, check out our translation guide.
Hey, my name is Sanzhar. I am a young software engineer from Kazakhstan. I am an alumni of nFactorial Incubator - largest incubator in Central Asia. I have contributed to YCombinator startups, directly worked with alumnis of YCombinator 2024 Batches. I have been nominated for "Prodigy of The Year" on nFactorial Incubator, where I created Parallax.