Show HN: TinkerBird – A Chrome-native vector database (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

107 pointswizenheimer1y ago34 comments

34 comments

28 comments · 14 top-level

hoten1y ago· 3 in thread

Is there something that makes this specific to Chrome or is this a web compatible library?

andybak1y ago

Yes - I don't understand the "Chrome" part at all. I presumed it was a Chrome extension but it doesn't seem to be.

hoten1y ago

They just meant it as a JavaScript library, apparently.

OP- the term "chrome native" is pretty inaccurate and is giving people the wrong idea about what you're showing off.

1 more reply

wizenheimerOP1y ago

> I don't understand the "Chrome" part at all

It uses, relies and depends on Chrome exposed primitive such IndexedDB. Hence the term chrome native.

Honestly, didn't give much thought to it. Just rolled with it :D

1 more reply

samspenc1y ago· 2 in thread

I haven't played with it yet, but very impressive :) a full vector DB built on top of IndexedDB. That means it should run on all modern browsers, and should be able to handle large volumes of data (at least, proportional to disk space).

wizenheimerOP1y ago

Thanks, mate. I guess the README is dated. Here's a sample app built around tinkerbird. Make it yours :D

Playground: https://tinkerboard.vercel.app/ Repo: https://github.com/wizenheimer/tinkerboard

vmfunction1y ago

How is the state of IndexedDB on Safari IO now days? Last heard that it is pretty bad with unexpected wip if it is not used for a while.

oefrha1y ago· 2 in thread

It’s a vector db on top of IndexedDB. I fail to see what’s “Chrome” (or “native”) about it. Is there anything Chrome-specific that prevents it from working in any other modern browser?

wizenheimerOP1y ago

That's right, it should. If it supports indexeddb, it supports tinkerbird. Ref: https://caniuse.com/indexeddb

PS: Pretty early nonetheless, hacked it together during last Christmas. Gotta make it usable.

PPS: I guess the README is dated. Built out a sample app for Tinkerbird. Feel free to take a look: https://github.com/wizenheimer/tinkerboard

oefrha1y ago

Cool, tried the demo on Safari. Might want to consider rewording to avoid misconception about browser support.

1 more reply

splitbrain1y ago· 2 in thread

I wish you'd written the introduction in the readme yourself instead of letting a LLM do it for you. "utilizes", "significant challenge facing", "disrupts workflows" and then several repeats of the same information... all tell tale signs.

wasmitnetzen1y ago

But then again, multiple "it's" vs "its" spelling mistakes. Tell tale sign of a human, possibly a native speaker.

meandmycode1y ago

It actually reads distinctly not ai written, but calling things ai is vogue now

keepamovin1y ago· 1 in thread

That's a pretty well written bug report: https://github.com/wizenheimer/tinkerbird/issues/5

I hope you get the help you need for that!

wizenheimerOP1y ago

Thanks, mate. Skill issue :D

solarkraft1y ago· 1 in thread

What the hell does “chrome native” mean? Is it an extension? Who uses it?

mock-possum1y ago

I can’t figure that out either - especially when the readme mentions using typescript, which is very much not chrome-native - you have to compile to JavaScript before chrome will have anything to do when it -

Maybe it’s referring to the use of IndexDB?

jwithington1y ago· 1 in thread

So one could retain the contents of every website every visited and then run local, in-browser searches against that content? Is that the idea? This library would serve as the vector DB?

wizenheimerOP1y ago

Imagine this. You stumbled across this insane search technique, which knows what you want. It doesn't care if you know the exact keywords or not, it just gets what you're after. We call it Vector Search / Semantic Search. Cool stuff right? You don't have to be a keyword wizard to get your stuff. But there's a problem.

Unlike it's keyword search counterpart it expensive. Order of magnitude expensive. All because you need to maintain a vector search index and keep it available server side.

Enter Tinkerbird. This little library takes the heavy lifting and pushes it client side. Stream your embeddings, front it via CDN or cache it on client. Now you get benefits of vector index without the costs of maintaining one.

nostrebored1y ago· 1 in thread

Avoiding the server call seems to only be time-efficient if calls to embed are time-efficient. The nice thing about server side inference is that you can use embedding models that can handle web-scale data independent of hardware

kovezd1y ago

Time-efficiency is not the only metric to consider. Privacy, and offline mode are also important. Great tool for federated learning.

alexliu5181y ago· 1 in thread

Cool! Keep it up!

wizenheimerOP1y ago

Thanks, mate. Incase, you feel like playing around. https://tinkerboard.vercel.app/

KashyapArjun1y ago

> TinkerBird uses IndexedDB as it's storage layer, which in turn builds upon Blobs and LevelDB storage systems. By using Indexeddb, it benefits from IndexedDB's adoption, stability and familiarity as a native choice for offline first workflows. Super impressive. Looking forward to use it!

meiraleal1y ago

Great project! Thanks for sharing, I'm looking for something like this.

One thing I'm curious about tho is the evolution of the project. Github says the last update in the code was 7 months ago. Is it because it is ready/done?

jwithington1y ago

So one could retain the contents of every website every visited and then run local, in-browser searches against that content? Is that the idea? This li

jamesmcintyre1y ago

This looks really promising and thanks for sharing! I've actually been looking into this exact type of functionality lately, for anyone else I'm just going to drop some other projects in this area (also if anyone, including OP, want's to chime in on how they compare- i know there's all sorts of trade-offs ie. the similarity algo chosen, one of these relies on wasm, etc):

https://github.com/tantaraio/voy

https://github.com/nitaiaharoni1/vector-storage

https://github.com/danielivanovz/indexed-vector-store

https://github.com/yusufhilmi/client-vector-search

Another area I've looked into briefly is also trying to generate vector embeddings fully in-browser. I know there will likely be tradeoffs with dimensionality / overall accuracy/performance but having a semi-decent way to do this in-browser would be awesome.

This project only runs in node (but there's an issue that talks about how it might be modified to run in-browser):

https://github.com/Anush008/fastembed-js

Looks like transformers.js supports embeddings in-browser:

https://github.com/xenova/transformers.js/releases/tag/2.1.0

https://github.com/pinecone-io/semantic-search-example/blob/...

Also it appears the client-vector-search supports both embeddings & vector indexing

https://github.com/yusufhilmi/client-vector-search

Hope this helps others looking into this stuff!

masherm1y ago

how would you use this within chrome?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

34 comments

28 comments · 14 top-level

hoten1y ago· 3 in thread

Is there something that makes this specific to Chrome or is this a web compatible library?

andybak1y ago

Yes - I don't understand the "Chrome" part at all. I presumed it was a Chrome extension but it doesn't seem to be.

hoten1y ago

They just meant it as a JavaScript library, apparently.

OP- the term "chrome native" is pretty inaccurate and is giving people the wrong idea about what you're showing off.

1 more reply

wizenheimerOP1y ago

> I don't understand the "Chrome" part at all

It uses, relies and depends on Chrome exposed primitive such IndexedDB. Hence the term chrome native.

Honestly, didn't give much thought to it. Just rolled with it :D

1 more reply

samspenc1y ago· 2 in thread

wizenheimerOP1y ago

Thanks, mate. I guess the README is dated. Here's a sample app built around tinkerbird. Make it yours :D

Playground: https://tinkerboard.vercel.app/ Repo: https://github.com/wizenheimer/tinkerboard

vmfunction1y ago

How is the state of IndexedDB on Safari IO now days? Last heard that it is pretty bad with unexpected wip if it is not used for a while.

oefrha1y ago· 2 in thread

It’s a vector db on top of IndexedDB. I fail to see what’s “Chrome” (or “native”) about it. Is there anything Chrome-specific that prevents it from working in any other modern browser?

wizenheimerOP1y ago

That's right, it should. If it supports indexeddb, it supports tinkerbird. Ref: https://caniuse.com/indexeddb

PS: Pretty early nonetheless, hacked it together during last Christmas. Gotta make it usable.

PPS: I guess the README is dated. Built out a sample app for Tinkerbird. Feel free to take a look: https://github.com/wizenheimer/tinkerboard

oefrha1y ago

Cool, tried the demo on Safari. Might want to consider rewording to avoid misconception about browser support.

1 more reply

splitbrain1y ago· 2 in thread

wasmitnetzen1y ago

But then again, multiple "it's" vs "its" spelling mistakes. Tell tale sign of a human, possibly a native speaker.

meandmycode1y ago

It actually reads distinctly not ai written, but calling things ai is vogue now

keepamovin1y ago· 1 in thread

That's a pretty well written bug report: https://github.com/wizenheimer/tinkerbird/issues/5

I hope you get the help you need for that!

wizenheimerOP1y ago

Thanks, mate. Skill issue :D

solarkraft1y ago· 1 in thread

What the hell does “chrome native” mean? Is it an extension? Who uses it?

mock-possum1y ago

Maybe it’s referring to the use of IndexDB?

jwithington1y ago· 1 in thread

So one could retain the contents of every website every visited and then run local, in-browser searches against that content? Is that the idea? This library would serve as the vector DB?

wizenheimerOP1y ago

Unlike it's keyword search counterpart it expensive. Order of magnitude expensive. All because you need to maintain a vector search index and keep it available server side.

nostrebored1y ago· 1 in thread

kovezd1y ago

Time-efficiency is not the only metric to consider. Privacy, and offline mode are also important. Great tool for federated learning.

alexliu5181y ago· 1 in thread

Cool! Keep it up!

wizenheimerOP1y ago

Thanks, mate. Incase, you feel like playing around. https://tinkerboard.vercel.app/

KashyapArjun1y ago

meiraleal1y ago

Great project! Thanks for sharing, I'm looking for something like this.

One thing I'm curious about tho is the evolution of the project. Github says the last update in the code was 7 months ago. Is it because it is ready/done?

jwithington1y ago

So one could retain the contents of every website every visited and then run local, in-browser searches against that content? Is that the idea? This li

jamesmcintyre1y ago

https://github.com/tantaraio/voy

https://github.com/nitaiaharoni1/vector-storage

https://github.com/danielivanovz/indexed-vector-store

https://github.com/yusufhilmi/client-vector-search

This project only runs in node (but there's an issue that talks about how it might be modified to run in-browser):

https://github.com/Anush008/fastembed-js

Looks like transformers.js supports embeddings in-browser:

https://github.com/xenova/transformers.js/releases/tag/2.1.0

https://github.com/pinecone-io/semantic-search-example/blob/...

Also it appears the client-vector-search supports both embeddings & vector indexing

https://github.com/yusufhilmi/client-vector-search

Hope this helps others looking into this stuff!

masherm1y ago

how would you use this within chrome?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse