Documentation

Everything you need to install, activate, and understand Retineo.

Install

Two ways to start. Pick the one that fits your workflow.

🔧 Method 1: BRAT (recommended — auto-updates)

  1. Install BRAT from Obsidian Community Plugins
  2. Open BRAT settings → Add Beta plugin
  3. Paste: https://github.com/retineohq/retineo-obsidian
  4. Click Add Plugin, then enable Retineo
  5. Restart Obsidian

📁 Method 2: Manual install

  1. Download main.js + manifest.json + styles.css from latest release
  2. Create folder: .obsidian/plugins/retineo/
  3. Copy files into that folder
  4. Restart Obsidian → Settings → Community Plugins → Enable Retineo

Requirements: Obsidian 0.15+, desktop only. Node.js 18+ for local LLM/embedding providers.

📦 npm (global)

npm install -g @retineo/core
retineo init
retineo ingest ./my-docs/
retineo search "why users drop off"

🖥️ Standalone binary

Download from GitHub Releases for macOS, Linux, Windows.

🩺 Check dependencies

retineo doctor

Verifies: Node.js, ffmpeg, tesseract, Ollama, whisper (optional).

Free vs Pro

The Obsidian Plugin is free for semantic search (L0–L3). Pro unlocks connection discovery layers (L4–L9).

Feature Free Pro
L0–L3 Create & Read ✓ ✓
L0–L3 Search & Chat ✓ ✓
L4 Semantic Links — ✓
L5–L6 Clusters — ✓
L7–L9 Annotations — ✓
MCP L4+ Tools — ✓
HTTP Bridge L4+ — ✓

Early Adopter Program

Retineo Core is free and open-source forever. The Obsidian Plugin Pro tier (L4–L9: semantic links, clusters, annotations, MCP, HTTP Bridge) is available through contributions while we build payment infrastructure.

Request Pro Access

Founding Member: install within 30 days of release → exclusive early access and founding pricing when paid tiers launch.

1
Install the plugin L0–L3 (semantic search + chat) works immediately for free.
2
Contribute Bug report, PR, demo vault, translation, or UX feedback.
3
Get Pro key Open GitHub Issue with label activation-request. Reviewed within 48h.
4
Unlock L4–L9 Semantic links, clusters, annotations, MCP tools, HTTP Bridge.

Documentation

Deep dives into every part of Retineo.

Getting Started First install, first ingest, first search. Read →
Architecture L0–L3 pipeline, CAS, HNSW+BM25, fractal nodes. Read →
CLI Guide All commands: init, ingest, search, status, doctor, recover. Read →
MCP Setup Connect Retineo to any MCP-compatible agent. Read →
Adapter Guide Build custom adapters for new source types. Read →
Marketing & Positioning Product brief, messaging, use cases, competitive landscape. Read →

Architecture

Retineo is a compiler, not a RAG wrapper. Raw sources become a chain of compiled artifacts.

PDF / MD / Audio / Image
    ↓
[L0] Normalized text + metadata
    ↓
[L1] Structural outline (headings, chunks, line ranges)
    ↓
[L2] Semantic essence (summary, concepts, claims)
    ↓
[L3] Vector index + keyword index (HNSW + BM25)
    ↓
Search by meaning

Key principles: Content-Addressable Storage (SHA-256), immutable artifacts, reproducible builds, SQLite registry, Adapter IPC (JSON-RPC 2.0).

L0–L3 are open-source (Apache 2.0). L4–L9 are commercial layers built on top.