Project Manas — Installation Guide

Project needs two component:

1. The backend — runs in Docker on your machine, nothing installed globally.
2. The browser extension — loaded "unpacked" (unzipped) into Chrome/Edge, since it isn't published to a web store yet.

Both need to be running for the extension to actually work.

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1. Backend — run it in Docker

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop installed and running (Windows/Mac/Linux all fine — on Windows, enable the WSL2 backend if prompted during install).

Get the compose file

Copy the conten following in file named: docker-compose.yml. Put it in an empty folder — that's the only file you need, no other project files or source code.

services:
  qdrant:
    image: qdrant/qdrant:latest
    ports:
      - "6333:6333"
      - "6334:6334"
    volumes:
      - ./data/qdrant_storage:/qdrant/storage

  app:
    image: satyamgupta0/manas-backend:latest
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    environment:
      QDRANT_HOST: qdrant
      QDRANT_PORT: 6333
      QDRANT_GRPC_PORT: 6334
      MODELS_CACHE_DIR: /app/models
      DATABASE_URL: sqlite+aiosqlite:////app/db/manas.db
      EXPOSE_DOCS: "false"
    volumes:
      - ./data/models_cache:/app/models
      - ./data/manas_db:/app/db
    depends_on:
      - qdrant

Start it

Open a terminal in that folder and run:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d

First run downloads the backend image and the vector database image (~2GB total) and pulls the embedding models on first boot — give it a minute or two. Subsequent starts are fast.

Verify it's up

curl http://localhost:8000/health

Expect: {"status":"ok"}

If that doesn't respond yet, check logs:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml logs -f app

Wait for Application startup complete. in the log output.

Stopping / restarting

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml down      # stop (keeps your data)
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d      # start again later
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml down -v    # stop AND wipe all data (fresh start)

Your notes, annotations, and indexed sections persist across restarts (stored in Docker volumes) unless you use the -v flag above.

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2. Browser extension — load it unpacked

You'll be handed a .zip of the extension. Chrome/Edge can't load a zip directly — extract it first.

Steps (Chrome or Edge — same flow, either browser)

1. Extract the zip to a folder you'll keep around (don't delete it after loading — the browser reads directly from this folder every time it starts).
2. Open chrome://extensions (or edge://extensions in Edge).
3. Turn on Developer mode (toggle, usually top-right).
4. Click Load unpacked.
5. Select the folder you extracted in step 1 (the one containing manifest.json, not a subfolder or the zip itself).
6. The extension icon should now appear in your browser toolbar.

Confirm it's talking to the backend

The extension expects the backend at http://localhost:8000 by default — same address the Docker container publishes to, so no configuration should be needed as long as the container from Part 1 is running. Open the extension, try any action that hits the backend (e.g. viewing recent activity, searching, adding a note) and confirm it responds instead of showing a connection error.

Reloading after an update

If you're handed an updated zip:

1. Extract it over (or alongside) the old folder.
2. Go back to chrome://extensions, find the extension, click the reload icon (circular arrow) on its card — no need to remove and re-add it, unless you moved the folder to a new location, in which case click Remove first, then Load unpacked again from the new folder.

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Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause
curl http://localhost:8000/health connection refused	Container not up yet, or Docker Desktop isn't running — check docker compose -f docker-compose.testers.yml ps
Extension shows a network/connection error	Backend container isn't running, or something else is using port 8000 — stop that other process or check docker compose logs app for errors
Load unpacked button is greyed out / missing	Developer mode toggle isn't on
Extension loaded but nothing shows up	Selected the zip's parent folder instead of the folder containing manifest.json — re-check step 5
Data disappeared after a restart	You (or a script) ran down -v, which wipes the Docker volumes on purpose

If none of these match what you're seeing, note the exact error message/screenshot and send it back — that's more useful than a description.