---
title: AI Sikh Librarian
emoji: 📚
colorFrom: blue
colorTo: indigo
sdk: gradio
sdk_version: 6.14.0
app_file: app.py
pinned: true
hardware: cpu-upgrade
license: cc-by-nc-nd-4.0
thumbnail: >-
  https://cdn-uploads.huggingface.co/production/uploads/69a29db42927b6e81519bb2d/8V-N8NjKd-rFtBwZh3dxb.jpeg
short_description: A scholarly research tool for querying the SikhLibrary
---

# 📚 AI Sikh Librarian

A scholarly research tool for querying the
[SikhLibrary](https://huggingface.co/datasets/jsdosanj/SikhLibrary) —
758 million+ words of Sikh scriptures, history, literature, and research materials.

Built for **academic researchers and parchariks** who need fast, reliable access to
primary sources with proper academic citations.

Built by Bhai Jasvant Singh ਪੰਛੀ in service to Sache Paatshaah.

---

### 🌗 Dark / Light Mode
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Preference is saved in the browser across sessions.

## Modes

### 🔍 Research Mode — no LLM, no credits, always available

| Signal | Technology | What it catches |
|---|---|---|
| Semantic similarity | FAISS + all-MiniLM-L6-v2 | Conceptual queries, synonyms, related themes |
| Exact / lexical match | BM25 (bm25s) | Scripture titles, ਅੰਗ numbers, proper nouns |
| Score fusion | Reciprocal Rank Fusion | Best of both signals |
| Query enrichment | Romanisation → Gurmukhi | "waheguru" → ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ |
| Source diversity | Per-source cap (15 max) | Prevents any single source dominating |
| Result diversity | MMR reranking (λ=0.7) | Diverse passages, not 5 from same ਅੰਗ |
| Gurbani extraction | Regex field parser | Gurmukhi · Pronunciation · Translation · Explanation |
| Language labelling | langdetect | "Translation (Romanian)", "Explanation (English)" |
| Relevance display | Percentile rank | 100% = most relevant in this query (intuitive, higher = better) |
| Score tiers | Percentile labels | 🟢 Highly Relevant → ⚪ Peripheral |
| Gurbani deep links | ਅੰਗ → SikhiToTheMax | One-click source verification |
| Citations | Chicago Manual of Style 17th ed. | Ready for academic papers |

### 📖 Learn Mode — Qwen2.5-72B scholarly Q&A
- PhD-level theological and historical analysis in English
- All key terms in Punjabi Unicode (ਨਾਮ ਸਿਮਰਨ, ਸੰਤ-ਸਿਪਾਹੀ — never romanised)
- Automatic ਅੰਗ hallucination verification — unverified citations struck through
- Multi-turn conversation with 6-turn history

## Corpus Coverage

| Category | Contents |
|---|---|
| **ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ** | ਸ੍ਰੀ ਗੁਰੂ ਗਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਜੀ, ਸ੍ਰੀ ਦਸਮ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ, ਸ੍ਰੀ ਸਰਬਲੋਹ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ, ਚਰਿਤ੍ਰੋਪਾਖਿਆਨ, ਭਾਈ ਨੰਦ ਲਾਲ ਗੋਯਾ |
| **ਗ੍ਰੰਥ** | ਸੂਰਜ ਪ੍ਰਕਾਸ਼, ਪੰਥ ਪ੍ਰਕਾਸ਼, ਮਹਾਨ ਕੋਸ਼, ਗੁਰਬਿਲਾਸ, ਤਨਖ਼ਾਹਨਾਮਾ |
| **ਸਟੀਕ** | ਫਰੀਦਕੋਟ ਵਾਲਾ ਟੀਕਾ, ਗੁਰੂ ਗਰੰਥ ਦਰਪਣ, ਦਸਮ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਟੀਕਾ (8 vols.) |
| **ਸਾਹਿਤ** | ਜਨਮ ਸਾਖੀਆਂ, ਜੰਗਨਾਮੇ, ਸ਼ਹੀਦ ਬਿਲਾਸ, ਪੁਰਾਤਨ ਜਨਮ ਸਾਖੀ |
| **ਖੋਜ** | Sikh Encyclopedia, SikhiWiki Archive, Ten Gurus, Gurdwaras Database |

## Dataset

[`jsdosanj/SikhLibrary`](https://huggingface.co/datasets/jsdosanj/SikhLibrary)
— 331,771 chunks · 758M+ words · 5 categories: ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ, ਗ੍ਰੰਥ, ਸਟੀਕ, ਸਾਹਿਤ, ਖੋਜ

## Storage bucket — `jsdosanj/SikhLibrarian-storage/index_output_v2/`

| File | Size | Builder |
|---|---|---|
| `faiss.index` | ~3.5 GB | `build_index_local_v2.py` |
| `doc_store.sqlite` | ~6.5 GB | `build_index_local_v2.py` |
| `meta.json` | ~180 MB | `build_index_local_v2.py` |
| `bm25.pkl` | ~200 MB | `build_bm25_local.py` (bm25s edition) |

---


## Architecture

```
query
  └─ sanitise + expand (romanisation map)
       ├─ FAISS vector search  (semantic)  ─┐
       └─ BM25 lexical search  (exact)     ─┴─ RRF fusion
                                                  └─ per-source cap (diversity)
                                                       └─ MMR rerank (diversity)
                                                            └─ percentile calibration
                                                                 └─ structured extraction
                                                                      └─ lang detection + Chicago citations
```

## Performance (CPU Upgrade — 8 vCPU / 32 GB RAM)

- Research mode: < 500ms per query for 100–300 concurrent users
- Embed cache: 10,000-entry LRU (~35–50% hit rate at scale)
- Embed pool: 6 worker processes (GIL-bypassing true parallelism)
- BM25 index: ~200 MB RAM, built once at startup (~60s)


## Hardware tiers

| Feature | Free tier (2 vCPU / 16 GB) | CPU Upgrade (8 vCPU / 32 GB) |
|---|---|---|
| BM25 + FAISS hybrid | ✅ | ✅ |
| BM25 pkl load time | ~2s | ~2s |
| RRF + multi-query | ✅ | ✅ |
| Query expansion | ✅ | ✅ |
| Context window + snippets | ✅ | ✅ |
| Score tiers + ਅੰਗ links | ✅ | ✅ |
| Embed cache (10K LRU) | ✅ | ✅ |
| MMR reranking | ❌ disabled | ✅ enabled |
| Gradio max threads | 8 | 40 |
| Queue max size | 20 | 100 |
| Comfortable concurrent users | ~50 | ~300 |
Set Space secret FREE_TIER=true on free tier. Leave unset on CPU Upgrade.

## License

**CC BY-NC-ND 4.0** — [creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Attribution: **SikhLibrary Dataset** (`jsdosanj/SikhLibrary`) · ShabadOS · BaniDB · Sikhi.IO · Isher Micro Media
· Maintainer: **Bhai Jasvant Singh ਪੰਛੀ**