Mike

Mike or MIkeOSS is a legal AI platform that is able to assist you with document review, drafting and legal research.

It has a Next.js frontend, an Express backend, Supabase Auth/Postgres, and Cloudflare R2-compatible object storage.

Website: mikeoss.com

Docker (local, account-free)

Run the whole stack in containers with one command and no external accounts. docker-compose.yml embeds everything: Supabase (Postgres + Auth + data API + a gateway), RustFS for S3-compatible object storage, and the frontend/backend. The schema loads itself on first boot.

The only thing you must supply is at least one model provider key (Anthropic, Gemini, or OpenAI — these are external APIs and cannot be self-hosted).

# 1. Env files
cp .env.example .env                  # frontend build vars (local demo keys prefilled)
cp backend/.env.example backend/.env

# 2. In backend/.env set:
#    - one of ANTHROPIC_API_KEY / GEMINI_API_KEY / OPENAI_API_KEY
#    - DOWNLOAD_SIGNING_SECRET and USER_API_KEYS_ENCRYPTION_SECRET (openssl rand -hex 32)
#    SUPABASE_URL / SUPABASE_SECRET_KEY / R2_* are set by docker-compose, leave them.

# 3. Up
docker compose up --build

Open http://localhost:3000 and sign up. Other endpoints: Postgres localhost:54322, Supabase API localhost:54321, storage console localhost:9001 (rustfsadmin / rustfsadmin), and the Mailpit inbox at localhost:8025.

What happens when you register

1. You sign up with email + password at localhost:3000.
2. The Auth service creates an unconfirmed user and emails a confirmation link. No mail leaves your machine — it is caught by Mailpit.
3. Open the Mailpit inbox at http://localhost:8025, open the "Confirm Your Email" message, and click the link. That confirms the account and redirects back to the app.
4. Now you can log in.

To skip the email step entirely (instant signup), set GOTRUE_MAILER_AUTOCONFIRM: "true" on the auth service in docker-compose.yml and docker compose up -d --force-recreate auth.

Mailpit only catches auth emails (signup, password reset). Other app email (via Resend) still needs a real RESEND_API_KEY and is not routed to Mailpit.

Local models via Ollama

Ollama models are detected dynamically — whatever you have installed (ollama list) shows up in every model picker under a Local group, with no API key. The backend reaches Ollama on the host at http://host.docker.internal:11434/v1 (override with OLLAMA_BASE_URL) and exposes the live list at GET /models/ollama.

Just pull a model and it appears after a refresh:

ollama pull qwen3.6

Notes:

• Models that support tool-calling can drive the full assistant; ones that don't (e.g. phi3:mini) still work for plain chat — the backend retries without tools automatically.
• Quality and speed depend on the local model; large models are noticeably slower for tabular review (which runs the model across many cells).

The Supabase JWT secret and the anon/service_role keys baked into docker-compose.yml / .env.example are the well-known Supabase local demo values — convenient for localhost, but regenerate them before exposing this anywhere.

Contents

• frontend/ - Next.js application
• backend/ - Express API, Supabase access, document processing, and database schema
• backend/schema.sql - Supabase schema for fresh databases
• backend/migrations/ - dated, incremental schema migrations; on an existing database, apply the files dated after the Mike version you deployed

System Workflows

Mike's system assistant and tabular review workflows are maintained in the Open-Legal-Products/mike-workflows repository.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20 or newer
• npm
• git
• A Supabase project
• A Cloudflare R2 bucket, MinIO bucket, or another S3-compatible bucket
• At least one supported model provider API key: Anthropic, Google Gemini, or OpenAI
• Optional: a CourtListener API token for case law lookup and citation verification
• LibreOffice installed locally if you need DOC/DOCX to PDF conversion

Database Setup

For a new Supabase database, open the Supabase SQL editor and run:

-- copy and run the contents of:
-- backend/schema.sql

The schema file is for fresh deployments and already includes the latest database shape.

For an existing database, do not run the full schema file over production data. Instead, apply the incremental files in backend/migrations/: run the migrations dated after the version of Mike you currently have deployed, in filename order. Each file is named YYYYMMDD_<name>.sql (the date is also recorded in a comment at the top of the file) and is written to be safe to re-run, so when unsure you can re-apply the most recent migrations without harm.

Environment

Create local env files:

touch backend/.env
touch frontend/.env.local

Create backend/.env:

PORT=3001
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:3000
DOWNLOAD_SIGNING_SECRET=replace-with-a-random-32-byte-hex-string
SUPABASE_URL=https://your-project.supabase.co
SUPABASE_SECRET_KEY=your-supabase-service-role-key

R2_ENDPOINT_URL=https://your-account-id.r2.cloudflarestorage.com
R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-r2-access-key
R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-r2-secret-key
R2_BUCKET_NAME=mike

GEMINI_API_KEY=your-gemini-key
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-anthropic-key
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-key
RESEND_API_KEY=your-resend-key
USER_API_KEYS_ENCRYPTION_SECRET=your-long-random-secret

# Optional: enables CourtListener case law and citation tools.
COURTLISTENER_API_TOKEN=your-courtlistener-token

# Optional: use locally imported CourtListener bulk data for faster case reads.
COURTLISTENER_BULK_DATA_ENABLED=false

Create frontend/.env.local:

NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=https://your-project.supabase.co
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_DEFAULT_KEY=your-supabase-anon-key
NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3001

Supabase values come from the project dashboard. Use the project URL for SUPABASE_URL / NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL, the service role key for the backend SUPABASE_SECRET_KEY, and the anon/public key for NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_DEFAULT_KEY. If your Supabase project shows multiple key formats, use the legacy JWT-style anon and service role keys expected by the Supabase client libraries.

Provider keys are only needed for the models, legal research, and email features you plan to use. Model provider keys and the CourtListener token can be configured in backend/.env for the whole instance, or per user in Account > Models & API Keys. If a provider key is present in backend/.env, that provider is available by default and the matching browser API key field is read-only.

CourtListener Integration

Mike can use CourtListener for US case law citation verification, case fetching, targeted opinion search, and case-law panels in assistant responses.

To enable live CourtListener access, set COURTLISTENER_API_TOKEN in backend/.env and restart the backend. Users can also add their own CourtListener token from Account > Models & API Keys when the instance does not provide one globally.

Fresh databases created from backend/schema.sql already include the CourtListener support tables. Existing deployments should apply the matching dated migration in backend/migrations/ before enabling the feature.

Bulk data is optional. When COURTLISTENER_BULK_DATA_ENABLED=true, Mike first tries local Supabase/R2 data before falling back to CourtListener's API:

• citation metadata is read from public.courtlistener_citation_index
• case cluster metadata is read from public.courtlistener_opinion_cluster_index
• cached opinion JSON is read from the R2 prefix courtlistener/opinions/by-cluster/{clusterId}/{opinionId}.json

If you do not import bulk data, leave COURTLISTENER_BULK_DATA_ENABLED=false; live CourtListener tools still work with a valid token, subject to CourtListener rate limits.

Install

Install each app package:

npm install --prefix backend
npm install --prefix frontend

Run Locally

Start the backend:

npm run dev --prefix backend

Start the main app:

npm run dev --prefix frontend

Open http://localhost:3000.

First Run

1. Sign up in the app.
2. If you did not set provider keys in backend/.env, open Account > Models & API Keys and add an Anthropic, Gemini, or OpenAI API key.
3. To use legal research tools, add a CourtListener token in backend/.env or Account > Models & API Keys.
4. Create or open a project and start chatting with documents.

Troubleshooting

Sign-up confirmation email never arrives. Confirmation emails are sent by Supabase Auth, not by Mike. For local development, the simplest fix is to disable email confirmation in Supabase > Authentication > Providers > Email. For production, configure custom SMTP in Supabase; the built-in mailer is heavily rate-limited and may be restricted on newer projects.

The model picker shows a missing-key warning. Add a key for that provider in Account > Models & API Keys, or configure the provider key in backend/.env and restart the backend.

CourtListener tools say the API token is missing. Set COURTLISTENER_API_TOKEN in backend/.env, or add a CourtListener token in Account > Models & API Keys for the signed-in user. Restart the backend after changing .env.

CourtListener bulk lookup is not returning local results. Confirm COURTLISTENER_BULK_DATA_ENABLED=true, the two CourtListener tables have been populated, and opinion JSON exists in R2 under courtlistener/opinions/by-cluster/. If bulk data is unavailable, Mike falls back to the live API when a token is configured.

DOC or DOCX conversion fails. Install LibreOffice locally and restart the backend so document conversion commands are available on the process path.

Useful Checks

npm run build --prefix backend
npm run build --prefix frontend
npm run lint --prefix frontend