LingoDiary

Write diary entries in your own language. LingoDiary turns them into TPRS-style audio lessons — translated sentences, Q&A pairs, and multiple grammatical variants — ready to listen on your phone or in the browser.

Quick start

You need: Docker, Docker Compose, and an OpenAI API key.

Create a docker-compose.yml anywhere on your machine:

services:
  lingo-diary:
    image: lozzaroo/lingodiary
    ports:
      - 8083:8084
    volumes:
      - ~/.config/lingoDiary/:/app/.config/lingoDiary/
      - ~/Documents/lingodiary/:/data/
    environment:
      # Generate with: python3 -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(32))"
      # IMPORTANT: rotate this key — do not commit real secrets to source control.
      SECRET_KEY: "change-me-to-a-random-string"

Creating user configs

Automated setup tool** (recommended)

Use the interactive ./scripts/manage-config.py script to create and manage user configurations:

# From the repo directory
python scripts/manage-config.py add-user

The script will guide you through:

1. Username — your login name
2. Password — stored with bcrypt hashing
3. Primary Language — language you write your diary in (menu: english, norwegian, french, etc.)
4. Study Language — language you're learning (menu: english, norwegian, french, etc.)
5. Gender — for grammatical output (male/female)
6. Voice selections — TTS voices for study language and primary language
7. OpenAI API key — for translation and tips generation

This automatically creates the necessary config files by looking at the path in the docker-compose.yml and placing configs in the right location, for example:

• ~/.config/lingoDiary/users.yaml (if not exists)
• ~/.config/lingoDiary/{username}/config.yaml

Managing users

# List all registered users
python scripts/manage-config.py list-users

# Modify an existing user's config
python scripts/manage-config.py modify-user myuser

# Delete a user (backs up config automatically)
python scripts/manage-config.py delete-user myuser

Manual setup (if not using the tool)

If you prefer to create configs manually, replace myuser with your username:

mkdir -p ~/.config/lingoDiary/myuser
mkdir -p ~/Documents/lingodiary/myuser

Generate a bcrypt hash for your password:

python3 -c "import bcrypt; print(bcrypt.hashpw(b'yourpassword', bcrypt.gensalt()).decode())"

Create ~/.config/lingoDiary/users.yaml:

users:
  myuser:
    password: "$2b$12$..." # paste your bcrypt hash here
    language: "en"

Create ~/.config/lingoDiary/myuser/config.yaml:

output_dir: "/data/myuser/"

create_diary_answers_auto: true

openai:
  key: "sk-..."
  model: "gpt-4o-mini"

languages:
  primary_language: "english"
  primary_language_code: "en"
  study_language: "norwegian"
  study_language_code: "no"

gender: "male"

tts:
  model: "piper"
  piper:
    piper_length_scale_tprs: 2
    piper_length_scale_diary: 2
    voice: "talesyntese-medium"
  piper_input_language:
    voice: "alan-low"
  repeat_sentence_tprs: 2
  repeat_sentence_diary: 2
  pause_between_sentences_duration: 600
  answer_silence_duration: 5000

Pull the image and start:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

The server runs by default at http://localhost:8083.

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Web app

Open http://localhost:8083 in your browser and log in. Write diary entries, trigger generation, and listen to lessons — all from the browser.

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Android app

Download the latest APK from the Releases tab and install it on your phone.

Open the app, and enter your server URL (e.g. http://192.168.1.x:8083). Log in with your username and password.

Home Screen	Lesson Screen

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Build from source

Only needed if you want to modify the code. The first build is slow (compiles PyTorch, Whisper, and Piper TTS).

git clone https://github.com/lbesnard/LingoDiary.git
cd LingoDiary
docker compose up --build -d

To build the Android APK locally:

cd android_app && flutter build apk --release
# APK: android_app/build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-release.apk

# alternatively, run using docker:
docker compose run --build --rm apk-debug