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Your Self-Hosted Knowledge Base

NoteDiscovery is a lightweight, self-hosted note-taking application that puts you in complete control of your knowledge base. Write, organize, and discover your notes with a beautiful, modern interface—all running on your own server.

Note Discovery

• Privacy-conscious users who want complete control over their data
• Developers who prefer markdown and local file storage
• Knowledge workers building a personal wiki or second brain
• Teams looking for a self-hosted alternative to commercial apps
• Anyone who values simplicity, speed, and ownership

Official Website Try Live Demo

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• 🔒 Total Privacy - Your notes never leave your server
• 🔐 Optional Authentication - Simple password protection for self-hosted deployments
• 💰 Zero Cost - No subscriptions, no hidden fees
• 🚀 Fast & Lightweight - Instant search and navigation
• 🎨 Beautiful Themes - Multiple themes, easy to customize
• 🔌 Extensible - Plugin system for custom features
• 📱 Responsive - Works on desktop, tablet, and mobile
• 📂 Simple Storage - Plain markdown files in folders
• 🧮 Math Support - LaTeX/MathJax for beautiful equations
• 📄 HTML Export - Share notes as standalone HTML files
• 🕸️ Graph View - Interactive visualization of connected notes
• ⭐ Favorites - Star your most-used notes for instant access
• 📑 Outline Panel - Navigate headings with click-to-jump TOC

Linux/macOS:

mkdir -p notediscovery/data && cd notediscovery
docker run -d --name notediscovery -p 8000:8000 \
 -v $(pwd)/data:/app/data \
 ghcr.io/gamosoft/notediscovery:latest

Windows (PowerShell):

mkdir notediscovery\data; cd notediscovery
docker run -d --name notediscovery -p 8000:8000 `
 -v ${PWD}/data:/app/data `
 ghcr.io/gamosoft/notediscovery:latest

Open http://localhost:8000 — done! 🎉

💡 Your notes are saved in ./data/. Themes, plugins, locales and default configuration values are included in the image.

Two docker-compose files are provided:

Option 1: Pre-built image (fastest)

Linux/macOS:

mkdir -p notediscovery/data && cd notediscovery
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gamosoft/notediscovery/main/docker-compose.ghcr.yml
docker-compose -f docker-compose.ghcr.yml up -d

Windows (PowerShell):

mkdir notediscovery\data; cd notediscovery
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gamosoft/notediscovery/main/docker-compose.ghcr.yml -OutFile docker-compose.ghcr.yml
docker-compose -f docker-compose.ghcr.yml up -d

Option 2: Build from source (for development)

git clone https://github.com/gamosoft/notediscovery.git
cd notediscovery
docker-compose up -d

See Advanced Docker Setup for volume details.

For development or if you prefer running directly:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/gamosoft/notediscovery.git
cd notediscovery
# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt
# Run the application
python run.py
# Access at http://localhost:8000

Requirements:

• Python 3.8 or higher
• pip (Python package manager)

Modern Linux distributions enforce PEP 668, which prevents system-wide pip installs. Use a virtual environment instead:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/gamosoft/notediscovery.git
cd notediscovery
# Create a virtual environment
python -m venv venv
# Activate it (choose your shell):
source venv/bin/activate # Bash/Zsh (most Linux distros)
source venv/bin/activate.fish # Fish (CachyOS, etc.)
source venv/bin/activate.csh # Csh/Tcsh
.\venv\Scripts\activate # Windows PowerShell
# Install dependencies and run
pip install -r requirements.txt
python run.py

⚠️ Warning

You'll need to activate the virtual environment (source venv/bin/activate) each time you open a new terminal before running the app

The image includes bundled config, themes, plugins, and locales. To customize, you must:

1. Map the volume in your docker-compose or docker run command
2. Provide content - the file/folder must exist with valid content (empty = app might break!)

An official icon for NoteDiscovery is now available on Dashboard Icons!
Use it in your self-hosted dashboards like Homepage, Homarr, Dashy, Heimdall, etc...

Want to learn more?

• 🎨 THEMES.md - Theme customization and creating custom themes
• ✨ FEATURES.md - Complete feature list and keyboard shortcuts
• 🏷️ TAGS.md - Organize notes with tags and combined filtering
• 📋 TEMPLATES.md - Create notes from reusable templates with dynamic placeholders
• 🧮 MATHJAX.md - LaTeX/Math notation examples and syntax reference
• 📊 MERMAID.md - Diagram creation with Mermaid (flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and more)
• 🔌 PLUGINS.md - Plugin system and available plugins
• 🌐 API.md - REST API documentation and examples
• 🔐 AUTHENTICATION.md - Enable password protection for your instance
• 🔧 ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLES.md - Configure settings via environment variables

NoteDiscovery supports multiple languages! Currently available:

• 🇺🇸 English (en-US) - Default
• 🇪🇸 Español (es-ES)
• 🇩🇪 Deutsch (de-DE)
• 🇫🇷 Français (fr-FR)

To change language: Go to Settings (gear icon) → Language dropdown.

To add your own language: See the Contributing Guidelines for instructions on creating translation files.

Docker users: Mount your custom locales folder to add or override translations:

volumes:
 - ./locales:/app/locales # Custom translations

💡 Pro Tip: If you clone this repository, you can mount the documentation/ folder to view these docs inside the app:

# In your docker-compose.yml
volumes:
 - ./data:/app/data # Your personal notes
 - ./documentation:/app/data/docs:ro # Mount docs subfolder inside the data folder (read-only)

Then access them at http://localhost:8000 - the docs will appear as a docs/ folder in the file browser!

Before submitting a pull request, especially for major changes, please:

• Read our Contributing Guidelines
• Open an issue first to discuss major features or significant changes
• Ensure your code follows the project's style and philosophy

NoteDiscovery is designed for self-hosted, private use. Please keep these security considerations in mind:

• ⚠️ Do NOT expose directly to the internet without additional security measures
• Run behind a reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy) with HTTPS for production use
• Keep it on your local network or use a VPN for remote access
• By default, the app listens on 0.0.0.0:8000 (all network interfaces)

• Password protection is DISABLED by default (default password: admin)
• ⚠️ ENABLE AUTHENTICATION AND CHANGE THE DEFAULT PASSWORD if exposing to a network!
• See AUTHENTICATION.md for complete setup instructions
• To disable auth, set authentication.enabled: false in config.yaml
• Change password with Docker: docker-compose exec notediscovery python generate_password.py
• Perfect for single-user or small team deployments
• For multi-user setups, consider a reverse proxy with OAuth/SSO

• Your notes are stored as plain text markdown files in the data/ folder
• No data is sent to external services
• Regular backups are recommended

• Run on localhost or a private network only
• Use Docker for isolation and easier security management
• Keep your system and dependencies updated
• Review and audit any plugins you install
• Set appropriate file permissions on the data/ directory

TL;DR: Perfect for personal use on your local machine or home network. Enable built-in password protection if needed, or use a reverse proxy with authentication if exposing to wider networks.

MIT License - Free to use, modify, and distribute.

Made with ❤️ for the self-hosting community