many-notes

Many Notes is a Markdown note-taking web application designed for simplicity! Easily create or import your vaults and organize your thoughts right away.

It uses a database to power its features, but your files are also saved in the filesystem, giving you full control over your vault structure and ensuring easy access and portability.

Vaults are simply storage containers for your files, and Many Notes lets you choose to keep all your files in one vault or organize them into separate vaults.

[!IMPORTANT]
It is recommended to run Many Notes behind a reverse proxy serving the application with HTTPS. This not only secures your traffic but also gives you access to additional features like PWA support or copying to clipboard from code blocks.

Preview

Light theme

Features

• Multiple users: Protect your files behind authentication
• Multiple vaults per user: Choose how to organize your files
• OpenID Connect and OAuth: Authenticate with most login providers
• Collaboration: Invite other users to access your vaults
• Broadcasting: Real-time, live-updating user interfaces
• File search: Experience a fast and typo-tolerant search
• Tree view explorer: Fast navigation with relevant actions in the context menu
• Advanced Markdown editor: Write your Markdown notes faster
• Automatic saving: Focus on writing; saving is automatic
• Templates: Maintain consistent formatting for your notes
• Links/backlinks/tags: Improve note organization by connecting related notes
• Export to PDF: Convert your Markdown notes into shareable PDFs
• Import/export vaults: Easily back up and restore your vaults
• Automatic update check: Notifies you when a new version is available
• Starter vault: Helps you get started with Many Notes
• Light/dark theme: Automatically selected based on your system settings
• Progressive Web App: Provides a native app-like experience

Support

If you find this project useful, consider supporting its development:

Installation

Choose your preferred method to install Many Notes:

• Docker with volumes, for a simpler installation (read below)
• Docker with bind mounts, for easy access to shared paths from the host (read here)
• Docker with a different database, if you prefer not to use SQLite (read here)

Docker with volumes

Read the upgrading guide if you are upgrading from a previous version.

Create a compose.yaml file with:

services:
  php:
    image: brufdev/many-notes:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - APP_URL=http://localhost # address used to access the application
    volumes:
      - database:/var/www/html/database/sqlite
      - logs:/var/www/html/storage/logs
      - private:/var/www/html/storage/app/private
      - typesense:/var/www/html/typesense
    ports:
      - 80:8080

volumes:
  database:
  logs:
  private:
  typesense:

Make sure to change the address used to access the application. Feel free to change anything else if you know what you're doing, and read the customization section below before continue. Then run:

docker compose up -d

Customization

You can customize Many Notes by adding environment variables to the compose.yaml file.

Custom URL (default: http://localhost)

If you change the default port from 80 or use a reverse proxy with a custom URL, make sure to configure the application URL accordingly. For example, if you change the port to 8080, add:

environment:
  - APP_URL=http://localhost:8080

Custom timezone (default: UTC)

Check all available timezones here. For example, if you want to set the timezone to Amsterdam, add:

environment:
  - APP_TIMEZONE=Europe/Amsterdam

Custom upload size limit (default: 500M)

Increase the upload size limit to allow for the import of larger files. For example, if you want to increase the limit to 1 GB, add:

environment:
  - PHP_POST_MAX_SIZE=1G
  - PHP_UPLOAD_MAX_FILE_SIZE=1G

Enable OpenID Connect and OAuth providers

Many Notes authenticates with OpenID Connect, so it works with most login providers, such as Pocket ID, Keycloak, Authentik, Entra ID, Auth0, Okta, or Google.

For example, to enable Pocket ID, add:

environment:
  - OIDC_NAME=Pocket ID # name shown on the login button
  - OIDC_CLIENT_ID=CLIENT_ID # change id
  - OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET=CLIENT_SECRET # change secret
  - OIDC_REDIRECT_URI=http://localhost/oauth/oidc/callback # change domain
  - OIDC_BASE_URL=https://your-pocketid-url # change url

You can enable several OpenID Connect providers at the same time. Dedicated providers are also available for services like GitHub, GitLab, and Slack. Read the OAuth documentation for both.

Local authentication (default: true)

Disable local authentication by configuring an OAuth provider and specifying a URL to redirect after logout. For example, to use Pocket ID as the only authentication method, add:

environment:
  # enabling the OpenID Connect provider:
  - OIDC_NAME=Pocket ID # name shown on the login button
  - OIDC_CLIENT_ID=CLIENT_ID # change id
  - OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET=CLIENT_SECRET # change secret
  - OIDC_REDIRECT_URI=http://localhost/oauth/oidc/callback # change domain
  - OIDC_BASE_URL=https://your-pocketid-url # change url
  # disabling local authentication:
  - OIDC_POST_LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URI=https://your-pocketid-url/logout # change URL
  - SETTINGS_LOCAL_AUTH_ENABLED=false

Custom email service

Configure an email service to send registration and password reset emails by adding:

environment:
  - MAIL_MAILER=smtp
  - MAIL_HOST=127.0.0.1
  - MAIL_PORT=2525
  - MAIL_USERNAME=null
  - MAIL_PASSWORD=null
  - MAIL_ENCRYPTION=null
  - [email protected]
  - MAIL_FROM_NAME="Many Notes"

Frequently Asked Questions

Read the FAQs to find the answers to the most common questions.

Contributing

If you're interested in contributing to Many Notes, please read the contributing guide before submitting a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for the full license text.