Many Notes

Many Notes is an open-source, self-hosted web application for Markdown note-taking. It allows users to create and organize thoughts within vaults, which serve as storage containers for files. The application is designed to provide users with full control over their data by saving files directly to the filesystem, ensuring that the vault structure remains accessible and portable outside of the application itself.

Deployed as a server-side application, it is typically installed using Docker with either volumes or bind mounts for easy access to shared paths from the host. It functions as a Progressive Web App, providing a native app-like experience in the browser. For full functionality, including clipboard access from code blocks and PWA support, the software is intended to run behind a reverse proxy using HTTPS.

Key features

• Multi-user authentication with support for various OAuth providers
• Collaborative vault access through user invitations
• Markdown editor with automatic saving and template support
• Organization via links, backlinks, and tags
• Typo-tolerant file search and tree view explorer
• Real-time interface updates via broadcasting
• Import and export functionality for vaults
• PDF export for Markdown notes
• System-based light and dark theme selection

The application is built with PHP and utilizes a database to power its internal features while maintaining the actual notes as files on the disk. This architecture ensures that users maintain ownership of their content. It supports a wide range of OAuth providers for authentication, including GitHub, GitLab, Google, Keycloak, Authelia, and Authentik, and can be configured with a custom SMTP email service for registration and password resets. Users can further customize the environment by adjusting upload size limits, timezones, and database preferences, with SQLite provided as a default option.

Many Notes is intended for individuals and teams seeking a private, filesystem-based knowledge base for documentation and personal knowledge management.