DailyTxT is a self-hosted diary and journal web app that encrypts every entry before it is written to the server’s storage. It is built with Svelte and Go and shipped as a Docker image for AMD64 and ARM64, so a private, calendar-driven journal runs on your own hardware instead of someone else’s cloud.

Encryption that keeps the admin out

When you log in, your password derives a key with Argon2id; that derived key decrypts your personal encryption key, which is what actually protects the entries and uploaded files. Encryption uses ChaCha20-Poly1305, and the encryption key never leaves the server. The project is explicit about the trade-off: there is no client-side end-to-end encryption, because the search function would then have to send all of your data to the browser. Everything is stored as plain JSON files rather than in a database, which keeps the data portable and readable for the long term — you can copy the data directory and walk away with it.

What using it is like

• A calendar is the main navigation: swipe between months, click a day and write. A yellow dot marks days with uploaded files.
• Markdown editor with live preview and automatic saving — a green border means saved, orange means unsaved changes.
• Tags, plus search across entry text, tags and filenames.
• File uploads up to 500 MB per file, stored encrypted; images are recognised automatically and shown in a gallery and full-screen viewer.
• Pin a location for a day and see it on a map, including GPX tracks if you have them.
• Custom templates for recurring entries, a distraction-free read mode for a whole month, and HTML export that includes your uploaded files.
• Multi-user with a separate encryption key per account, an admin panel that can open registration for five minutes at a time, and a statistics panel with a GitHub-style entry-distribution chart.
• Responsive and installable as a PWA, so it works from a phone home screen.
• Available in English, German, French, Czech, Norwegian, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Italian, Dutch, Catalan and Japanese.

Running it

The project ships a docker-compose.yml that mounts a single ./data volume and needs one secret: a SECRET_TOKEN generated with openssl rand -base64 32, plus an ADMIN_PASSWORD for the admin panel. Registration is enabled for the first account and can be turned on temporarily later from the admin panel. Version 2 is a full rewrite — anyone upgrading from 1.0.x should follow the migration notes, which cover renamed environment variables and an automatic per-user re-encryption on first login.

Who it suits

DailyTxT is a journal first: it is organised by day, not by notebook or graph. If what you want is a private place to write down what happened, with photos, location and a searchable archive, it fits well. If you need wikilinks, backlinks or collaborative editing, a notes app is the better tool.

Alternatives to consider

• Joplin — open source note taking with sync and encryption, better for notebooks and attachments than for daily journaling.
• Memos — a lightweight self-hosted, timeline-style memo app.
• Flatnotes — self-hosted notes as plain markdown files on disk.
• Standard Notes — end-to-end encrypted notes with long-term data longevity as its focus.