Trilium Notes is a self-hosted, hierarchical note-taking application designed for building large personal knowledge bases. It combines rich text editing, spreadsheets, mind maps, scripting, and relational connections in a single application. Trilium is fully open source and intended for self-hosting, giving you complete control over your data without relying on any third-party service.

Key Features

• Hierarchical tree structure — Organise notes in a collapsible, draggable tree view
• Rich text and Markdown — Notes support rich text with inline Markdown shortcuts
• Relation maps — Visual mind maps showing connections between notes
• Scripting engine — Built-in JavaScript scripting for automation and custom features
• Encryption — AES-256 encryption for individual notes or the entire database
• Self-hosted — Runs on your own server with Docker, Docker Compose, or direct install
• Version history — Automatic versioning with diff view for note changes
• REST API — Programmatic access to notes for automation and integration

Why Use It

Trilium is the most feature-rich self-hosted note-taking application. The scripting engine allows power users to automate workflows, the relation maps provide visual knowledge exploration, and the hierarchical tree structure scales well for thousands of notes.

Use Cases

• Self-hosted knowledge base — Run your own personal wiki with complete data ownership
• Technical documentation — Organise code snippets, API references, and architecture notes
• Project research — Use relation maps to explore connections between research topics
• Automated workflows — Script note creation, formatting, and export routines

Platform

Self-hosted web application (Docker, Docker Compose, or direct install) — Desktop clients available

Licence

GNU Affero General Public License v3.0

Website

trilium.info