Show HN: Files.md – open-source alternative to Obsidian

1. as-notes

   1 13 24 9.4 JavaScript

   VS Code Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS) - Markdown Editing, Wikilinks (inc. Nested), Tasks, Kanban, Files, Publish to HTML, Daily Journal, Encrypted Notes

   

   I think there is a special value in open source when it comes to a personal knowlege base. We invest so much time in it, and we need to know that it's not going to be taken away from us, or made unaffordable. I made https://www.asnotes.io (basically obsidian with markdown and nested wikilinking in a VS Code extension), because I wanted and thought others would want something that is a) open source and b) version control friendly so we don't even have to rely on a sync server being there in the future.

2. Puter.js

   developer.puter.com sponsored

   Puter.js - The Backend for AI-Generated Apps. One-shot full-stack apps with your existing AI coding tool. Puter.js gives you Auth, Storage, DB, AI & more, with up to 90% fewer AI tokens than other backend platforms.

   

3. files.md

   2 4 4 - JavaScript

   🌱 Your life in plain .md files

   

   I added a table with all possible setup options: https://github.com/zakirullin/files.md#ways-to-use-it

4. helix

   3 487 45,830 9.8 Rust

   A post-modern modal text editor.

   

   Being a better version of something is an invitation, not an imposition! I'm not a developer and never have been, I study literatureand I use a modal editor for all my writing.

   If you've ever used Ctrl+C to copy, you've already done something harder than the core concept of modal editing. Modal editing is simpler: you press a single key, and you switch to one (of two) modes. That's it. That's the thing people find intimidating. In one mode the letters you press show up on the screen, in the other the letters you press select/copy/move/etc (like cntrl+c... Except even simpler you only need to press one key). You have to use keyboard keys to go up and down, which I assume you already have some experience with.

   Learning it is identical to learning a GUI. In Word, you hunt through menus for the word 'cut' or 'paste' and click it. In a modal editor like helix you look up cut or paste on a menu and press the key next to it instead. Except once you remember the key you never have to go look through menus again!

   Get the hang of it and modal text editors are to word processors what word processors are to typewriters. Except at least typewriters have some charm.

   All that being said, if you want to sync your notes you'll have to use something like Dropbox or google drive, and I looked up how to install helix and you do have to download and unzip a file (https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/releases). Still, computer science degree not required!

   Unless you've only ever used android or iOS device in which case all of my assumptions about your familiarity with keyboards and mice is totally off. Still!

5. logseq

   4 579 44,428 10.0 Clojure

   A local-first, non-linear, outliner notebook for organizing and sharing your personal knowledge base. Use it to organize your todo list, to write your journals, or to record your unique life.

   

6. tolaria

   5 6 1,434 - TypeScript

   

   > waffling about moving from Notion to something local/markdown based for a while.

   Check out Tolaria [1]. Open source, works locally, uses markdown, no-databases. Git client built-in. Even has Notion-style input.

   [1]: https://tolaria.md

7. TiddlyWiki

   6 303 8,627 9.6 JavaScript

   A self-contained JavaScript wiki for the browser, Node.js, AWS Lambda etc.

   

8. markdown-oxide

   7 8 2,268 8.4 Rust

   PKM Markdown Language Server

   

9. SaaSHub

   www.saashub.com sponsored

   SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews. SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives

   

10. Nexidion

    8 2 15 - Python

    Private-first, self-hostable knowledge base. Your data, your server, your control. No cloud, no telemetry, no trust required.

    

11. ai-status

    9 2 0 - Go

    A live dashboard for AI agent sessions

    

12. obi-sync

    10 6 983 10.0 Go

    Discontinued Reverse engineering of the native Obsidian sync and publish server

    And I remember that did happen at one point: https://github.com/acheong08/obi-sync

    The mechanism that allowed that was patched as a vulnerability

13. Joplin

    11 790 55,931 9.9 TypeScript

    Joplin - the privacy-focused note taking app with sync capabilities for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS..

    

    What is this providing over similarly Markdown based open source note taking applications like Joplin? (https://joplinapp.org/)

    I've been a huge fan of the fact that my backend sync infrastructure is my own self-hosted S3 bucket with local clients handling the presentation layer.

14. QOwnNotes

    12 71 5,838 9.9 C++

    QOwnNotes is a plain-text file notepad and todo-list manager with Markdown support and Nextcloud / ownCloud integration.

    

15. jotty

    13 1 1,978 9.7 TypeScript

    Lightweight but powerful alternative for managing your personal, file based, notes and checklists.

    

16. joplin-rich-tables

    14 1 12 - TypeScript

    A Joplin plugin to provide table rendering & table editing in the Markdown editor.

    

    I've vibe coded a codemirror table editor (as a plugin for joplin) using a nested codemirror instance for the cell editor, in my case using joplin's built in command to render markup for the inactive cells: https://github.com/bwat47/joplin-rich-tables

    it works well but I'm not much of a programmer and probably ended up with a crazy over engineered architecture lol: https://github.com/bwat47/joplin-rich-tables

17. SaaSHub

    www.saashub.com sponsored

    SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews. SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives

    

Suggest a related project