siyuan-note/siyuan

Project overview

SiYuan is a self-hosted, local-first personal knowledge management system providing Markdown WYSIWYG editing and fine-grained block-level references. It operates locally without requiring coding skills, with optional AI features available via OpenAI API integration.

Project type

Data Processing

Use cases

Documents & Office · Knowledge Q&A

Deployment

Refer to project documentation

License

AGPL-3.0

Best for

• General users requiring a local-first, privacy-focused personal knowledge base with block-level references.
• Users who prefer interacting with their workspace via desktop GUI, web GUI, CLI, or API without a coding requirement.

Key capabilities

• Provides AI writing and Q/A chat functionality integrated via the OpenAI API, which requires a separately configured external API.
• A built-in CLI provides direct access to workspace data without requiring a running server, supporting notebooks, search, export, and SQL queries.
• Enables full-text search inside asset files such as PDF, Word, Excel, and txt documents.

Limitations and risks

• Docker deployment does not support export to PDF, HTML, and Word formats.
• Docker deployment does not support desktop and mobile application connections; it is browser only.
• Data synchronization through third-party sync disks is not supported to prevent data corruption.
• The lock screen password must be changed in Docker deployments to prevent unauthorized data access.
• Data will be lost if the Docker mounted volume is incorrect.

Getting started

• Difficulty is rated easy due to provided desktop installers. The first success path involves installing the application on the chosen platform, launching the app or web interface, and creating a new workspace to start taking notes.
• Docker deployment is simplified with a single command. Users must configure mounted volumes correctly and change the lock screen password to prevent unauthorized access and data loss.

Evidence and sources

• GitHub project description: A privacy-first, self-hosted, fully open source personal knowledge management software, written in typescript and golang.
• README: AI writing and Q/A chat via OpenAI API
• README: Android/iOS/HarmonyOS App
• README: | [chrome](https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan-chrome) | Chrome/Edge extension |
• README: docker run -d \ -v workspace_dir_host:workspace_dir_container \ -p 6806:6806 \ -e PUID=1001 -e PGID=1002 \ b3log/siyuan \ serve \ --workspace=workspace_dir_container \ --accessAut…

Reviewed at: 2026-07-17T07:41:26Z