A clean, self-hostable workspace for docs, boards, and team knowledge.

Real-time collaboration, Kanban boards, a knowledge graph, per-page permissions, and web publishing. Your data, your server, no seat limits.

Website · Self-host · Cloud · Releases

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Why NoteBit

Notes apps got bloated and pricey. NoteBit is neither.

• Truly self-hostable: one container, one SQLite file. No external services required.
• No seat tax: invite your whole team; the self-hosted version is never seat-capped.
• Everything is a connected page: docs, board columns, and cards are all pages, visualised in an interactive knowledge graph.
• Real-time collaboration: Google-Docs-style multiplayer cursors out of the box.
• Kanban that fits: columns and cards are first-class pages with per-column permissions and an approval workflow.
• Multiple workspaces: one per team or project, each with its own members and settings.
• Publish to the web: share any page or board publicly, read-only.
• Own your data: it all lives in one SQLite database you control.

Self-host

One line. No Docker needed:

curl -fsSL https://notebit.org/install.sh | bash

On Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://notebit.org/install.ps1 | iex

The installer uses your Node if you have version 20 or newer, or fetches a private runtime that lives inside the notebit folder and touches nothing else. It downloads the prebuilt app, starts it in the background, and opens http://localhost:8200. Your notes live in notebit/data as a single SQLite database; back up that folder and you have backed up everything. Re-run the installer any time to update.

start.sh / stop.sh (or Start NoteBit.bat / Stop NoteBit.bat on Windows) control it afterwards.

Prefer Docker?

Docker is fully supported, just optional:

NOTEBIT_DOCKER=1 bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://notebit.org/install.sh)"
# or by hand:
git clone https://github.com/GroyalCodes/notebit.git
cd notebit && docker compose up -d

In Docker, data lives in the notebit-data volume instead.

Configuration

All optional except where noted. Set via environment in docker-compose.yml or a .env file (see .env.example):

Variable	Default	What it does
PORT	8200	Port the server listens on
APP_URL	http://localhost:8200	Public URL, used in invite emails
WIKI_DB	/data/notebit.db	Database location
RESEND_API_KEY	unset	Enables email invites (resend.com)
MAIL_FROM	unset	From address for invite emails
ALLOW_SIGNUP	true	Set false for invite-only

Updating

Native installs: re-run the install one-liner. It swaps the app and keeps your data.

Docker installs: run ./update.sh (that's just git pull && docker compose up -d --build).

Either way your data is kept, and schema migrations run automatically on startup. NoteBit shows an "update available" notice in Settings → Account → About when a newer release is out; check the running version any time at GET /api/version.

Uninstalling

From the folder you installed in:

./uninstall.sh            # macOS / Linux
irm https://notebit.org/uninstall.ps1 | iex   # Windows

It removes the container and image, and asks before touching your notes. If you keep the notebit-data volume (the default), reinstalling later brings every page back.

Serve it on your own domain

Put any reverse proxy in front of port 8200 and set APP_URL so invite links use your domain. With Caddy it is three lines and HTTPS is automatic:

notes.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8200
}

Nginx works too; make sure WebSocket upgrades are passed through (real-time editing uses them):

location / {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8200;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
}

Then set APP_URL: "https://notes.yourdomain.com" in docker-compose.yml and restart. A Cloudflare Tunnel pointed at localhost:8200 also works well if you cannot open ports.

Don't want to host it?

NoteBit Cloud is the managed option: we host, back up, and update it for one flat price per workspace, with unlimited members. No per-seat bill.

Run without Docker (development)

# server
cd server && npm install && npm start      # http://127.0.0.1:8200
# web (in another terminal)
cd web && npm install && npm run dev        # http://localhost:5173

Stack

Node 22 · Fastify 5 · better-sqlite3 · React 18 · Vite 6 · BlockNote · Yjs (real-time). No external database, queue, or cache.

License

AGPL-3.0-or-later. Self-host and modify NoteBit freely; if you offer it as a network service, make your source available under the same license. A managed, fully-hosted option is available at notebit.org.