Onyx Studio is an open-source, local-first workspace for notes, code-adjacent text files, media, 3D assets, research, canvas planning, tasks, and richer file relationships in one portable desktop application.
Onyx Studio is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Obsidian or Dynalist Inc.
Onyx Studio is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
The Windows portable release is distributed as OnyxStudio.exe. It runs without an installer and creates its app-managed data under the user's Documents directory. On first boot, Onyx Studio seeds a read-only internal Journal containing the built-in guide and wiki.
Key workspace contexts include Notes, Search, Canvas, Calendar, 3D Models, Media, Browser, Tasks, Memos, Extensions, and Settings.
Prerequisites:
- Go 1.25+
- Node.js 25+
- pnpm 9+
Install dependencies:
pnpm installRun the desktop app in development:
pnpm devThis starts the Go engine on 127.0.0.1:4317, Vite on 127.0.0.1:5173, and Electron pointed at the Vite renderer.
Run the verification suite:
pnpm testRun build-onyx-studio.bat to produce release\\win-unpacked and the portable release\\OnyxStudio.exe. The release process writes SHA256SUMS.txt and a versioned release manifest. It signs artifacts only when ONYX_SIGN_CERT_PATH is configured; otherwise signing is intentionally skipped.
Journal metadata stays portable in each Journal's .onyxstudio directory. Recovery snapshots are stored in .onyxstudio/backups and can be created or restored from Settings.
Source code is available under the Apache License 2.0. See NOTICE.md, THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md, and the compliance review for attribution and third-party notices.