Opaline

中文说明：README.zh.md

Opaline is a local-first desktop knowledge workspace that stores notes as clean HTML files.

The goal is simple: your notes should remain useful outside the app. Each note is a normal local HTML document that can be opened in a browser, indexed by the app, linked to other notes, and eventually published or queried with AI using clear sources.

Preview

• Watch the short demo video
• Screenshots: home, workspace, editor, relationship map, settings

Status

Opaline is currently a public alpha.

• Windows is the primary active development target.
• macOS support is planned, but macOS builds should be produced and tested on macOS.
• Release builds are unsigned unless a release explicitly says otherwise.
• Back up your workspace before testing alpha builds with important notes.

Why HTML Notes?

Markdown is excellent for plain text. Opaline explores a different bet: long-term knowledge work often needs richer structure.

Clean HTML can represent:

• headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, task lists, and code blocks
• images, attachments, callouts, embeds, math, and diagrams
• stable block IDs and deep links
• note links, heading links, block links, concept links, tags, and metadata
• documents that are already readable in a browser and close to publishable webpages

Opaline is not trying to save arbitrary browser/editor HTML. The project defines an Opaline HTML Profile so saved notes stay clean, predictable, portable, and friendly to search, links, publishing, and AI retrieval.

What Works Today

The current alpha already includes:

• ✓ Tauri 2 + React + Tiptap desktop app
• ✓ automatic default workspace under the user's documents folder
• ✓ local HTML note creation, loading, editing, saving, and auto-saving
• ✓ file explorer with note actions
• ✓ rich editor blocks: headings, lists, tasks, tables, callouts, images, embeds, math, Mermaid, layouts, disclosures, and code
• ✓ lightweight document style system for body, headings, callouts, and code blocks, including font family, size, and color controls
• ✓ editor command layer shared by toolbar actions and future AI editing flows
• ◐ AI editor tool protocol with JSON schemas, permissions, preview metadata, history-snapshot hooks, and rollback hooks
• ◐ SQLite-backed metadata, search direction, tags, headings, links from this note, mentions of this note, and broken-link detection
• ✓ Relationship map with file, heading, block, and concept-level relationships
• ✓ local note history snapshots
• ✓ AI settings for provider, base URL, model, API key, model test, and model fetching
• ◐ experimental live widgets and extension folder support
• ◐ manual update check and install flow; GitHub release endpoint and updater signing key still need real release configuration
• ✓ interface language support and workspace-local language packs

Legend: ✓ implemented, ◐ partially implemented or still rough, ○ planned.

The public alpha currently opens into the focused workspace. The earlier casual Today entry is hidden while the core note workspace is polished.

Still Rough

• Workspace migration needs a complete user-facing flow.
• Some file operations and history controls need more polish.
• Creating concept-level links from selected text still needs a friendlier UI.
• Block-link target highlighting can still be unreliable in the desktop editor.
• The updater UI exists, but public update delivery is inactive until GitHub release assets, updater endpoint, and signing key are configured.
• Builds are not yet signed/notarized for broad public distribution.
• Static publishing is planned but not part of the first alpha.

Install and Run from Source

Prerequisites:

• Node.js
• Rust
• Tauri prerequisites for your OS

Run in development:

npm install
npm run tauri:dev

Build a local package:

npm run tauri:build

More packaging notes: docs/release.md; GitHub updater setup: docs/updater-github.md

Data and Privacy

Opaline is local-first. A typical workspace looks like:

Opaline/
  notes/
  assets/
  .opaline/

• notes/ contains durable HTML notes.
• assets/ contains images and files.
• .opaline/ contains metadata, settings, indexes, cache, and history snapshots.

Local editing does not require a cloud account. Network access can happen when users configure AI providers, fetch model lists, run extensions or scripts, or open external links.

Read more: docs/data-and-privacy.md

Documentation

• Website subproject for the Cloudflare Pages static site
• Chinese README
• Document portal
• HTML README
• HTML format
• Storage and architecture
• Search, AI, and publishing
• Link rules
• Roadmap with implementation status icons
• Build and release notes
• GitHub updater setup
• Changelog
• Contributing
• Security

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Enjun Lu.

Opaline is licensed under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0.

Noncommercial use is permitted under the license terms. Commercial use requires a separate commercial license from the author.