[bornon5]

The ideal “knowledge base” app I’ve been searching for is as follows:

  - Self-hosted
  - Attractive web client that loads very quickly and works well on mobile
  - Can point it at a nested directory of text/markdown and image/pdf files (no sql database)
  - Text files are editable in place (no “edit” button, etc.)
  - Markdown displays in a plain-text view (no hidden formatting characters, no “rich text” editor)

Every app I’ve tried misses at least of these. The closest I’ve found, strangely, is vscode-server, which is just too bloated and mobile-unfriendly to work for me. I’m perpetually a millimeter away from writing my own, but I feel like I need to stop doing that.

Does this app exist?

[rakoo]

Do you _really_ need a web client ?

I use markor (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.gsantner.markor/) on android and it does everything I need. It's all a bunch of files, synchronized with syncthing, so I can use it on my desktop with any editor (maybe https://thiefmd.com/, maybe another one). No need for a server, I can use it while offline, it's lightweight to install and maintain.

[bornon5]

I want to be able to access the same content from my laptop, phone, and tablet. I used Obsidian for a while with a convoluted setup (a Git repo with an iOS shortcut that fetched when the Obsidian app was launched), but it proved too slow and error-prone to continue using.

I want the whole stack to be open source, which is why I’m not using Obsidian Sync or an iOS Syncthing client. So while I don’t technically need web client, I don’t know of any other solution that would work for me.

[rakoo]

I understand your concern, personally syncthing does a perfect job for me. I'm never editing from multiple devices at the same time, and by the time I switch to another device the content is synced. If not, I give it a little time and it makes me pause and use computers a little bit less, so it's not that much of a downside.

[bornon5]

How are you using Syncthing on iOS?

[rakoo]

Oh, sorry, I didn't understand you were using iOS, I don't use Apple products and I didn't know there was no proper syncthing on iOS.

[flangola7]

They said they're on Android.

[369548684892826]

How about using iCloud for sync?

[theshrike79]

Obsidian has everything but "Attractive web client", but it does have a native client.

The "database" is just a bunch of directories you can sync with any tool you want.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Doesn't seem to have self-hosted syncing. Or am I missing something?

And even if it's in there, $8/month for syncing seems to defeat the point of "self-hosted".

[theshrike79]

Like I said, the "database" is just a directory of files. You can use anything you want to keep it synced. I've used OneDrive, Dropbox and iCloud to sync mine.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

I'd much prefer "syncing" to be something I set up once, and then forget about it.

If it is "anything I want to do to keep it synced", then I'll be half-assing it forever, losing notes and so forth. Already doing that, and the 500 pages of notes from 3 years ago on Google drive, to the "attach it in Gmail to a draft so I can look it over at home", hell even a few somewhere on iCloud. For some things others might be interested in, I've even got a few github gists.

This, for me, is a problem that is central to notes software. It might be the one problem that makes or breaks them. At least with the pricey subscription garbage apps, they know enough to know that I don't want to have to think about syncing.

[theshrike79]

I pointed my Obsidian vaults to iCloud and haven't had to think about it ever since.

[jhoechtl]

> but it does have a native client.

Its an electron app.

[addandsubtract]

Any tool except Dropbox on macOS. Don't store your Obsidian library in Dropbox.

[grepfru_it]

Trilium

https://github.com/zadam/trilium

And while it does use a db backend, it allows you to extend the interface with inline JavaScript. It’s extremely underrated