Knowtion

An open-source, local-first knowledge workspace — nested pages, block documents, rich text, and databases with typed properties and views.

Your notes live on your machine. Sync is optional and goes through storage you already own. There is no Knowtion server, no account to create, and no subscription.

Status: pre-alpha, and runnable. Nested pages, the block editor, full-text search, multi-device sync through a shared folder, end-to-end encryption, and databases — eight property types, table and board views, filter, sort and group, drag ordering — all work today, and a Notion export imports with its databases. See the roadmap below.

Platform: Windows. macOS and Linux are not supported at v1 — see Platform support.

Why another Notion alternative

Most alternatives ask you to trust their cloud, or give up databases and views to get local files. Knowtion aims for both:

• Local-first. The app opens and edits instantly, offline, always. The network is never in the path of a keystroke.
• No account, no server. Knowtion never asks for access to your cloud account. You point it at a folder your existing Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or Syncthing client already syncs, and that client does the transport.
• Encrypted before it leaves your machine. Your cloud provider stores ciphertext. On by default: a workspace will not open until you have written down its recovery phrase, because an append-only log cannot un-write a note saved in the clear.
• Your data stays yours. Full export to Markdown and JSON, always, no lock-in.

Roadmap

Version	Contents
v0.1	Local-only: nested pages, block editor, search, Notion import
v0.2	Folder-based multi-device sync, encryption enabled
v0.3	Databases: typed properties, table and board views, filter/sort/group
v0.4	Relations, rollups, formulas
v0.5	Attachments, version history, optional Google Drive API mode
v1.0	OneDrive API mode, templates, remaining view types

Platform support

Windows only at v1. The engine is portable and the test suite runs on Linux in CI, but there are no macOS or Linux releases yet.

Folder mode relies on a desktop sync client watching the folder you choose, and neither Google nor Microsoft ships one for Linux — Linux users would need Dropbox, Syncthing, rclone or insync. macOS additionally needs Apple Developer enrolment before it can auto-update, since Squirrel.Mac refuses to update an unsigned app. Both are deferred rather than ruled out.

Development

Requires Node 24+.

git clone <repo-url>
cd knowtion
npm install
npm run verify     # formatting, typecheck, lint, licence gate, tests
npm run format     # rewrite anything the formatting check objects to
npm start          # build and launch the desktop app

If npm install skips lifecycle scripts in your environment, Electron's binary will be missing. Fetch it with:

node node_modules/electron/install.js

Your notes live in the OS application-data directory under Knowtion/log, as immutable packs. Nothing is written for a workspace you have not edited.

See CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request — it contains a mandatory clean-room rule about copyleft prior art.

Documentation

Document	Purpose
ARCHITECTURE.md	How the system fits together (5 pages, no more)
FORMAT.md	The on-disk and on-cloud format specification
docs/adr/	Architectural decision records — append-only
THIRD_PARTY.md	Dependency licences (generated by CI)
SECURITY.md	Threat model and vulnerability disclosure

Licence

MIT — see LICENSE.

Knowtion is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from Notion Labs, Inc.