GitHub - timothepoznanski/poznote: Your note-taking and documentation platform.

Your note-taking and documentation platform.

Features

Discover all the features here.

Demo

https://demo.poznote.com

Login: poznote
Password: poznote

They talk about Poznote

https://poznote.com/index.html#press

Table of content

Install
Access
Change Settings
Update application
Authentication
Note types
Personalization
Multi-users
Activity Log
Webhooks
Git Synchronization
S3 Attachment Storage
S3 Backups
Backup / Export
Restore / Import
Offline View
Multiple Instances
AI Assistant
MCP Server
Chrome Extension
Share to Poznote on Android
API Documentation
Tech Stack

Install

The official image is multi-arch (linux/amd64, linux/arm64) and supports Windows/macOS via Docker Desktop, as well as ARM64 devices like Raspberry Pi, NAS systems etc.

Choose your preferred installation method below:

🖥️ Windows

Step 1: Prerequisite

Install and start Docker Desktop

Step 2: Deploy Poznote

Create a new directory:

mkdir poznote

Navigate to the Poznote directory:

cd poznote

Create the environment file:

curl -o .env https://raw.githubusercontent.com/timothepoznanski/poznote/main/.env.template

Edit the .env file:

notepad .env

Download the Docker Compose configuration file:

curl -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/timothepoznanski/poznote/main/docker-compose.yml

Download the latest Poznote Webserver and Poznote MCP images :

docker compose pull

Start Poznote containers:

docker compose up -d

🐧 Linux

Step 1: Prerequisite

Install Docker engine
Install Docker Compose

Step 2: Install Poznote

Create a new directory:

mkdir poznote

Navigate to the Poznote directory:

cd poznote

Create the environment file:

curl -o .env https://raw.githubusercontent.com/timothepoznanski/poznote/main/.env.template

Edit the .env file:

vi .env

Download the Docker Compose configuration file:

curl -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/timothepoznanski/poznote/main/docker-compose.yml

Download the latest Poznote Webserver and Poznote MCP images:

docker compose pull

Start Poznote containers:

docker compose up -d

🍎 macOS

Step 1: Prerequisite

Install and start Docker Desktop

Step 2: Deploy Poznote

Create a new directory:

mkdir poznote

Navigate to the Poznote directory:

cd poznote

Download the environment file:

curl -o .env https://raw.githubusercontent.com/timothepoznanski/poznote/main/.env.template

Edit the .env file:

vi .env

Download the Docker Compose configuration file:

curl -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/timothepoznanski/poznote/main/docker-compose.yml

Download the latest Poznote Webserver and Poznote MCP images:

docker compose pull

Start Poznote containers:

docker compose up -d

☁️ Poznote Cloud

Use Poznote without installing or maintaining anything: we host it for you. Get started with Poznote Cloud

☸️ Kubernetes with Helm

Step 1: Prerequisite

Install Helm and make sure your Kubernetes context points to the cluster where you want to deploy Poznote.

Step 2: Deploy Poznote

Add the HelmForge chart repository:

helm repo add helmforge https://repo.helmforge.dev

Update your local chart index:

helm repo update

Install Poznote:

helm install poznote helmforge/poznote --namespace poznote --create-namespace

The Poznote Helm chart is maintained by the HelmForge community as a Kubernetes-native installation option. See the HelmForge Poznote chart documentation for values, persistence, service exposure, probes, security contexts, and other production-oriented settings.

🔒 Rootless

Poznote also ships a rootless image variant that runs entirely as an unprivileged user (uid/gid 1000) instead of root — for environments that forbid root inside containers (Kubernetes restricted PodSecurityStandard, rootless Podman, docker run --user, etc). It works exactly like the default image; the only differences are that it listens internally on port 8080 and cannot fix the ownership of your data directory at startup.

Step 1: Prerequisite

Install Docker engine
Install Docker Compose

Step 2: Deploy Poznote

Create a new directory:

mkdir poznote

Navigate to the Poznote directory:

cd poznote

Create the data directory and make it owned by uid/gid 1000 (required: unlike the default image, the rootless container cannot fix this ownership itself at startup):

mkdir -p data
sudo chown -R 1000:1000 data

sudo is often not needed here: if your user already has uid 1000 the chown can be skipped, and on rootless Podman/Docker it can run without root, see Running rootless.

Create the environment file:

curl -o .env https://raw.githubusercontent.com/timothepoznanski/poznote/main/.env.template

Edit the .env file:

vi .env

Download the rootless Docker Compose configuration file:

curl -o docker-compose.rootless.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/timothepoznanski/poznote/main/docker-compose.rootless.yml

Download the latest Poznote rootless Webserver and Poznote MCP images:

docker compose -f docker-compose.rootless.yml pull

Start Poznote containers:

docker compose -f docker-compose.rootless.yml up -d

To migrate an existing Poznote instance to the rootless variant, or for more details, see Running rootless in the Troubleshooting Guide.

🚂 Railway

Deploy Poznote in the cloud without managing a server, using the official Railway template.

Step 1: Prerequisite

Create a Railway account.

Step 2: Deploy Poznote

Click the button below and follow the instructions:

The template runs the official Poznote image with a persistent volume mounted at /var/www/html/data, so your notes, attachments and database survive redeploys and updates.

Once deployed, open the public domain generated by Railway and log in with the default account (see Authentication).

If you encounter installation issues, see the Troubleshooting Guide.

Access

After installation, access Poznote in your web browser:

http://localhost:8040

Username: admin_change_me
Password: admin
Port: 8040

Rename the default administrator account and change the default password after the first login.

Change Settings

Most day-to-day settings are changed from the Poznote interface. Use the .env file only for deployment/runtime values that are read when containers start.

Use the .env file for:

HTTP_WEB_PORT
POZNOTE_OIDC_CLIENT_ID
POZNOTE_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET
POZNOTE_OIDC_DISABLE_NORMAL_LOGIN
Optional runtime overrides such as POZNOTE_MCP_PORT and POZNOTE_DEBUG

Use the UI for:

Admin/global settings such as OIDC provider settings, Git Sync enablement, import limits, and custom CSS upload
User/profile settings such as local account passwords, theme, font sizes, note sorting, workspace background, and hidden UI elements

Modify System Settings (`.env`)

Navigate to your Poznote directory:

cd poznote

Stop the running Poznote containers:

docker compose down

Edit your .env file with your preferred text editor (e.g., nano .env or notepad .env).

Save the file and start the containers again to apply changes:

docker compose up -d

Update application

Navigate to your Poznote directory:

cd poznote

Stop the running containers before updating:

docker compose down

Download the latest Docker Compose configuration:

curl -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/timothepoznanski/poznote/main/docker-compose.yml

Download the latest .env.template:

curl -o .env.template https://raw.githubusercontent.com/timothepoznanski/poznote/main/.env.template

Use sdiff to review .env.template and add any new variables to your .env file if needed:

sdiff .env .env.template

Download the latest Poznote Webserver and Poznote MCP images:

docker compose pull

Start the updated containers:

docker compose up -d

Your data is preserved in the ./data directory and will not be affected by the update.

Authentication

Poznote supports multiple authentication methods including local accounts and external identity providers.

Local Accounts Authentication

Poznote authenticates users against their profile using a username or email address and a password.

Default account

On a fresh installation, Poznote creates one active administrator profile:

Username: admin_change_me
Password: admin

Change the default password and rename the account after the first login.

Password management

Passwords are managed through the Poznote web interface, not through .env:

Users can change their own password from Settings > Change Password.
Administrators can set a custom password for any user or reset it to the default from Settings > User Management.
The Remember me option keeps the session for 30 days.
Changing a password invalidates existing remember-me cookies for that user.

Default passwords

Administrator accounts: admin
Standard user accounts: user

When a user has not yet changed their password, the default value above is used. Once a password is changed through the interface, a secure bcrypt hash is stored in the database and takes priority.

OIDC / SSO Authentication (Optional)

Poznote supports OpenID Connect (authorization code + PKCE) for single sign-on integration. This allows users to log in using external identity providers such as Auth0, Keycloak, Azure AD, or Google Identity.

How it works

The login page displays a Continue with [Provider Name] button when OIDC is enabled.
Users authenticate with the OIDC authorization code flow secured by PKCE.
Access can be restricted with allowed groups and, if needed, a legacy allowed users list.
After authentication, Poznote links the identity in this order: sub (oidc_subject), then preferred_username, then email.
If auto-create users is enabled and no profile matches, Poznote creates one automatically. Such a profile has no password at all: it never went through the initial-credential handover an admin does when creating an account, so it does not answer to the default password. Sign-in goes through the provider, or an admin sets an explicit password from Settings > Admin Tools > Users.
If POZNOTE_OIDC_DISABLE_NORMAL_LOGIN=true, the username/password form is hidden and the login page becomes SSO-only.
REST API clients can authenticate with Authorization: Bearer <OIDC JWT> when OIDC is enabled; Poznote validates the provider JWKS, issuer, expiration, audience, and configured access controls.

Configuration

OIDC is configured from the admin UI: go to Settings > Admin Tools > OIDC / SSO.

Most settings (enabled, issuer, provider name, scopes, access control, allowed groups/users, auto-create users, HTTP Basic Auth behavior, etc.) are managed from this page and stored in the database.

For REST API Bearer JWT authentication, configure API JWT audience if your provider issues access tokens for a dedicated API audience. When it is empty, Poznote accepts the configured OIDC Client ID as the JWT audience.

The following settings remain in the .env file:

POZNOTE_OIDC_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
POZNOTE_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret
POZNOTE_OIDC_DISABLE_NORMAL_LOGIN=false

Use POZNOTE_OIDC_DISABLE_NORMAL_LOGIN=true if you want to hide the local username/password form and force SSO-only login. This is the only switch that blocks password authentication: it removes the form, rejects password POSTs server-side, and hides the "Change Password" setting.

Recovering from an identity provider outage. SSO-only means exactly that: while POZNOTE_OIDC_DISABLE_NORMAL_LOGIN=true, nobody can sign in with a password, admins included, so there is no in-browser escape hatch. This is deliberate, since an attacker who compromised an admin account cannot re-enable password login to give themselves a persistent way in. Recovery needs server access: set POZNOTE_OIDC_DISABLE_NORMAL_LOGIN=false in .env, restart the container, and sign in with a local password. Before enabling SSO-only, make sure at least one admin account has an explicit password set (Settings > Admin Tools > Users), otherwise flipping the flag back will not help. Note that an admin profile auto-provisioned by OIDC has no password until one is set.

Breaking change: previous OIDC settings in .env are no longer read, except POZNOTE_OIDC_CLIENT_ID, POZNOTE_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET, and POZNOTE_OIDC_DISABLE_NORMAL_LOGIN. After upgrading, re-enter the other OIDC settings from the admin page.

Access Control Example (Groups + Auto-Provision)

From the OIDC admin page, configure:

Groups claim: groups
Allowed groups: poznote
Auto-create users: enabled

If auto-provisioning is enabled, Poznote generates a username from the OIDC claims (preferred_username, nickname, email local part, name, then sub) and stores the OIDC subject on the created profile.

Note types

Poznote supports two primary note formats, each tailored for different workflows.

HTML Notes

Editor: Direct WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing.
Storage: Saved as .html files in the user data directory. Since they are standard HTML, they can be opened directly in any web browser.
Exclusive Features:
- Rich Formatting: Native support for text colors, highlighting, and standard HTML elements.
- Interactive UI: Direct manipulation of elements in the editor.

Markdown Notes

Editor: Markdown syntax editor with real-time preview.
Storage: Saved as .md files in the user data directory.
Exclusive Features:
- Mermaid Diagrams: Native support for generating diagrams (flowcharts, sequence, etc.) via ```mermaid code blocks.
- Math Equations: Robust LaTeX support for mathematical formulas using $ inline $ and $$ block $$ syntax.
- Portability: Standard Markdown format compatible with any external editor or static site generator.

Task Lists

Usage: Manage tasks and projects with interactive checklists.
Workflow: Track progress with checkboxes that can be toggled directly in the editor or the notes list. A progress bar shows the completion of each list.
Task Options: Each task can have a due date with an optional time, a reminder notification that fires at the due time, and an important flag, and can be moved to another list.
Tasks Page: A dedicated Tasks page, accessible from the dashboard, gathers every task from all your task lists in one place, with status filters (to do, important, overdue, with due date, completed), a text filter, and a quick "Add task" button.
Public Collaboration: Task lists can be shared via a public URL. If edit permissions are granted, external collaborators can check items off the list without needing a Poznote account.

Shortcuts

Functionality: Create a reference to an existing note in another location.
Use Case: Allows a note to be referenced in two different places simultaneously. For example, a note can live in a classification folder while its shortcut appears on a Kanban board for active tracking.

Templates

Functionality: Create pre-filled notes to standardize your documentation.
Usage: Notes marked as templates can be duplicated to create new notes with the same structure, tags, and content, saving time on repetitive tasks.

Daily Notes (Diary)

Usage: Write one note per day, journal-style, from a dedicated Diary board.
Workflow: The "Today's entry" button opens today's note, creating it if needed, titled with the current date and stored automatically in a Diary/YYYY/MM folder structure.
Board View: Entries are displayed as cards grouped by month, newest first, with a filter to quickly find past entries.
Format: New entries are created as HTML or Markdown notes, depending on the "Diary entry format" setting under Settings > Display.

Personalization

Poznote offers several built-in personalization options directly from the application, without requiring any configuration file changes.

Display Settings

Under Settings > Display, you can configure:

Theme: switch between light and dark mode
Font size: adjust text size for notes, sidebar, and code blocks
Note sorting: choose how notes are ordered in the list
Task list insert order: control where new tasks are inserted
Show creation date: toggle the creation date badge on notes
Show folder note counts: display the number of notes in each folder
Show notes after folders: list notes without folders below the folder list
Index icon scaling: resize icons in the note index
Note content width: control the max width of the note editor area
Code block word wrap: enable or disable word wrap in code blocks

Workspace Background Image

You can set a background image per workspace — upload a custom image and adjust its opacity from the Display settings to give each workspace its own visual identity.

Element Visibility

Poznote allows you to declutter the interface by hiding elements you don't use.

Configure it in Settings > Appearance > UI Customization.

Granular Control: Toggle visibility for home cards, toolbar actions, slash menu items, and more.
Per-User: Each user can have their own unique interface layout.
Searchable: Easily find the element you want to hide using the filter in the configuration modal.

Custom CSS Overrides

If you want to adjust fonts, spacing, or other visual details beyond the built-in options, you can upload an extra stylesheet that is applied to every HTML page for all users.

Configure it in Settings > Appearance > Custom CSS.

Notes:

Click Upload CSS file to select a .css file from your computer.
The file is uploaded and stored in data/css/ (your Docker volume), so it survives image updates.
Click Remove to delete the file and disable the custom stylesheet.
Poznote appends a cache-busting v= parameter automatically.
The stylesheet is injected near the end of <head>, so it can override the default application styles.
Only administrators can upload or remove the custom CSS file.

Multi-users

Not to be confused with the Multiple Instances feature.

Poznote features a multi-user architecture with isolated data spaces for each profile while still allowing controlled collaboration on the same instance.

Data isolation: Each profile has its own notes, workspaces, tags, folders, attachments, and user settings.
Per-profile authentication: Users sign in with their own username or email address and password. Until a password is changed in the UI, built-in defaults are used (admin for administrators, user for standard users).
User management: Administrators can create, disable, and manage profiles from Settings > Admin Tools > Users.
Delegated account access: Administrators can grant one user access to another user's account. When a user can open multiple accounts, Poznote asks which account to use after login and clearly indicates when the session is acting as another user.
Owner/admin safeguards: Opening another user's account does not transfer ownership. Sensitive actions such as password changes, backup/restore, Git Sync configuration, and global admin settings remain restricted to the appropriate owner or administrator.
Read-only sharing: Notes, folders, and entire workspaces can be shared in Read-only mode with other users of the same instance or publicly through dedicated links.
Single-editor locking: When several users can access the same note, Poznote allows only one active editor at a time. Other users can still open the note in read-only mode, see who currently holds the lock, and take over editing after reopening the note once the lock is released or expires.
Tenant isolation (SaaS mode): Administrators can block selected capabilities for non-admin users, such as discovering the other accounts of the instance and sharing with them, or registering personal webhooks. Administrators are never affected. Leave everything unchecked for a family or team instance.

Architecture & Structure

Poznote uses a master database (data/master.db) for shared coordination data, and separate per-user databases and files for actual note content.

data/
├── master.db                    # Profiles, global settings, shared links, account access, edit locks
└── users/
    ├── 1/                       # User ID 1 (default admin)
    │   ├── database/poznote.db  # User's notes database
    │   ├── entries/             # User's note files (HTML/MD)
    │   └── attachments/         # User's attachments
    ├── 2/                       # User ID 2
    └── ...

Activity Log

Poznote keeps a history of the sensitive operations performed on the instance, so administrators can see what happened, when, and by whom. It is available from Settings > Admin Tools > Activity log and is restricted to administrators.

Each entry records the date and time, the account concerned, the action, and a short summary such as the name of the deleted workspace or the number of notes removed. Hover the help icon at the top of the page for the full list of recorded operations, which covers:

Sessions: logins and logouts.
Accounts: profile changes (username, email, name), quota changes, activation and deactivation, admin role granted or revoked, account deletion, and delegated account access granted or revoked.
Workspaces: creation, deletion, sharing and unsharing.
Data: backup creation and restore, trash emptying, and permanent note deletion.

Routine activity is deliberately left out: writing or moving a note to the trash is not recorded, and neither are API calls authenticated on each request, which would otherwise turn the log into a traffic dump.

The log records that an operation happened, not the data it touched. Note content is never written to it, and neither are tags, folders, or attachments. A deletion entry identifies the note by its title and workspace so the event can be recognised, nothing more.

No password is ever written to the log, in any form. Where a password is relevant, for example on a protected shared workspace, only the fact that one is set is recorded.

Entries are kept for 90 days by default. The retention period can be changed to 30, 90 or 365 days, or set to unlimited, and the log can be cleared manually from the same page.

Webhooks

Poznote can notify external services when something happens on the instance, by sending outgoing webhooks (HTTP POST requests with a JSON payload) to the endpoints you register. This makes it easy to plug Poznote into automation tools such as n8n, Zapier, or your own scripts. Poznote only emits webhooks: what the receiving endpoint does with them (send an email, trigger a workflow, ...) is up to you.

There are two levels of webhooks:

Admin Webhooks (Settings > Admin Tools > Admin Webhooks, administrators only): instance events such as user.created, user.updated, user.activated, user.deactivated, user.deleted, settings.language_changed, signup.cap_reached, quota.notes_reached, and quota.storage_reached.
User Webhooks (Settings > User Webhooks): each account can register its own endpoints for events about its own content: note.created, note.shared, and reminder events. These events are only ever delivered to the endpoints registered by the account that produced them, never to another user's.

Deliveries are JSON POST requests signed with HMAC-SHA256 when the webhook has a secret (same scheme as GitHub webhooks). Note content is never sent, payloads carry only metadata, and reminder events come in three variants so you choose how much data leaves the instance.

For the complete reference, covering every event, the exact payload fields (data.user, data.note, ...), signature verification with code examples, delivery guarantees, and the Instance URL configuration for direct note links, see the Webhooks documentation.

Git Synchronization

Poznote supports automatic and manual synchronization with GitHub or Forgejo. Each user configures their own repository independently. There is no shared global repository.

How to configure Git Sync

Step 1 — Enable the feature (admin, in Settings > Advanced Settings)

Toggle Git Sync to enabled in the Advanced Settings section of the Settings page. This enables Git Sync globally and makes the user-level Git Sync card/configuration available from Settings.

Step 2 — Each user configures their own repo (Settings > Git Sync)

Field	Description
Provider	`GitHub` or `Forgejo`
API Base URL	GitHub: auto-filled (read-only). Forgejo: your instance URL, e.g. `https://forgejo.example.com/api/v1`
Access Token	GitHub PAT (`ghp_...`) or Forgejo token (Settings > Applications)
Repository	`owner/repo` format
Branch	Default: `main`
Author Name / Email	Used for commit metadata

🔒 Access tokens are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM. An encryption key is automatically generated and stored in data/.app_secret.

Automatic sync

When enabled by the user, Poznote will automatically:

Pull on login
Push on every note create, update, or delete

Manual push/pull is also available from the Dashboard via the Push and Pull cards.

S3 Attachment Storage

By default, note attachments are stored on the local disk. Administrators can instead store them in an S3-compatible object storage (AWS S3, MinIO, Garage, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, ...). The setting applies to all users of the instance.

How to configure S3 storage

Configure it in Settings > S3 Attachments (administrators only).

Configuration: Endpoint URL, region, bucket, access key, secret key, and path-style addressing, with a built-in connection test.
Migration: Move existing attachment files between the local disk and the bucket, in both directions and for every user. Migration runs in batches and can be safely interrupted and resumed.
Privacy: Attachments are stored under attachments/{user id}/ in the bucket and are always served through Poznote, so the bucket can stay private.
Quotas: A per-user S3 storage quota can be set, and S3 usage appears in the admin storage statistics.
Backups: Zip exports include S3 attachments by default (fetched from the bucket on the fly). An option in the Backup window lets you leave them out for a lighter archive.

Restoring a backup that was made without its S3 attachments is refused while S3 storage is active, because a full restore replaces the bucket content. To restore it anyway, rebuild a complete archive first:

Download the Attachments Export from the Backup window: it contains every attachment of your account in a files/ folder.
Unzip the backup, copy the files from files/ into the backup's attachments/ folder, and zip it again. Careful when re-zipping: select the backup's contents (database/, entries/, attachments/, ...) and compress that selection, not the folder containing them. The folders must sit at the root of the zip, otherwise the restore reports that database/poznote_backup.sql is missing.
Restore the rebuilt zip normally.

Git Sync ignores attachments while S3 storage is enabled.

S3 Backups

Administrators can send complete backup archives (one ZIP per user, identical to the Complete Backup download) to an S3-compatible bucket, manually or automatically on a schedule. The configuration is independent from the S3 Attachment Storage one, so backups can target a different bucket or provider.

How to configure S3 backups

Configure it in Settings > S3 Backups (administrators only).

Master switch: A toggle at the top of the page enables or disables the whole feature. When disabled, automatic backups stop and the S3 backup and restore sections disappear for every user (the self-service actions are refused server-side too).
Configuration: Endpoint URL, region, bucket, access key, secret key, and path-style addressing, with a built-in connection test.
User selection: Checkboxes choose which users are covered by the backups. Everyone is checked by default, and while everyone is checked, new accounts are included automatically.
Manual backups: A "Back up now" button uploads a fresh archive for each selected user, one user at a time, with per-user progress. It works as soon as the connection is configured, even when automatic backups are off.
Automatic backups: When enabled, a background worker backs up the selected users on the chosen frequency (daily, weekly, or monthly). The first run happens within a few minutes of enabling, the next ones after the chosen interval.
Retention: Only the most recent N archives are kept per user, older ones are deleted from the bucket after each backup (0 keeps everything).
Browsing: The page lists the archives currently in the bucket, with download and delete actions.
Restore: Archives are stored under backups/{user id}/ in the bucket and can be restored with the standard Restore / Import page.
Self-service: Once the bucket is configured, every user gets an "S3 Backups" section on their Backup / Export page to upload a fresh archive of their own account, and to download or delete their existing archives. A "Restore from S3" section on the Restore / Import page restores their account directly from one of those archives.
Tenant isolation: Two options ("S3 backups on the Backup page" and "S3 restore on the Restore page") disable these self-service sections for non-admin users. They are enforced server-side, so the blocked actions are refused even when called directly.

When attachments are stored in S3 (S3 Attachment Storage), they are included in the archives by default, fetched from the bucket on the fly. An option lets you leave them out of the backups for lighter archives and faster runs.

Backup / Export

Poznote includes built-in Backup / Export functionality accessible through Settings.

Complete Backup to Poznote zip

Single ZIP containing database, all notes, and attachments for all workspaces:

Includes an index.html at the root for offline browsing
Notes are organized by workspace and folder
Attachments are accessible via clickable links

Per-User vs Complete Backups

Poznote provides flexible backup options:

Via Web Interface (Settings > Backup/Export):

All users can backup and restore their own profile
Admins can select which user profile to backup or restore
Backups contain the user's database, notes, and attachments

Via API/Script (Administrators only):

Automated backups using the backup-poznote.sh script
Programmatic access via REST API v1
Requires admin credentials

Backup Scopes:

Per-User Backups: Created from Settings or via API. Contains only the data belonging to a specific user (their database, notes, and attachments).
Complete System Backup: Created manually by backing up the entire /data directory. This is the only way to backup the master configuration and all users' data at once.

# Complete system backup via CLI
tar -czvf poznote-full-backup.tar.gz data/

Export Individual Notes

Export individual notes using the Export button in the note toolbar:

HTML notes: Export to HTML or PDF format
Markdown notes: Export to HTML, Markdown or PDF format

Automated Backups with Bash Script

For automated scheduled backups via API, you can use the included backup-poznote.sh script.

IMPORTANT: Only administrators can create backups via the API. Use the current password of the admin profile you authenticate with. On a fresh installation, that is the default admin password (admin) until it is changed in Poznote. Once a custom password is set, that custom password is required for API calls.

Script location: backup-poznote.sh in the tools folder of the Poznote repository

Administrator Usage:

Admins can backup any user profile - no need to know user IDs, just the username:

# Backup your own profile
bash backup-poznote.sh 'https://poznote.example.com' 'admin' 'admin_password' 'admin' '/backups' '30'

# Backup another user's profile (Nina)
bash backup-poznote.sh 'https://poznote.example.com' 'admin' 'admin_password' 'Nina' '/backups' '30'

Usage:

bash backup-poznote.sh '<poznote_url>' '<admin_username>' '<admin_password>' '<target_username>' '<backup_directory>' '<retention_count>'

Example with crontab (admin backing up Nina):

# Add to crontab for automated backups twice daily
0 0,12 * * * bash /root/backup-poznote.sh 'https://poznote.example.com' 'admin' 'admin_password' 'Nina' '/root/backups' '30'

Parameters explained:

'https://poznote.example.com' - Your Poznote instance URL
'admin' - Admin username for authentication (must be an admin)
'admin_password' - Current admin password for the API profile (default admin until changed, then the custom password)
'Nina' - Target username to backup
'/root/backups' - Parent directory where backups will be stored (creates backups-poznote-<username> folder)
'30' - Number of backups to keep (older ones are automatically deleted)

How the backup process works:

The script authenticates with admin credentials
Automatically looks up the user ID from the username
Creates a backup via the API
Calls the Poznote REST API v1 (POST /api/v1/backups with X-User-ID header)
Downloads the backup ZIP locally to backups-poznote-<username>/
Automatically manages retention (keeps only the specified number of recent backups)

Note: Each user's backups are stored in separate folders (backups-poznote-Nina, backups-poznote-Tim, etc.)

Restore / Import

Poznote provides flexible restoration options through the web interface (Settings > Restore/Import) or programmatically via the REST API for administrators. Users can restore their own profile data from a full ZIP backup or import individual files, while administrators can manage restorations across the entire system.

Complete Restore from Poznote zip backup

Upload the complete backup ZIP to restore everything:

Replaces database, restores all notes, and attachments
Works for all workspaces at once

Import Individual files

Import one or more HTML, Markdown or text notes directly:

Support .html, .md, .markdown or .txt files types
Up to 50 files can be selected at once, configurable in Settings > Advanced Settings > Import Limits

Import ZIP file

Import a ZIP archive containing multiple notes:

Support .html, .md, .markdown or .txt files types
ZIP archives can contain up to 300 files, configurable in Settings > Advanced Settings > Import Limits
When importing a ZIP archive, Poznote automatically detects and recreates the folder structure

Import Obsidian Notes

Import a ZIP archive containing multiple notes from Obsidian:

ZIP archives can contain up to 300 files, configurable in Settings > Advanced Settings > Import Limits
Poznote automatically detects and recreates the folder structure
Poznote automatically detects existing tags to create
Poznote automatically imports images if they are at the zip file root

Markdown Front Matter Support

Markdown files can include YAML front matter to specify note metadata. The following keys are supported:

title — Override the note title (default: filename without extension)
folder — Override the target folder selection (folder must exist in the workspace)
tags — Array of tags to apply to the note. Supports both inline [tag1, tag2] and multi-line syntax
favorite — Mark note as favorite (true/false or 1/0)
created — Set custom creation date (format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)
updated — Set custom update date (format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)

Example with inline array syntax:

---
title: My Important Note
folder: Projects
tags: [important, work]
favorite: true
created: 2024-01-15 10:30:00
updated: 2024-01-20 15:45:00
---

Example with multi-line syntax:

---
title: My Important Note
folder: Projects
tags:
  - important
  - work
favorite: true
created: 2024-01-15 10:30:00
updated: 2024-01-20 15:45:00
---

Offline View

The 📦 Complete Backup creates a standalone offline version of your notes. Simply extract the ZIP and open index.html in any web browser. This allows you to read your notes offline, but without the full Poznote functionality, it's a read-only export.

Multiple Instances

Not to be confused with the Multi-users feature.

You can run multiple isolated Poznote instances on the same server. Each instance has its own data, port, and credentials.

Perfect for:

Hosting for different users on the same server, each with their own separate instance and account
Testing new features without affecting your production instance

Simply repeat the installation steps in different directories with different ports.

Example: Tom and Alice instances on the same server

Server: my-server.com
├── Poznote-Tom
│   ├── Port: 8040
│   ├── URL: http://my-server.com:8040
│   ├── Container: poznote-tom-webserver-1
│   └── Data: ./poznote-tom/data/
│
└── Poznote-Alice
  ├── Port: YOUR_POZNOTE_API_PORT
  ├── URL: http://my-server.com:YOUR_POZNOTE_API_PORT
    ├── Container: poznote-alice-webserver-1
    └── Data: ./poznote-alice/data/

AI Assistant

Poznote includes an integrated AI chat that connects to any OpenAI-compatible server, a local Ollama or LM Studio instance, or a cloud provider like Anthropic (Claude) or OpenAI. Once configured, an AI button appears in the dashboard toolbar and opens the chat panel right there.

The assistant is global, MCP-style: it has tools to search and read all your notes, and uses them on its own to answer questions, like "what do my notes say about X?", cross-note summaries, finding that note you half remember. When you explicitly ask for it, it can also create a note, rename one, or rewrite its content (there is deliberately no delete tool). Answers are streamed and rendered as Markdown.

To enable it, go to Settings → Admin Tools → AI Assistant (administrator only), pick a provider and use Test connection to verify the server and choose a model. The configuration applies to the whole instance: once enabled by the administrator, every user profile gets the chat.

For the full configuration guide, covering providers, choosing a model, and how to connect a local Ollama/LM Studio server from the Poznote container (finding the right URL, OLLAMA_HOST, Docker networking), see the AI Assistant documentation.

The AI server is called from the Poznote server, never from your browser. With a local Ollama instance, your notes and conversations never leave your machine. To let an external AI assistant (VS Code Copilot, Claude CLI...) manage your notes instead, see the MCP Server below.

MCP Server

Poznote includes a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables AI assistants like GitHub Copilot to interact with your notes using natural language. For example:

"Create a new note titled 'Meeting Notes' with the content..."
"Search for notes about 'Docker'"
"List all notes in my Poznote workspace"
"Update note 42 with new information"

For setup and usage instructions, see the MCP Server documentation.

The MCP server uses default settings (port 8045, debug off). To override:

POZNOTE_MCP_PORT=9000 POZNOTE_DEBUG=true docker compose up -d --force-recreate mcp-server

These are container/runtime overrides, not Poznote UI settings. You can pass them inline as shown above or place them in .env before recreating the mcp-server container.

Only the exact lowercase values true and false are recognized for POZNOTE_DEBUG. After changing settings, recreate the container; a simple restart does not reload environment variables.

Chrome Extension

The Poznote URL Saver is a browser extension that allows you to quickly save the URL or even a full-page screenshot of the current page to your Poznote instance with a single click.

Install the extension directly from the Chrome Web Store → Install extension

Share to Poznote on Android

On Android, Poznote appears in the system Share menu once the PWA is installed. Share a page from Chrome (or a link/text from any app), pick Poznote, and a new note is created with the page title and a clickable link — no extension needed.

To use it:

Open your Poznote instance in Chrome on Android and install it as an app (menu → Add to Home screen → Install).
In any app, tap Share, then choose Poznote.

If Poznote does not appear in the share menu right away, make sure the app is installed (not just a bookmark). If you installed the PWA before this feature was released, Chrome picks up the new capability automatically after a few days, or immediately if you reinstall the app.

API Documentation

Poznote provides a comprehensive RESTful API v1 for programmatic access to notes, folders, workspaces, tags, attachments, backups, settings, and more.

For the complete API reference with all endpoints, parameters, and curl examples, see the REST API Documentation.

Quick Start

# List all notes for user ID 1
curl -u 'username:password' -H "X-User-ID: 1" \
  http://YOUR_SERVER/api/v1/notes

# Create a note
curl -X POST -u 'username:password' -H "X-User-ID: 1" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"heading": "My Note", "content": "Hello!", "type": "markdown"}' \
  http://YOUR_SERVER/api/v1/notes

Interactive Documentation (Swagger)

Access the Swagger UI directly from Poznote at Settings > API Documentation to browse all endpoints, view request/response schemas, and test API calls interactively.

Tech Stack

Poznote prioritizes simplicity and portability - no complex frameworks, no heavy dependencies. Just straightforward, reliable web technologies that ensure your notes remain accessible and under your control.

Privacy-First Architecture: Poznote operates entirely locally with no external connections required for functionality. All libraries (Excalidraw, Mermaid, KaTeX) are bundled and served from your own instance. The only outbound connection is a daily update check.

If you are interested in the tech stack on which Poznote is built, have a look here.

Backend

PHP 8.x - Server-side scripting language
SQLite 3 - Lightweight, file-based relational database

Frontend

HTML5 - Markup and structure
CSS3 - Styling and responsive design
JavaScript (Vanilla) - Interactive features and dynamic content
React + Vite - Build toolchain for Excalidraw component (bundled as IIFE)
AJAX - Asynchronous data loading

Libraries

CodeMirror 6 - Extensible code and text editor for the Markdown editing experience
Excalidraw - Virtual whiteboard for sketching diagrams and drawings
Mermaid - Client-side JavaScript library for diagram and flowchart generation from text
KaTeX - Client-side JavaScript library for fast math typesetting and rendering mathematical equations
Sortable.js - JavaScript library for drag-and-drop sorting
highlight.js - Syntax highlighting for code blocks
Swagger UI - Interactive API documentation and testing interface

Storage

HTML/Markdown files - Notes are stored as plain HTML or Markdown files in the filesystem
SQLite database - Metadata, tags, relationships, and user data
File attachments - Stored on the local filesystem, or optionally in an S3-compatible object storage

Infrastructure

Nginx + PHP-FPM - High-performance web server with FastCGI Process Manager
Alpine Linux - Secure, lightweight base image
Docker - Containerization for easy deployment and portability
Python 3.12 (Alpine) - MCP server runtime with httpx, uvicorn, fastmcp, and mcp libraries for AI assistant integration

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.github		.github
docker		docker
docs		docs
excalidraw-build		excalidraw-build
images		images
markdown-editor-build		markdown-editor-build
mcp-server		mcp-server
poznote-url-saver		poznote-url-saver
src		src
tools		tools
.dockerignore		.dockerignore
.env.template		.env.template
.gitignore		.gitignore
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
LICENCE		LICENCE
README.md		README.md
docker-compose-dev.yml		docker-compose-dev.yml
docker-compose.rootless.yml		docker-compose.rootless.yml
docker-compose.yml		docker-compose.yml
init.sh		init.sh

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Your note-taking and documentation platform.

Features

Demo

They talk about Poznote

Table of content

Install

Step 1: Prerequisite

Step 2: Deploy Poznote

Step 1: Prerequisite

Step 2: Install Poznote

Step 1: Prerequisite

Step 2: Deploy Poznote

Step 1: Prerequisite

Step 2: Deploy Poznote

Step 1: Prerequisite

Step 2: Deploy Poznote

Step 1: Prerequisite

Step 2: Deploy Poznote

Access

Change Settings

Modify System Settings (.env)

Update application

Authentication

Default account

Password management

Default passwords

How it works

Configuration

Access Control Example (Groups + Auto-Provision)

Note types

Personalization

Multi-users

Architecture & Structure

Activity Log

Webhooks

Git Synchronization

S3 Attachment Storage

S3 Backups

Backup / Export

Per-User vs Complete Backups

Restore / Import

Offline View

Multiple Instances

Example: Tom and Alice instances on the same server

AI Assistant

MCP Server

Chrome Extension

Share to Poznote on Android

API Documentation

Quick Start

Interactive Documentation (Swagger)

Tech Stack

Backend

Frontend

Libraries

Storage

Infrastructure

About

Topics

Resources

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases

Sponsor this project

Packages

Used by

Contributors

Languages

Modify System Settings (`.env`)