3d ago

Searchable db/Knowledge Management Software

I'm looking for a knowledge management system, or at least I think I am. Scrolling around in a notepad ++ of more than 300k lines gets to be a chore. Yeah, I document just about everything I do. They say that we never really forget anything, and that it's our faulty recall system. Well, my recall system is shit. While Notepad++ does allow searching, I guess I'm looking for something a bit more elegant.

I'm looking for something I can dump my notes into a database and be able to search them for a particular command or phrase. I do use ByteStash for all my compose files, but ByteStash doesn't let me search for commands, or command strings like I keep in my notes, or at least I haven't been able to get ByteStash to do that. It's pretty jammy for compose files tho.

Am I asking for too much? Perhaps someone uses something like this for their notes and such or even something entirely different for notes and documentation.

Kind Regards

ETA: Thank you all for your recommendations. I gave each a serious look. Some of the ones like emacs and logseq I downloaded the windows binary to give them a go. So, the winner is Obsidian. It just seems to mesh with my flow. I found a community plugin that encrypts my notes, and I really like that. I also like the fact that you can specify how long you want Obsidian to remember the encryption password, and then revert back to encrypted. Very handy option with the plugin.

Thanks again.

39 comments

There are so many options. If you're looking for a free and open source wiki-style setup, a couple I haven't seen mentioned in the thread yet are Zim Desktop Wiki and Feather wiki (hmm looks like their web certificate is expired at the moment)

Look into obsidian, especially with some community plugins
- I recently installed the "Dataview" plug-in, and it's amazing. You can create documents or sections by querying data from other documents, effectively using Obsidian as a database.
  
  Yes and there is a heatmap plugin that allows creating heatmaps from daily notes with tags.
  
  That sounds very appealing. I'll check it out.

They've both been mentioned multiple times already, but I think you need to try out both Logseq and Obsidian and pick whichever you like better. They are both very similar, but take slightly different approaches. There are also plugins for each to make them behave more like the other.
I personally use Logseq because it's open source and I like the daily journal and outlining features. I used and enjoy obsidian, too, and it has plugins to improve journals and outlining.
- I cannot stand obsidian because seeing the empty giant box to fill just stresses me out.
  So I use logseq instead. Outlining is way more enjoyable because of the bullet points.

Have a look at Silverbullet, selfhosting is fairly easy, using it on one device (offline) as well. Watch the videos, it’s quite powerful.
- Another vote for Silverbullet, it allows you to write your code blocks in a certain manner that you can query them, so it suits very well the use case.
- Damn. Another rabbit hole to dive into. Thanks... I guess. :)
  The lua queries look promising.

So you're looking for a self-hosted note taking system? Because there are a lot of them. Probably more than any other category. Can you be more specific about the features you're looking for?
- Can you be more specific about the features you’re looking for?
  Well, so far, of those I've tried that were recommended in this thread, something along the lines of what I posted further down: https://lemmy.world/post/30511835/17370680. I like the way I can search Obsidian and it gives me the left hand side with all the choices, and highlights the selected choice. Sometimes I can only remember a part or work I'm searching for, so having a multitude of choices ready for me to choose, is very nice. I haven't tried all the recommendations here, and I haven't settled on Obsidian, but so far it's checking a lot of boxes.

There is always emacs with org-roam.
Org-roam is kind of a wiki, you write your notes with all the formatting power of an org-file and you can link to other notes you have written.
Of course everything is searchable, with tags, without tags, however you want.
BUT: it takes time to get used to the shortcuts, and it takes a lot of time to configure everything how you like it.
The result is worth it.
Edit: I use Nextcloud to sync my notes accross my devices. On the smartphone there seems to be the App OrgNote available, but I haven't checked it out, as I don't use my smartphone that much.
- I downloaded the windows version of emacs and I'll give it a go. I figured, I could test it out locally and if it checks out, I could move it to the server. It's easier to uninstall from windows as I just fire up Revo and let it eat. Thanks for the suggestion.

Nice collection.
Have you met logseq? Maybe using multiple files? folders?
- LogSeq is nice.
  For this who don't know, it's well designed, in that it doesn't add bloat and obfuscation like a DB would; it keeps everything in a filesystem structure in markdown files. What's really nice is that this makes it something you can use with a plain editor, or with the application, or with the app on mobile; the app(s) add a lot of convenience functionality to the basic storage design.
  It's a well-thought-out system, and I appreciate how clean it is, and how independent of the application the data is. I haven't looked at the code base, but I have a lot of respect for the developer must based on the design & architecture decisions.
  
  LoqSeq looks nice, but I do hate the part that everything is a bulletpoint :/ And that's their core feature !
  That's not futur proof IMO. If logSeq disappeared, your notes become useless :/. Or maybe I did misunderstood something on how it works?
- I have not met logseq, tho I am currently reading up on it. There's apparently a docker container for it as well along with a plethora of plugins to extend it's functions. I'm down with trying it. I will read some more. Thanks very much for the recommendation.
  
  Try it, it's good. There's a mobile app, for Android, at least. It's free; it only takes a little time investment, so low barrier for entry.

I use Joplin + nginx WebDAV, works for me and was really simple to setup

I have a feeling you're looking for something different, but: mine is a big todo.txt document that I open with fzf. I just add lines to it and tack on @keywords.
If your needs are more hierarchical and structured, I'd still try to stick with a plain-text and fuzzy-search based solution, and split stuff up into different files.
IMHO, you're starting from a good place (plain text files). Maybe you just need a little tooling for searching and keyword filtering.

@irmadlad If you like to tinker(or even if you don't), you can try out trillium. It is kinda like Obsidian but completely #foss.
While the original Repo is not maintained anymore, there is a very active community fork called TriliumNext
- I deployed it on the test server, but it was getting kind of late and this old man needs his night meds accompanied by a bowl....for a nightly muse with some free form jazz.. :) I will get into it on the morrow, and let you know. I do appreciate your input.

Obsidian is a way you could do this sort of thing. Uses markdown language to generate new pages and articles. Comparable to a much lighter weight OneNote with extensibility. Introduced by a GenX to me to my pleasant surprise.
Personally free, not open source, can be integrated into git easily. Probably some legwork to transition your existing notes in but likely a improvement over notepad++. Besides the executable the storage of notes is all plaintext with markdown language.
- So far, I really like how Obsidian searches and gives you a list in the left hand side, and highlights the chosen result. That's very nice. I haven't settled on Obsidian yet. Still need to try out the rest of the recommendations from the kind folks here, however it's definitely in the running.
  Thanks

A wiki?
- Wikimedia is free and open source. You'll have your own wikipedia to edit and search as you please
  I've used it for years. Good stuff
  https://hub.docker.com/_/mediawiki/
  
  I'm using Wiki.js but yeah, mediawiki works too. So does DocuWiki. Depends on the features you'd need.
- I had previously thought about a wiki or as one person suggested a 'notes blog'. Still toying with all the options.

This isn't exactly what you want. But I use a static site generator, with a fulltext search engine (that operates entirely locally!), called quarto. (although there are other options).
Although I call it a "blog", it really is more of a personal data dump for me, where I put all my notes down and also record all my processes as I work through projects. Whenever I am redoing something I know I did in an old project, or something I saved here (but disguised as a blogpost), I can just search for it.
Here is my site: https://moonpiedumplings.github.io/ . You can try search at the top right (requires javascript).
- Although I call it a “blog”,
  You know, I did have an idea about just such a thing, tho it would be private. I gave your 'blog' a bookmark and will definitely check quarto
  
  There are a few reasons why I really like it being public, even though it means I have to be careful not to share sensitive stuff.
  It creates a portfolio for me (I'm an undergrad) because I document my projects on there
  When asking for help with certain complex things, it's really easy to simply link to my blog, since I document almost everything I've tried and why it did or didn't work. Here's a recent example
  I can share cool stuff I have saved, like my lists of learning resources or lists of software, with others easily.

Siyuan is prob the easiest based on what you're looking for.

Check out Cherrytree. I use it for keeping track of literally everything in my life. It's hierarchical and searchable and you can insert files as well as hyperlink to external files, URLS and other nodes internally. You can export the database in various formats and there is also the option to have it encrypted. You can theme it in the preferences to make it look nicer too (the default is a bit retro-looking). It's free and open source and AFAIK you can open your database in other applications, so you're not locked into it.
If you want to sync it across devices just use Syncthing or whatever file sync app you're selfhosting.
I highly recommend it! Probably the most important application I have on my computer.
- Took a look at the git. I've got it on the list.
  'presh

Why note use something like Notesnook or Obsidian?

39 comments