Our take
Activeregular commits and releases- Activity
- 83
- Community
- 74
- Issues
- 64
- Pull requests
- 47
+62 stars in the last 30 days
- Releases more often than 81% of the projects we track
- Merges more pull requests than 79% of the projects we track
- More contributors than 77% of the projects we track
- Slower to merge pull requests than 83% of the projects we track
Docs is an actively maintained, MIT-licensed collaborative editor with a broad contributor base and regular releases, suited to teams prepared to operate a self-hosted web application.
Good fit if
- You need real-time collaborative editing and structured documents in a self-hosted web app.
- Your organization values data ownership and wants to connect Docs to other services through its APIs.
- You want an MIT-licensed base and can build without the optional packages that have different license terms.
Look elsewhere if
- You need a hosted service and do not want to deploy or operate the application.
- Your required workflow depends on BlockNote XL features but your licensing policy rules out GPL packages.
- You need a simple standalone editor rather than a collaborative knowledge-management application.
All health signals
| Last commit | 2026-10-27 (today) |
|---|---|
| Commits, last 90 days | 100+ |
| Releases, last 12 months | 33 (latest v6.0.4, 2026-10-26) |
| Contributors | 98 (top contributor: 50% of commits) |
| Issues closed, last 90 days | 20+ (typically closed in 5 days) |
| Pull requests merged, last 90 days | 64 (typically merged in 3 days) |
| Project age | 2 years |
Checked on 2026-10-28 with the GitHub API.
Project history
Daily GitHub snapshots since Oct 7, 2026. History covers stars and forks; health signals are not tracked historically.
Stars
16,989Forks
701Change since Nov 13, 2026: +2 stars·+2 forks
Overview
La Suite Docs is a web-based collaborative text editor built on BlockNote.js and Yjs, with Django and React in its stack. It helps teams turn shared notes into structured, searchable knowledge through live collaboration, document hierarchies, and subpages.
The project is aimed at public organizations, companies, and open communities that want an alternative to hosted document and knowledge tools while retaining data ownership. It can be self-hosted with Docker Compose or Kubernetes.
Key Features
- Real-time editing with live cursors and collaborator presence.
- Rich-text and Markdown editing, with slash commands and a block-based editor.
- Documents organized into subpages and hierarchies, with searchable content.
- Comments, sharing, and granular access control.
- Import from DOCX and Markdown, and export to DOCX, ODT, and PDF.
- Optional AI writing tools, configurable to use an AI provider through an API key and URL.
- Presentation mode with full-screen display, keyboard navigation, and PDF export.
- Resource-server and server-to-server APIs for integrations, including sharing meeting transcripts from Meet.
Use Cases
- Public-sector teams can collaboratively draft and organize internal guidance while hosting the service themselves.
- Companies can maintain a shared knowledge base with nested pages and access controls.
- Open communities can write documentation together and share selected documents.
- Teams using Meet can send meeting transcripts into Docs and grant access to the requesting user.
What you need
Detected in the repository
- Python (main language on GitHub)
- A Dockerfile, so it can run in a container; a Compose file sets up the related services
- Automated checks on GitHub Actions
License in plain words
MITpermissive
- Commercial use: yes
- Modify and redistribute: yes
- You must keep: the copyright and license notice
- Share your changes: no
A summary, not legal advice: the LICENSE file is what applies.
Getting Started
For local development, the README recommends Docker, Docker Compose, and GNU Make:
make bootstrap FLUSH_ARGS='--no-input'
make run
Then open https://localhost:3000. For deployment, follow the installation guide; see the README for details.
Alternatives
- colanode: Colanode combines collaborative pages with chat, databases, and file sharing, while Docs focuses on structured document editing and knowledge sharing.
- cryptpad: CryptPad is a broader collaboration suite that encrypts data in the browser, while Docs centers on structured knowledge and team-owned data.
- BookStack: BookStack organizes knowledge into browsable books, chapters, and pages, while Docs emphasizes real-time collaborative editing.
| Project | Language | License | Stars | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| docs | Python | MIT | 17k | Active |
| colanode | TypeScript | Apache-2.0 | 5.2k | Quiet |
| cryptpad | JavaScript | AGPL-3.0 | 8k | Active |
| BookStack | PHP | MIT | 19.1k | Active |
Considerations
Self-hosting means planning for deployment and operation; the project documents Kubernetes and Docker Compose options, as well as community methods. The main project is MIT-licensed, but the README warns that some advanced features, such as PDF export, rely on BlockNote XL packages licensed under GPL and not compatible with MIT. A build option omits those packages. Docs is actively developed, with recent commits and releases and contributions from many developers; its health data also shows issues are being closed and pull requests merged regularly.
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