Trilium: Build Your Personal Knowledge Base with This Powerful Notes App

Trilium: Build Your Personal Knowledge Base with This Powerful Notes App

Summary

Trilium Notes is a free and open-source, cross-platform hierarchical note-taking application designed for building extensive personal knowledge bases. It offers a rich WYSIWYG editor, code support, and advanced features like note versioning and scripting. Users can organize notes in a deep tree structure and synchronize them with a self-hosted server.

Repository Info

Updated on January 15, 2026
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Tags

knowledge-basenote-takingpersonal-wikiself-hostedTypeScriptProductivityElectronOpen Source

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Introduction

Trilium Notes is a powerful, free, and open-source hierarchical note-taking application designed to help you build and manage extensive personal knowledge bases. Developed with a focus on flexibility and advanced features, Trilium allows users to organize notes into an arbitrarily deep tree structure, supporting a wide range of content types from rich text to source code. It's a cross-platform solution, available for desktop, browser, and mobile, and is actively maintained by the TriliumNext community.

Installation

Trilium Notes offers multiple installation methods to suit various preferences:

  • Desktop Applications: Download the latest binary releases for Windows, macOS, or Linux directly from the latest release page. Unzip the package and run the executable.
  • Linux Distributions: If your distribution is listed on Repology, you can use your distribution's package manager.
  • Browser Access: For server installations, you can access the web interface, which is nearly identical to the desktop app. Supported browsers include the latest versions of Chrome and Firefox.
  • Mobile Devices: Access the mobile-optimized frontend of a server installation via your web browser. For a native Android experience, consider TriliumDroid.
  • Server Installation: Deploy TriliumNext on your own server, including via Docker. Comprehensive instructions are available in the server installation documentation.

Examples

Trilium Notes provides a rich set of features for diverse knowledge management needs:

  • Hierarchical Organization: Arrange notes into a deep tree structure, allowing a single note to appear in multiple locations through cloning.
  • Rich Content Editing: Utilize a WYSIWYG editor for text notes, including tables, images, and mathematical expressions, with Markdown autoformatting.
  • Code Notes: Edit notes with source code, complete with syntax highlighting for various programming languages.
  • Advanced Navigation: Benefit from fast navigation, full-text search, and note hoisting for efficient information retrieval.
  • Visualizations: Create diagrams with Excalidraw-based canvas notes, visualize relationships with relation maps and note/link maps, and organize thoughts with Mind Elixir-based mind maps. Geo maps are also supported for location-based data.
  • Scripting and Automation: Leverage powerful scripting capabilities and a REST API for advanced automation and customization.
  • Web Clipper: Easily save web content directly into your knowledge base.
  • Import/Export: Seamlessly import from Evernote or Markdown, and export your notes in Markdown format.

Why Use Trilium Notes?

Trilium Notes stands out as an exceptional tool for personal knowledge management due to several key advantages:

  • Comprehensive Feature Set: From advanced text editing and code support to sophisticated visualization tools like mind maps and relation maps, Trilium offers everything needed for a robust knowledge base.
  • Flexibility and Customization: Its hierarchical structure, attribute system, and scripting capabilities provide unparalleled flexibility in organizing and interacting with your notes.
  • Local-First and Self-Hosted: Maintain full control over your data with local storage and optional self-hosted synchronization, ensuring privacy and data ownership.
  • Active Community Development: As TriliumNext, the project benefits from active community contributions, ensuring continuous improvement and support.
  • Cross-Platform Accessibility: Whether you prefer a desktop application, a web interface, or mobile access, Trilium Notes is available across various platforms.

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