Refactor your thinking

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Table of Contents

• 💡 Introduction
• 🔮 Features
• 🏗️ Architecture and Ecosystem
• 🌟 Star History
• 🗺️ Roadmap
• 🚀 Download Setup
  • App Market
  • Installation Package
  • Package Manager
  • Docker Hosting
  • Unraid Hosting
  • TrueNAS Hosting
  • Insider Preview
• 🏘️ Community
• 🛠️ Development Guide
• ❓ FAQ
  • How does SiYuan store data?
  • Does it support data synchronization through a third-party sync disk?
  • Is SiYuan open source?
  • How to upgrade to a new version?
  • What if some blocks (such as paragraph blocks in list items) cannot find the block icon?
  • What should I do if the data repo key is lost?
  • Do I need to pay for it?
• 🙏 Acknowledgement
  • Contributors

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💡 Introduction

SiYuan is a privacy-first personal knowledge management system, supporting fine-grained block-level reference and Markdown WYSIWYG.

Welcome to SiYuan English Discussion Forum to learn more.

🔮 Features

Most features are free, even for commercial use.

• Content block
  • Block-level reference and two-way links
  • Custom attributes
  • SQL query embed
  • Protocol siyuan://
• Editor
  • Block-style
  • Markdown WYSIWYG
  • List outline
  • Block zoom-in
  • Million-word large document editing
  • Mathematical formulas, charts, flowcharts, Gantt charts, timing charts, staves, etc.
  • Web clipping
  • PDF Annotation link
• Export
  • Block ref and embed
  • Standard Markdown with assets
  • PDF, Word and HTML
  • Copy to WeChat MP, Zhihu and Yuque
• Database
  • Table view
• Flashcard spaced repetition
• AI writing and Q/A chat via OpenAI API
• Tesseract OCR
• Multi-tab, drag and drop to split screen
• Template snippet
• JavaScript/CSS snippet
• Android/iOS/HarmonyOS App
• Docker deployment
• API
• Community marketplace

Some features are only available to paid members, for more details please refer to Pricing.

🏗️ Architecture and Ecosystem

Project	Description	Forks	Stars
lute	Editor engine
chrome	Chrome/Edge extension
bazaar	Community marketplace
dejavu	Data repo
petal	Plugin API
android	Android App
ios	iOS App
harmony	HarmonyOS App
riff	Spaced repetition

🌟 Star History

🗺️ Roadmap

• SiYuan development plan and progress
• SiYuan changelog

🚀 Download Setup

It is recommended to give priority to installing through the application market on desktop and mobile, so that you can upgrade the version with one click in the future.

App Market

Mobile:

• App Store
• Google Play
• F-Droid

Desktop:

• Microsoft Store

Installation Package

• B3log
• GitHub

Package Manager

siyuan

siyuan-note

Docker Hosting

Docker Deployment

Overview

The easiest way to serve SiYuan on a server is to deploy it through Docker.

• Image name b3log/siyuan
• Image URL

File structure

The overall program is located under /opt/siyuan/, which is basically the structure under the resources folder of the Electron installation package:

• appearance: icon, theme, languages
• guide: user guide document
• stage: interface and static resources
• kernel: kernel program

Entrypoint

The entry point is set when building the Docker image: ENTRYPOINT ["/opt/siyuan/entrypoint.sh"]. This script allows changing the PUID and PGID of the user that will run inside the container. This is especially relevant to solve permission issues when mounting directories from the host. The PUID (User ID) and PGID (Group ID) can be passed as environment variables, making it easier to ensure correct permissions when accessing host-mounted directories.

Use the following parameters when running the container with docker run b3log/siyuan:

• --workspace: Specifies the workspace folder path, mounted to the container via -v on the host
• --accessAuthCode: Specifies the access authorization code

More parameters can be found using --help. Here’s an example of a startup command with the new environment variables:

docker run -d \
  -v workspace_dir_host:workspace_dir_container \
  -p 6806:6806 \
  -e PUID=1001 -e PGID=1002 \
  b3log/siyuan \
  --workspace=workspace_dir_container \
  --accessAuthCode=xxx

• PUID: Custom user ID (optional, defaults to 1000 if not provided)
• PGID: Custom group ID (optional, defaults to 1000 if not provided)
• workspace_dir_host: The workspace folder path on the host
• workspace_dir_container: The path of the workspace folder in the container, as specified in --workspace
  • Alternatively, it's possible to set the path via the SIYUAN_WORKSPACE_PATH env variable. The commandline will always have the priority, if both are set
• accessAuthCode: Access authorization code (please be sure to modify, otherwise anyone can access your data)
  • Alternatively, it's possible to set the auth code via the SIYUAN_ACCESS_AUTH_CODE env variable. The commandline will always have the priority, if both are set
  • To disable the Access authorization code set the env variable SIYUAN_ACCESS_AUTH_CODE_BYPASS=true

To simplify things, it is recommended to configure the workspace folder path to be consistent on the host and container, such as having both workspace_dir_host and workspace_dir_container configured as /siyuan/workspace. The corresponding startup command would be:

docker run -d \
  -v /siyuan/workspace:/siyuan/workspace \
  -p 6806:6806 \
  -e PUID=1001 -e PGID=1002 \
  b3log/siyuan \
  --workspace=/siyuan/workspace/ \
  --accessAuthCode=xxx

Docker Compose

For users running Siyuan with Docker Compose, the environment variables PUID and PGID can be passed to customize the user and group IDs. Here's an example of a Docker Compose configuration:

version: "3.9"
services:
  main:
    image: b3log/siyuan
    command: ['--workspace=/siyuan/workspace/', '--accessAuthCode=${AuthCode}']
    ports:
      - 6806:6806
    volumes:
      - /siyuan/workspace:/siyuan/workspace
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      # A list of time zone identifiers can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones
      - TZ=${YOUR_TIME_ZONE}
      - PUID=${YOUR_USER_PUID}  # Customize user ID
      - PGID=${YOUR_USER_PGID}  # Customize group ID

In this setup:

• PUID and PGID are set dynamically and passed to the container
• If these variables are not provided, the default 1000 will be used

By specifying PUID and PGID in the environment, you avoid the need to explicitly set the user directive (user: '1000:1000') in the compose file. The container will dynamically adjust the user and group based on these environment variables at startup.

User Permissions

In the image, the entrypoint.sh script ensures the creation of the siyuan user and group with the specified PUID and PGID. Therefore, when the host creates a workspace folder, pay attention to setting the user and group ownership of the folder to match the PUID and PGID you plan to use. For example:

chown -R 1001:1002 /siyuan/workspace

If you use custom PUID and PGID values, the entrypoint script will ensure that the correct user and group are created inside the container, and ownership of mounted volumes will be adjusted accordingly. There’s no need to manually pass -u in docker run or docker-compose as the environment variables will handle the customization.

Hidden port

Use an NGINX reverse proxy to hide port 6806. Please note:

• Configure the WebSocket reverse proxy for /ws

Note

• Be sure to confirm the correctness of the mounted volume, otherwise the data will be lost after the container is deleted
• Do not use URL rewriting for redirection, otherwise there may be problems with authentication, it is recommended to configure a reverse proxy
• If you encounter permission issues, verify that the PUID and PGID environment variables match the ownership of the mounted directories on your host system

Limitations

• Does not support desktop and mobile application connections, only supports use on browsers
• Export to PDF, HTML and Word formats is not supported
• Import Markdown file is not supported

Unraid Hosting

Unraid Deployment

Note: First run chown -R 1000:1000 /mnt/user/appdata/siyuan in the terminal

Template reference:

Web UI: 6806
Container Port: 6806
Container Path: /home/siyuan
Host path: /mnt/user/appdata/siyuan
PUID: 1000
PGID: 1000
Publish parameters: --accessAuthCode=******(Access authorization code)

TrueNAS Hosting

TrueNAS Deployment

Note: First, run the commands below in the TrueNAS Shell. Please update Pool_1/Apps_Data/siyuan to match your dataset path.

zfs create Pool_1/Apps_Data/siyuan
chown -R 1001:1002 /mnt/Pool_1/Apps_Data/siyuan
chmod 755 /mnt/Pool_1/Apps_Data/siyuan

Navigate to Apps - DiscoverApps - More Options (on top right, besides Custom App) - Install via YAML

Template reference:

services:
  siyuan:
    image: b3log/siyuan
    container_name: siyuan
    command: ['--workspace=/siyuan/workspace/', '--accessAuthCode=2222']
    ports:
      - 6806:6806
    volumes:
      - /mnt/Pool_1/Apps_Data/siyuan:/siyuan/workspace  # Adjust to your dataset path 
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - TZ=America/Los_Angeles  # Replace with your timezone if needed
      - PUID=1001
      - PGID=1002

Insider Preview

We release insider preview before major updates, please visit https://github.com/siyuan-note/insider.

🏘️ Community

• English Discussion Forum
• User community summary
• Awesome SiYuan

🛠️ Development Guide

See Development Guide.

❓ FAQ

How does SiYuan store data?

The data is saved in the workspace data folder:

• assets is used to save all inserted assets
• emojis is used to save emoji images
• snippets is used to save code snippets
• storage is used to save query conditions, layouts and flashcards, etc.
• templates is used to save template snippets
• widgets is used to save widgets
• plugins is used to save plugins
• public is used to save public data
• The rest of the folders are the notebook folders created by the user, files with the suffix of .sy in the notebook folder are used to save the document data, and the data format is JSON

Does it support data synchronization through a third-party sync disk?

Data synchronization through third-party synchronization disks is not supported, otherwise data may be corrupted.

Although it does not support third-party sync disks, it supports connecting with third-party cloud storage (Members' privileges).

In addition, you can also consider manually exporting and importing data to achieve data synchronization:

• Desktop: Settings - Export - Export Data / Import Data
• Mobile: Right column - About - Export Data / Import Data

Is SiYuan open source?

SiYuan is completely open source, and contributions are welcome:

• User Interface and Kernel
• Android
• iOS
• HarmonyOS
• Chrome Clipping Extension

For more details, please refer to Development Guide.

How to upgrade to a new version?

• If installed via app store, please update via app store
• If it is installed through the installation package on the desktop, you can enable the option of Settings - About - Automatically download update installation package, so that SiYuan will automatically download the latest version of the installation package and prompt to install
• If it is installed by manual installation package, please download the installation package again to install

You can Check update in Settings - About - Current Version, or pay attention to Official Download or GitHub Releases to get the new version.

What if some blocks (such as paragraph blocks in list items) cannot find the block icon?

The block icon is omitted for the first sub-block under the list item. You can move the cursor into this block and trigger its block menu with Ctrl+/ .

What should I do if the data repo key is lost?

• If the data repo key is correctly initialized on multiple devices previously, the key is the same on all devices and can be retrieved in Settings - About - Data repo key - Copy key string

• If it has not been configured correctly before (for example, the keys on multiple devices are inconsistent) or all devices are unavailable and the key string cannot be obtained, you can reset the key by following the steps below:

  1. Manually back up the data, you can use Export Data or directly copy the workspace/data/ folder on the file system
  2. Settings - About - Data repo key - Reset data repo
  3. Reinitialize the data repo key. After initializing the key on one device, other devices import the key
  4. The cloud uses the new synchronization directory, the old synchronization directory is no longer available and can be deleted
  5. The existing cloud snapshots are no longer available and can be deleted

Do I need to pay for it?

Most features are free, even for commercial use.

Member's privileges can only be used after payment, please refer to Pricing.

🙏 Acknowledgement

The birth of SiYuan is inseparable from many open source projects and contributors. Please refer to the project source code kernel/go.mod, app/package.json and project homepage.

The growth of SiYuan is inseparable from user feedback and promotion. Thank you, everyone, for your help with SiYuan ❤️

Contributors

Welcome to join us and contribute code to SiYuan together.