Markdown is the source of truth
Notes are ordinary .md files. The index, the graph and the version history are derived from them: without Notarium the files are still complete notes, and import and export lose nothing.
Open Source
One knowledge base, so your AI starts with context
Your agents, Markdown, and editor — in one container.
One command to run it
The engine runs in-process: no external database, no queue, no separate search service.
shell
docker run -d --name notarium \
-p 3000:3000 \
-v notarium-data:/data \
docouno/notarium:latestGive it a few seconds, then open http://localhost:3000.
A single /data volume holds all state: your notes, the metadata database and the indexes.
A coherent product, not a stack of plugins.
A web editor, not a viewer
A tree that holds tens of thousands of notes, a CodeMirror editor, wiki-links, a knowledge graph. Real daily work in the browser, from any device.
One knowledge base for you and your agent
A built-in MCP endpoint: an agent writes into your knowledge base through the same path and the same permissions you do. Spaces and projects scope that work — an agent takes on the project it needs, not the whole base.
Self-hosted in one container
One container instead of a multi-service stack. Authentication, spaces and search live inside it; the only thing exposed is a port.
Search in the core, not behind a paywall
Full-text search always works, semantic search is opt-in, and results merge through RRF. Not a premium feature, not a separate subscription.
History and provenance
Every edit lands in the note's revision log, signed by its author: you can see what a person changed and what an agent did. Any version can be compared with the current one and restored.
Your agent starts with context
A folder of Markdown files gives an agent text. A knowledge base gives it structure — links, a graph, search — so it retrieves the context it needs instead of dumping everything into its window.
Retrieval, not a wall of text
Full-text and semantic search across the whole base — what reaches the context window is what matters.
Links, not a flat list
Wiki-links and the graph hand the agent the structure of what it reads: from any note, what it connects to.
Intent tools
Narrow, intent-oriented tools instead of raw CRUD. The gateway is a trust boundary, not a convenience wrapper.
An agent gets there fastest when the route is written into its rules file: a session then opens on the project instead of feeling around for it.
CLAUDE.md · AGENTS.md · .cursor/rules
## Notarium- At the start of a session, call start_session(project: "acme/website")- Read the project conventions with get_note("nHk2VqA0es")- Before writing, look for related notes with search("<topic>", project: "acme/website")What that first call brings back
- your profile and the notes pinned for this project
- the project index and the category vocabulary already in use
- what changed since the last visit
Where the honest limits are
Two different things live here: what Notarium has decided against, and what simply isn't there yet.
Decided, and staying that way
No end-to-end encryption
Search, semantics, history and agents all need to read your text. Privacy here rests on owning the files and hosting them yourself, not on E2EE. If you need zero-knowledge storage, Notarium is not it.
Not a block editor
The unit of data is a note in a file, not a block inside someone's database. That's the price of portability, and we pay it deliberately.
Not there yet
Directions of travel rather than gaps — areas deliberately left for later:
- real-time collaborative editing
- plugins and extensions
- a full WYSIWYG editor
- desktop and mobile apps
- working with your data offline
- per-note access control
- a graph across spaces
- external storage adapters
Today it's 0.1.0, an open beta.
License
AGPL-3.0. Every feature is open and free — including use inside a company as an internal tool. A separate commercial license is only needed by those who monetize Notarium itself as a product.
Read the full license terms →Stand it up yourself
One command brings the base up locally. From there: connect your agent and bring your notes in.