EdgeEver

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EdgeEver: An open-source, AI-native knowledge base & portable Evernote alternative.

EdgeEver is a modern, open-source notes and knowledge base workspace. It revives the beloved Evernote-style three-pane layout while offering an open data architecture and seamless AI Agent integration for complete ownership and smart productivity.

💡 Serverless & 100% Free Forever EdgeEver can run within Cloudflare's free quotas with no server purchase or VPS maintenance. Users who prefer a VPS, NAS, or home server can deploy the same application with Docker.

⭐ If EdgeEver is useful to you, consider giving it a Star. Your support helps more people discover the project.

Why EdgeEver

Many long-time Evernote users simply want a reliable, open, and fast personal knowledge base. However, existing mainstream solutions all present tradeoffs:

• Evernote: It has grown increasingly bloated with commercial ads and unnecessary features, degrading performance. Data export is cumbersome, free tiers are heavily restricted, and AI/MCP features require costly subscriptions.
• Obsidian: Open files, closed-source core. Official Sync is paid and third-party sync is tedious; storing images and attachments alongside notes quickly bloats vaults, making mobile sync sluggish and leaving orphaned files behind; and it is overly heavy for lightweight, capture-anywhere use.
• Memos & Stream Notes: Clean and simple, but their social-timeline layouts differ fundamentally from the structured productivity of a classic three-pane workflow.

EdgeEver fills this gap: The entire stack is open source, including sync and self-hosting. It keeps the three-pane layout you know, with native AI agents and zero-cost deployment.

💡 Recommended Workflow: Capture inspiration seamlessly across all devices and organize deeply in the classic three-pane view. Powered by native MCP, it not only lets AI agents retrieve and synthesize your knowledge, but also connects with your favorite productivity tools like Notion and Feishu. Publish anywhere with one-click formatting—100% self-hosted at zero cost, building an open and truly owned second brain.

Online Demo

• Demo: https://demo.edgeever.org

The public demo resets every day at 3:00 AM (China Standard Time) and restores sample notes. Do not store private content there.

Client Downloads

The iOS app requires an Apple ID from outside mainland China.

Features

• Deploy Your Way: Run on Cloudflare's free serverless platform or with Docker on a VPS, NAS, or home server. Based on Cloudflare's free storage allowances, a personal deployment can hold roughly 150,000 short notes and 50,000 images; Docker storage scales on demand to easily support millions of notes and a vast image library.
• Open Data, No Vendor Lock-in: Built on standard SQLite with complete REST API, MCP, and CLI access. Your knowledge is stored transparently and accessible anytime without being locked to a single app.
• Lossless ZIP Backup & Portability: Export your complete library as a clean archive containing Markdown, Front Matter, nested folders, relative attachment links, and version histories for instant restoration anywhere.
• Native AI Agent Synergy: Deep integration with Model Context Protocol (MCP) allows AI tools like Claude Code, Codex, and Antigravity to read, organize, and summarize your notes, or sync seamlessly with Notion and Feishu Bitable.
• Bring Your Own AI Models: Connect OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini-compatible services and third-party API relays to empower your editor with smart note summarization, key point extraction, proofreading, translation, and text continuation on full notes or selected text.
• Rich Plugin API: Extend EdgeEver with the Plugin API.
• Unlimited Multi-Device Sync: No commercial device caps or paywalls. Enjoy seamless synchronization across PC, tablet, and mobile via web, PWA, or browser.
• Classic Three-Pane Layout & Focus Mode: Clean navigation featuring notebook trees, note lists, and an expansive editor, with a desktop focus mode to eliminate distractions.
• Unlimited Nested Notebooks: Organize your knowledge with arbitrary folder depth.
• One-Click Rich Copy for Newsletters & Blogs: Designed for creators to convert notes into beautifully formatted rich text with inline CSS, ready to paste directly into Substack, Medium, WordPress, or newsletter editors without extra tools.
• Seamless Dual-View Editor: Switch effortlessly between intuitive rich text editing and Markdown source code on desktop.
• Convenient Single-Note Export: Export the current note directly as Markdown, HTML, or PDF for standalone storage, sharing, or publishing.
• Native Mermaid Diagram Rendering: Render clear flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and mind maps directly in notes, preserving clean, editable source code across Markdown and rich text views.
• Visual Diagram Notes: Create and edit mind maps, flowcharts, and architecture diagrams on Web and desktop with semantic components, system boundaries, labeled connections, automatic layout, revision history, and PNG/SVG export. The Android and iOS apps preserve the same diagram data and render a semantic read-only view. See the visual diagram notes design.
• Revision History: Inspect and restore previous iterations of your notes with built-in version tracking.
• Public Note Sharing: Share a note publicly and stop sharing it at any time. Optionally protect the link with an auto-generated access password.
• WeChat Article Clipping on Mobile: Share a WeChat Official Account article to EdgeEver on your phone to extract its content and save it as an editable note.
• Smart Local Image Compression: Client-side WebP compression reduces file sizes by 50%-90% before uploading, saving storage and speeding up page loads without extra server costs.
• Universal File Attachments: Attach and preview PDFs, Office documents, zip files, audio, and video directly within notes. Chunked uploads and streaming safely support files up to 1 GiB.
• Batch Operations & Flexible Sorting: Easily merge or relocate multiple notes, with drag-and-drop notebook reordering.
• Offline Drafts & Queueing: Draft and edit uninterrupted while offline; changes automatically sync once reconnected.
• Brute-Force Login Protection: Server-side account- and IP-based failed-login throttling with automatic cooldowns helps protect private notes against brute-force and password-spraying attacks.
• Multi-Tenant Account Isolation: Host multiple user accounts on a single instance with strictly partitioned spaces and clean admin account management.
• Everywhere You Need It: Available on the Web, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, and iOS; the Web Clipper supports Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.

Deployment

Cloudflare is the recommended zero-server deployment. Docker is available for users who prefer a VPS, NAS, or home server.

For Cloudflare, choose either of the following online deployment options:

Option A: Deploy with an AI Agent (Recommended)

Copy the prompt below directly into an AI Agent (such as Codex, Claude, Cursor, workbuddy, Antigravity, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, etc.). During execution, if access to GitHub or Cloudflare is required, review the requested permissions and follow the prompts to authorize access.

Deploy EdgeEver online:
1. Fork https://github.com/tianma-if/edgeever.
2. Create D1 `edgeever` and R2 `edgeever-resources` in Cloudflare.
3. Import the Fork into Cloudflare Workers & Pages and use `main` as the production
   branch.
4. Add a Worker Secret named `EDGE_EVER_AUTH_PASSWORD`, using a password chosen by the
   user as its value. Prefer a strong password of at least 32 characters that is unique
   to this instance.
5. Start the first build, verify `/api/health` and `/api/openapi.json`, then verify login
   with username `admin` and the configured password.
6. Enable and manually run the GitHub Actions workflow named `Update deployed EdgeEver`
   once so the Fork can automatically receive the latest EdgeEver features and fixes.

Detailed requirements: AI Agent Cloudflare Deployment.

Option B: Manual Online Deployment

Complete setup in 6 web steps:

1. Fork the Repository: Click Fork at the top right of GitHub to fork EdgeEver into your personal account.
2. Create Cloudflare Resources: Create D1 edgeever and R2 edgeever-resources.
3. Import & Configure the Project: Import the Fork into Cloudflare Workers & Pages and use main as the production branch. The deploy command creates the bindings; do not edit Fork files.
4. Set the Administrator Password: Add a Worker Secret named EDGE_EVER_AUTH_PASSWORD and set its value to your chosen administrator login password. Prefer a strong password of at least 32 characters that is unique to this instance.
5. Build & Verify: Start the initial build. Once deployed, confirm /api/health returns 200, then verify login with username admin and the configured password.
6. Enable Automatic Updates: Open the Fork's Actions tab, click I understand my workflows, go ahead and enable them, then manually run Update deployed EdgeEver once so the Fork can automatically receive future EdgeEver features and fixes.

📖 For full step-by-step instructions and configuration details, see the Online Deployment Guide.

💡 Cloudflare R2 Activation: Although Cloudflare R2 offers a generous free storage allowance that note-taking workloads remain completely within, you must first activate an R2 subscription and add a payment method. Cloudflare officially supports UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, and other cards, as well as PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other payment methods.

Option C: Docker on a VPS or NAS

Use the GitHub-hosted installer and the official GHCR image:

curl -fsSL https://edgeever.org/install.sh | bash

The command pulls the latest image, generates an administrator password, starts EdgeEver with Docker Compose, and schedules daily automatic updates.

The official EdgeEver container image is hosted on GitHub Container Registry (GHCR). Some network environments in mainland China may experience slow connections or timeouts. If the image cannot be pulled normally, configure an available network proxy or a trusted registry mirror before deployment. Users are responsible for evaluating the availability and security of third-party network and registry services.

See the Docker deployment guide for manual deployment and configuration.

Multi-Account Login

Once deployed, a single instance supports multi-account login.

The instance administrator can create, disable, or reset member accounts in Profile -> User accounts. Each member gets a fully isolated personal workspace, including notebooks, notes, attachments, Trash, import/export, and MCP tokens.

Browser Web Clipper

The Web Clipper is officially published for Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox. Install it from the store for your browser (Microsoft Edge users can install the Chrome Web Store version directly):

Community and Feedback

• Bugs, feature requests, and deployment issues: GitHub Issues
• Code contributions: read the Contribution Guide. If your Fork is also used to deploy EdgeEver, keep its main branch deployment-only. Create a separate branch from the official upstream/main for synchronization, development, and pull requests; do not develop on or Sync fork the deployment main.

Telegram Community

Welcome to the EdgeEver community. Join us to discuss the EdgeEver experience, real-world AI Agent applications, cost-effective or free AI resources, and automation workflows.

👉 Join the EdgeEver Telegram group

Plugins and Themes

EdgeEver supports plugins and code-free themes on Web and desktop, installable from the Plugin Marketplace, GitHub, or a Manifest URL. The install list follows the current workspace across browsers and desktop apps; each client downloads and verifies packages locally. Native Android and iOS apps do not run plugins. Settings and secrets stay on the current device. The official marketplace only lists free and open-source plugins; this requirement does not apply to direct installation from GitHub or a Manifest URL. Developers can use @edgeever/plugin-api; see the plugin development guide and marketplace submission policy.

Tech Stack

• Bun workspace monorepo with Web, API, official site, and shared type package.
• Frontend: Vite, React, React Router, TanStack Query, Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui, and Radix UI.
• Editor: TipTap / ProseMirror with Markdown support; PWA uses vite-plugin-pwa, Workbox, and Dexie.
• Android app: Expo + React Native in apps/mobile, with SQLite local storage and incremental sync.
• iOS app: Native SwiftUI in apps/ios (iOS 17+), with a packaged TipTap EditorBundle, GRDB local mirror/outbox, and Android-aligned shell chrome.
• Native desktop app: Electron + Rust sidecar combines a consistent cross-platform experience with high-performance local data services; SQLite enables offline editing, incremental sync when back online, and local backups.
• Web clipper: Manifest V3, Mozilla Readability, and Turndown for Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox.
• Backend: one Hono/Zod business application with REST API and Remote MCP; Cloudflare uses Workers/D1/R2, while Docker uses Bun/SQLite/local files or S3.
• Official site: Astro static site in apps/site, deployable to Cloudflare Pages.

Quick Start

bun install
bun run dev

Local development signs in automatically; fresh databases use owner / edgeever-local-dev. Log out to test the login screen.

Project Structure

apps/web          Vite + React frontend, PWA, offline drafts, and sync queue
apps/extension    Chrome/Edge/Firefox Manifest V3 web clipper
apps/api          Cloudflare Worker + Hono API, MCP endpoint
apps/mobile       Expo + React Native Android app
apps/ios          Native SwiftUI iOS app (TipTap EditorBundle, GRDB)
apps/desktop      Electron desktop shell, preload bridge, and native packaging
apps/site         Astro official website, deployable independently
packages/client   Shared API client for web and mobile apps
packages/shared   Shared types, Zod schemas, TipTap / Markdown conversion
crates/desktop-sidecar
                   Rust sidecar for local SQLite, offline data, backups, and resources
scripts           Wrangler wrapper, password hash, CLI, MCP stdio bridge, Evernote ENEX import
migrations        Shared append-only D1/SQLite database migrations
docs              Architecture, migration, and deployment docs
.github/workflows CI for web, mobile, iOS, desktop packaging, deployment, and releases
wrangler.toml     Cloudflare Workers, Assets, D1, R2 configuration

Content Formats

EdgeEver stores note content in three forms:

content_json      TipTap/ProseMirror document, the editor source of truth
content_markdown  API, Agent, import, and export format
content_text      Search, summary, and indexing text

Open Profile -> Import and export to export or import an EdgeEver ZIP. Its notes/ directory is directly readable and portable as Markdown, while its structured data supports complete recovery between EdgeEver instances. Import preserves unrelated target data and overwrites records with matching EdgeEver IDs.

MCP

Create an API token in Profile -> MCP settings and give it to your AI Agent. The Agent can then securely manage your knowledge base within your account permissions. It supports both text notes and diagram notes (including mind maps, flowcharts, and architecture diagrams) with full CRUD capabilities. The Agent can also manage note templates and AI instructions, and connect with tools such as Notion databases and Feishu Bitable.

💡 Inspiration: Make AI your true knowledge orchestrator and creative co-pilot—instantly turn concepts into interactive mind maps and architecture diagrams, while supplying private context to your AI Agents. Paired with EdgeEver’s powerful rich-text editing and elegant typography, AI-assisted content becomes beautifully structured, polished, and publication-ready knowledge assets.

Image Compression

Image compression happens in the Web client before upload and is controlled by the Compress note images setting. When enabled, PNG, JPEG, WebP, and AVIF files are converted to WebP when beneficial, with the longest edge limited to 2560px. If compression does not reduce size, the original file is kept.

EdgeEver avoids Worker-side image processing to reduce compute and image-processing quota usage. REST API and MCP upload paths store the file content provided by the client without additional server-side compression.

Advanced Object Storage

The instance owner can configure S3-compatible object storage under Settings → Advanced → OSS object storage. Changing storage does not migrate or affect existing attachments.

Migration

If you want to migrate notes from other platforms to EdgeEver, please refer to the following simple migration guides:

• Evernote Migration: Please refer to docs/evernote-migration-guide.md
• flomo Migration: Please refer to docs/flomo-migration-guide.md
• Memos Migration: Please refer to docs/memos-migration-guide.md
• Notion Migration: Please refer to docs/notion-migration-guide.md

Docker Deployment

Docker runs the same frontend, API routes, services, authentication, MCP implementation, and migrations as Cloudflare. The container uses SQLite with local files or S3-compatible attachment storage and supports amd64 and arm64. See Deploy EdgeEver with Docker and Self-hosting and Docker architecture.

Sync Timing

Web, PWA, and desktop upload memo edits after 30 seconds of inactivity and check for remote changes every 5 minutes while visible; focus and manual refresh remain immediate. Adjust DEFERRED_MEMO_SYNC_DELAY_MS and BACKGROUND_WORKSPACE_REFRESH_INTERVAL_MS in apps/web/src/lib/workspace-refresh.ts.

Acknowledgements

• EdgeEver's note-taking product design was also informed by the publicly available product experiences of mature note-taking tools such as Evernote. The related features were independently designed and implemented by EdgeEver.
• The product design of mind-map and visual-diagram notes was informed by the publicly available product experiences of XMind and ProcessOn. These features were independently designed and implemented by EdgeEver.
• Editor theme typography, heading hierarchy, and chapter structure draw from the public work of obsidian-minimal, Outline, and 墨格. Names, assets, and implementations are original to EdgeEver.

Trademark and Brand Use

The EdgeEver name, logo, and other brand identifiers distinguish the official project. Forks and modified versions may state that they are based on EdgeEver, but must not imply official status or mislead users. The open-source license does not grant trademark rights; other uses require prior written permission from the project maintainers.

Disclaimer

EdgeEver is an independent open-source note-taking application developed and maintained by individuals and the community. It is not affiliated with, authorized, sponsored, or endorsed by Evernote Corporation or its affiliates.

EdgeEver is self-hosted software. Except for official demo instances, project maintainers do not host, control, or review user content. Content stored or displayed by an instance is the responsibility of its users or operators and does not represent the maintainers' views.