NoteDiscovery is a lightweight, self-hosted note-taking and knowledge base application, written in JavaScript and released under the MIT licence, that stores every note as a plain markdown file in folders on your own server and is aimed at privacy-conscious individuals, developers, knowledge workers, and teams who want to own their data.

What it is

NoteDiscovery is a self-hosted note-taking application distributed as a Docker image, ghcr.io/gamosoft/notediscovery:latest. It runs on your own server, serves its interface on port 8000, and persists everything through a mounted data volume at /app/data. Notes are plain markdown files organised into folders, so the knowledge base stays readable and portable outside the application itself. Deployment lives in the Docker ecosystem, the application stack belongs to the FastAPI family, and the topics list marks the project as an alternative in the note-taking and knowledge-base space.

The concrete problem it solves is dependence on commercial note services for storage, sync, and access. NoteDiscovery replaces that arrangement for users who want their notes to remain files on hardware they control, rather than records held on a vendor's servers under a vendor's terms. It targets Notion, Evernote, and Obsidian Sync specifically, and reaches users who work offline or on restricted networks: the application and its shared links serve every browser library locally, so no CDN is required.

Key capabilities

• Plain markdown files in folders as the primary storage format, which keeps the knowledge base free of proprietary lock-in.
• A built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, started with python -m mcp_server, that lets AI assistants search, create, edit, tag, and reorganise notes; setup is documented in documentation/MCP.md.
• No CDN dependency: the application and its shared links serve all browser libraries locally, so they function on air-gapped networks, as described in documentation/THIRD_PARTY.md.
• Optional password protection for self-hosted deployments.
• Graph view for visualising connections between notes, alongside favorites for frequently used notes and an outline panel with click-to-jump headings.
• LaTeX and MathJax support for equations, plus HTML export and print output for individual notes.
• A drawing editor that stores sketches as drawing-*.png files next to your notes, documented in documentation/DRAWING.md, together with a plugin system, multiple themes, and a responsive interface for desktop, tablet, and mobile.

Who uses it and how

• Privacy-conscious users and operators of air-gapped or restricted networks, who rely on the local browser libraries and the absence of a CDN requirement.
• Developers who prefer markdown and local file storage over a hosted database, and who read the notes directly from the mounted volume.
• Knowledge workers building a personal wiki or second brain, using the graph view, backlinks, outline panel, and favorites to navigate a growing collection.
• Teams that want a self-hosted replacement for commercial note applications, running a single container with one attached volume and sharing links from it.
• AI-assisted workflows, where Cursor, Claude Desktop, or another MCP-compatible tool connects to the MCP server; a fully local stack combining NoteDiscovery, Ollama, and Open WebUI is described in OLLAMA-STACK.md.

Getting started

Installation is a single Docker command: create a data directory and run the image with the volume and port mapped, for example docker run -d --name notediscovery -p 8000:8000 -v $(pwd)/data:/app/data ghcr.io/gamosoft/notediscovery:latest, with a PowerShell equivalent for Windows. The project homepage is at https://www.notediscovery.com.

How it compares

The README contrasts NoteDiscovery directly with Notion, Evernote, and Obsidian Sync on cost, privacy, offline behaviour, customisation, and lock-in. Those products are commercial and charge a recurring subscription, while NoteDiscovery is MIT-licensed and free to run; they hold notes on their own servers under their own terms, while NoteDiscovery keeps notes on your server; and they commonly use proprietary formats, while NoteDiscovery writes plain markdown files. The README also notes that commercial applications depend on an internet connection and offer limited or sync-dependent offline behaviour, whereas NoteDiscovery is designed to work offline.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster must operate the Docker container itself, expose port 8000, mount and back up the /app/data volume, and take responsibility for securing the deployment. It is not the right choice for teams that need real-time collaborative editing or granular per-user roles and permissions, since the README describes only optional password protection for the deployment rather than a multi-user permission model. The README excerpt is brief and several capabilities are documented only in linked files such as documentation/MCP.md, documentation/DRAWING.md, documentation/THIRD_PARTY.md, and OLLAMA-STACK.md, so those should be read before committing to it.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notediscovery": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "-e", "NOTEDISCOVERY_URL=http://host.docker.internal:8000", "ghcr.io/gamosoft/notediscovery:latest", "python", "-m", "mcp_server"]
    }
  }
}

mkdir -p notediscovery/data && cd notediscovery
docker run -d --name notediscovery -p 8000:8000 \
  -v $(pwd)/data:/app/data \
  ghcr.io/gamosoft/notediscovery:latest

mkdir notediscovery\data; cd notediscovery
docker run -d --name notediscovery -p 8000:8000 `
  -v ${PWD}/data:/app/data `
  ghcr.io/gamosoft/notediscovery:latest

mkdir -p notediscovery/data && cd notediscovery
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gamosoft/notediscovery/main/docker-compose.ghcr.yml
docker-compose -f docker-compose.ghcr.yml up -d

mkdir notediscovery\data; cd notediscovery
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gamosoft/notediscovery/main/docker-compose.ghcr.yml -OutFile docker-compose.ghcr.yml
docker-compose -f docker-compose.ghcr.yml up -d

git clone https://github.com/gamosoft/notediscovery.git
cd notediscovery
docker-compose up -d

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/gamosoft/notediscovery.git
cd notediscovery

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run the application
python run.py

# Access at http://localhost:8000