Flatnotes

Judgement

What it is

Complete system

What it does

A self-hosted note-taking web app that stores notes as a flat folder of Markdown files, with search and tags.

Adopt it when

You want simple browser-based notes with files you can open in any editor.

Watch out

Deliberately simple, with no folders or multi-user support.

Ready for

Usable

Runs as

Self-hosted server

Built with

Python and Vue

How established

Established: started 5 years ago, latest release v5.5.5.

What the license allows

You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.

Judged on 2026-11-03 from the project's README and GitHub data. The license and age lines are worked out directly.

Built from

Follow it down: Flatnotes → Core → TypeScript → Go → runs on a microchip

How compilers were built, back to punched paper tape

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