7 ms·

Logseq – privacy-first, open-source knowledge sharing and management platform

209 points by simonpure 6y ago

tiensonqin 6y ago
Author here, thanks for the posting! I've been working it since February, it started as an org-mode web outliner so that I can use it on my phone to check some todos and capture some ideas. I added some features (backlinks, graph, block embeds, etc.) from Roam Research after trying it. It can be self-hosted and the plan is to have something like TiddlyWiki so that you can use it as a whole HTML file in your own website. The documentation is a read-only version of logseq itself and it's hosted on GitHub pages. The org mode parser is open sourced too, https://github.com/mldoc/mldoc https://github.com/mldoc/mldoc, most features are already supported, we're working on something like org agenda and org-roam integrations. Documentation example: https://logseq.github.io/ https://logseq.github.io/. Any questions or feedback will be appreciated, thank you!
- tiensonqin 6y ago
  We also have a discord group for logseq, free free to say hi! https://discord.gg/KpN4eHY https://discord.gg/KpN4eHY
- Netcob 6y ago
  I was just about to begin working on something similar, now I'll wait and see how this project goes! Since I don't like my notes unencrypted in the cloud somewhere with a company deciding whether I may access them or not, I'm going to wait for a 100% self-hosted version.
  - tiensonqin 6y ago
    > I was just about to begin working on something similar, now I'll wait and see how this project goes! Thanks and sorry about that! > Since I don't like my notes unencrypted in the cloud somewhere with a company deciding whether I may access them or not, I'm going to wait for a 100% self-hosted version. Totally make sense to me! we'll make it to be used without login with a self-hosted git server.
- inakarmacoma 6y ago
  How does this compare to Obsidian?
  - tiensonqin 6y ago
    Logseq supports both block and page embeds, it has datalog queries and task management from org mode. Another difference is that Obsidian is a desktop app and Logseq is a web app which can be used on mobile too.
  - BoysenberryPi 6y ago
    I find Obsidian's licensing to be overly expensive if you intend to use it for anything that will generate income.
- aiisjustanif 6y ago
  A bit ironic that you can only login using GitHub and the story today was “Never Use Third Party Auth to Sign In”[1]. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25091420 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25091420
  - ryanklee 6y ago
    This is a really silly criticism of this particular application, given (1) this application's functionality depends on integration with a github account, and (2) that third party auth sign ins is a very common feature, so nothing application specific here.
neolog 6y ago
Glad to see open-source tools like this starting up. Have you had a chance to look at Athens [1] to compare? They seem to be using similar tooling. [1] https://github.com/athensresearch/athens https://github.com/athensresearch/athens
- tiensonqin 6y ago
  Thanks for the question! Yes, both Logseq and Athens are working on open source knowledge base tool, and both are using clojure/clojurescript and datascript. Some differences are: 1. logseq works directly with plaintext files (it support both org mode and markdown for the record, we plan to add more markup formats like asciidoc in the future). 2. logseq can be used on the web and can be synced using Git. 3. logseq draws a lot of ideas from org mode, tiddlywiki instead of only Roam Research. Athens is working on a desktop app (which we'll start building soon). It's always great to have multiple implementations so that we can learn from each other.
  - neolog 6y ago
    In Roam there are only Page and Block. What is the role of a File in the Logseq data model? Is it a third object type? How does it relate to the other two?
sabre23t 6y ago
Glad to see and test logseq that compares favourably with other outliners including Checkvist.com that I've been using for 10 years.
- tiensonqin 6y ago
  Thank you for your feedback and suggestions in the logseq discord group, looking forward to learn more ideas from other outliners!
chmod775 6y ago
Why does this say it needs github? Can it not use any git repository?
- gravypod 6y ago
  Looks like it used GitHub for SSO and likely specific APIs.
- tiensonqin 6y ago
  The plan is to add self-host git support later.
  - Shared404 6y ago
    I like the idea of the project, but this is a blocker for me. Thanks for the work you do, and for open sourcing!
fabianhjr 6y ago
Loqseq page mentions both org-mode and RoamResearh as an inspiration but not org-roam. :C
- atoav 6y ago
  Maybe the author didn't know it? Totally in the realm of possible scenarios.
- tiensonqin 6y ago
  The reason is that I only knew org-roam 3 or 4 months ago, logseq supports org mode at the beginning (since February) and several months later I added some features from roam and TiddlyWiki. That said, we're trying our best to make logseq works together with org-roam.
anoffvu 6y ago
Yay! Happy to share this with more people! Let us know if you have any questions or feedback :)
cadbox1 6y ago
I like knowledge apps that use external storage like GitHub because you have control of your data without sacrificing the convenience of the cloud. I did the same thing for my knowledge sharing app: https://verynested.cadell.dev/ https://verynested.cadell.dev/ I use it to share my recipes; https://cooking.cadell.dev/ https://cooking.cadell.dev/
onnyyonn 6y ago
As an org-mode user, I was searching for a way to access my notes outside emacs, in browser and phone. There are a few solutions that can manage org files outside emacs, but none of them goes beyond basic functionalities. I find logseq promising. I think there is already an effort to make it compatible with org-roam. It would be awesome if they support citation packages like org-roam-bibtex and org-ref as well, in future. I would like to hear the author's opinion on this, if they are reading this comment.
- tiensonqin 6y ago
  You might be interested in this :) https://twitter.com/logseq/status/1324629634382589954 https://twitter.com/logseq/status/1324629634382589954
- zikzak 6y ago
  I created a new repo to try this out the other night and haven't opened emacs since (I work in a windows environment so I just use week emacs for personal org mode based stuff now, plus any mundane editing on my Linux workstation). I love that I CAN go back any time and could just clone the repo to get into some heavy lifting with org-agenda or whatever. But so far, no need. Frankly, I'm blown away with logseq. I tried Roam Research when I discovered it, dropped it because of the fact that I like to maintain my own data (and the price, frankly), but missed it. This just checks every box for me.
yewenjie 6y ago
I have been keeping an eye on this project for some time now. Happy to see it getting open-sourced. I am curious if I can directly start using it with my org-roam repo from GitHub or if that's not possible yet.
- tiensonqin 6y ago
  Thank you for your continued attention! There's some links issue (org id) which we'll address soon. We'll try our best to make logseq work smoothly with org-roam.
vhanda 6y ago
If you're looking for a mobile client to go along with this checkout GitJournal [0]. It has basic support for wiki style links and backlinks, but I'm still working on the graph support. [0] - https://gitjournal.io https://gitjournal.io
- slow_donkey 6y ago
  If anyone's looking for a mobile notes app that syncs with git, I highly encourage checking out GitJournal. I used it for a bit before building a personal app specific to my workflow. Are you still bundling libgit? I remember checking this project out and was impressed you got the setup to work with flutter. It's actually a reason I switched to react native because there were pure JS git implementations [0]. [0] https://github.com/isomorphic-git/isomorphic-git¡ https://github.com/isomorphic-git/isomorphic-git¡
  - tiensonqin 6y ago
    Logseq is impossible without isomorphic-git, such a great project!
  - vhanda 6y ago
    Yup. I'm still bundling libgit2, it took a lot of effort to get it to work. I've been working on dart-git https://github.com/GitJournal/dart-git https://github.com/GitJournal/dart-git and it's been slowly replacing most of libgit2. Eventually I would like to remove libgit2 completely and only have libssh2. I would love to know more about your workflow.
- dgl 6y ago
  Seems like a nice idea but it's very expensive for the feature set, Pro is on the same price level as OmniFocus but can do far less... It also misses outlining support, which logseq has. (Tried it out on iOS out of interest anyway and it failed to even clone my repo, as it's on a local network, iOS asked for local network access permissions and then it got confused saying "Exception: fatal: remote "origin" already exists")
  - 6y ago
kriskaminski 6y ago
I am a happy Logseq user since summer. I use it as personal and work related knowledge base. It has been developping quickly. I really appreciate publishing features and github sync. I'm self hosting knowledge graphs for my team and despite some early hiccups it's working really well and intuitive. Glad to see it on hn as well.
- tiensonqin 6y ago
  Thanks!
BenGosub 6y ago
I've been searching for something like this for a while! Can't wait to try it out! Also, interesting choice of technologies. Good luck and thanks for open sourcing this app.
- tiensonqin 6y ago
  Thank you!

209 points by simonpure 6y ago

Author here, thanks for the posting! I've been working it since February, it started as an org-mode web outliner so that I can use it on my phone to check some todos and capture some ideas. I added some features (backlinks, graph, block embeds, etc.) from Roam Research after trying it. It can be self-hosted and the plan is to have something like TiddlyWiki so that you can use it as a whole HTML file in your own website. The documentation is a read-only version of logseq itself and it's hosted on GitHub pages. The org mode parser is open sourced too, https://github.com/mldoc/mldoc https://github.com/mldoc/mldoc, most features are already supported, we're working on something like org agenda and org-roam integrations. Documentation example: https://logseq.github.io/ https://logseq.github.io/. Any questions or feedback will be appreciated, thank you!

tiensonqin 6y ago
We also have a discord group for logseq, free free to say hi! https://discord.gg/KpN4eHY https://discord.gg/KpN4eHY
Netcob 6y ago
I was just about to begin working on something similar, now I'll wait and see how this project goes! Since I don't like my notes unencrypted in the cloud somewhere with a company deciding whether I may access them or not, I'm going to wait for a 100% self-hosted version.
- tiensonqin 6y ago
  > I was just about to begin working on something similar, now I'll wait and see how this project goes! Thanks and sorry about that! > Since I don't like my notes unencrypted in the cloud somewhere with a company deciding whether I may access them or not, I'm going to wait for a 100% self-hosted version. Totally make sense to me! we'll make it to be used without login with a self-hosted git server.
inakarmacoma 6y ago
How does this compare to Obsidian?
- tiensonqin 6y ago
  Logseq supports both block and page embeds, it has datalog queries and task management from org mode. Another difference is that Obsidian is a desktop app and Logseq is a web app which can be used on mobile too.
- BoysenberryPi 6y ago
  I find Obsidian's licensing to be overly expensive if you intend to use it for anything that will generate income.
aiisjustanif 6y ago
A bit ironic that you can only login using GitHub and the story today was “Never Use Third Party Auth to Sign In”[1]. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25091420 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25091420
- ryanklee 6y ago
  This is a really silly criticism of this particular application, given (1) this application's functionality depends on integration with a github account, and (2) that third party auth sign ins is a very common feature, so nothing application specific here.

neolog 6y ago

Glad to see open-source tools like this starting up. Have you had a chance to look at Athens [1] to compare? They seem to be using similar tooling. [1] https://github.com/athensresearch/athens https://github.com/athensresearch/athens

tiensonqin 6y ago
Thanks for the question! Yes, both Logseq and Athens are working on open source knowledge base tool, and both are using clojure/clojurescript and datascript. Some differences are: 1. logseq works directly with plaintext files (it support both org mode and markdown for the record, we plan to add more markup formats like asciidoc in the future). 2. logseq can be used on the web and can be synced using Git. 3. logseq draws a lot of ideas from org mode, tiddlywiki instead of only Roam Research. Athens is working on a desktop app (which we'll start building soon). It's always great to have multiple implementations so that we can learn from each other.
- neolog 6y ago
  In Roam there are only Page and Block. What is the role of a File in the Logseq data model? Is it a third object type? How does it relate to the other two?

sabre23t 6y ago

Glad to see and test logseq that compares favourably with other outliners including Checkvist.com that I've been using for 10 years.

tiensonqin 6y ago
Thank you for your feedback and suggestions in the logseq discord group, looking forward to learn more ideas from other outliners!

chmod775 6y ago

Why does this say it needs github? Can it not use any git repository?

gravypod 6y ago
Looks like it used GitHub for SSO and likely specific APIs.
tiensonqin 6y ago
The plan is to add self-host git support later.
- Shared404 6y ago
  I like the idea of the project, but this is a blocker for me. Thanks for the work you do, and for open sourcing!

fabianhjr 6y ago

Loqseq page mentions both org-mode and RoamResearh as an inspiration but not org-roam. :C

atoav 6y ago
Maybe the author didn't know it? Totally in the realm of possible scenarios.
tiensonqin 6y ago
The reason is that I only knew org-roam 3 or 4 months ago, logseq supports org mode at the beginning (since February) and several months later I added some features from roam and TiddlyWiki. That said, we're trying our best to make logseq works together with org-roam.

anoffvu 6y ago

Yay! Happy to share this with more people! Let us know if you have any questions or feedback :)

cadbox1 6y ago

I like knowledge apps that use external storage like GitHub because you have control of your data without sacrificing the convenience of the cloud. I did the same thing for my knowledge sharing app: https://verynested.cadell.dev/ https://verynested.cadell.dev/ I use it to share my recipes; https://cooking.cadell.dev/ https://cooking.cadell.dev/

onnyyonn 6y ago

As an org-mode user, I was searching for a way to access my notes outside emacs, in browser and phone. There are a few solutions that can manage org files outside emacs, but none of them goes beyond basic functionalities. I find logseq promising. I think there is already an effort to make it compatible with org-roam. It would be awesome if they support citation packages like org-roam-bibtex and org-ref as well, in future. I would like to hear the author's opinion on this, if they are reading this comment.

tiensonqin 6y ago
You might be interested in this :) https://twitter.com/logseq/status/1324629634382589954 https://twitter.com/logseq/status/1324629634382589954
zikzak 6y ago
I created a new repo to try this out the other night and haven't opened emacs since (I work in a windows environment so I just use week emacs for personal org mode based stuff now, plus any mundane editing on my Linux workstation). I love that I CAN go back any time and could just clone the repo to get into some heavy lifting with org-agenda or whatever. But so far, no need. Frankly, I'm blown away with logseq. I tried Roam Research when I discovered it, dropped it because of the fact that I like to maintain my own data (and the price, frankly), but missed it. This just checks every box for me.

yewenjie 6y ago

I have been keeping an eye on this project for some time now. Happy to see it getting open-sourced. I am curious if I can directly start using it with my org-roam repo from GitHub or if that's not possible yet.

tiensonqin 6y ago
Thank you for your continued attention! There's some links issue (org id) which we'll address soon. We'll try our best to make logseq work smoothly with org-roam.

vhanda 6y ago

If you're looking for a mobile client to go along with this checkout GitJournal [0]. It has basic support for wiki style links and backlinks, but I'm still working on the graph support. [0] - https://gitjournal.io https://gitjournal.io

slow_donkey 6y ago
If anyone's looking for a mobile notes app that syncs with git, I highly encourage checking out GitJournal. I used it for a bit before building a personal app specific to my workflow. Are you still bundling libgit? I remember checking this project out and was impressed you got the setup to work with flutter. It's actually a reason I switched to react native because there were pure JS git implementations [0]. [0] https://github.com/isomorphic-git/isomorphic-git¡ https://github.com/isomorphic-git/isomorphic-git¡
- tiensonqin 6y ago
  Logseq is impossible without isomorphic-git, such a great project!
- vhanda 6y ago
  Yup. I'm still bundling libgit2, it took a lot of effort to get it to work. I've been working on dart-git https://github.com/GitJournal/dart-git https://github.com/GitJournal/dart-git and it's been slowly replacing most of libgit2. Eventually I would like to remove libgit2 completely and only have libssh2. I would love to know more about your workflow.
dgl 6y ago
Seems like a nice idea but it's very expensive for the feature set, Pro is on the same price level as OmniFocus but can do far less... It also misses outlining support, which logseq has. (Tried it out on iOS out of interest anyway and it failed to even clone my repo, as it's on a local network, iOS asked for local network access permissions and then it got confused saying "Exception: fatal: remote "origin" already exists")
- 6y ago

kriskaminski 6y ago

I am a happy Logseq user since summer. I use it as personal and work related knowledge base. It has been developping quickly. I really appreciate publishing features and github sync. I'm self hosting knowledge graphs for my team and despite some early hiccups it's working really well and intuitive. Glad to see it on hn as well.

tiensonqin 6y ago
Thanks!

BenGosub 6y ago

I've been searching for something like this for a while! Can't wait to try it out! Also, interesting choice of technologies. Good luck and thanks for open sourcing this app.

tiensonqin 6y ago
Thank you!