Papyra
Try the demoDemo

Open source

Help build Papyra

Bug reports, ideas, docs and code all move it forward.

Open an issueView the sourceAPI reference

Contributing to Papyra

Thanks for wanting to help. Papyra is young, so every bug report, idea and pull request genuinely shapes it.

Ways to help — no code needed

  • Use it and tell us what breaks. Try the live demo or run your own copy, then open an issue with what you did, what you expected and what happened. Screenshots help.
  • Ask for what’s missing. Feature ideas are issues too. Say what you are trying to do, not only the button you want.
  • Improve the docs. Anything that confused you on papyra.app/docs will confuse the next person. The pages live in papyra.app/src/content/docs/.
  • Star the repo and tell a friend. Honestly, this helps more than you’d think.

Found a security problem? Please don’t open a public issue — report it privately through GitHub’s security advisories.

Building on Papyra

Want to script your notes, connect another tool or build a plugin? Everything the web app does goes through a documented REST API, with personal API keys and signed webhooks: see the API reference.

Before you write code

For anything bigger than a small fix, open an issue first so we can agree on the approach before you spend an evening on it.

Papyra was largely vibe-coded with AI assistants, so AI-assisted pull requests are welcome. The bar is the same either way: you have read the change, run it, and tested it.

Setting up

You need the .NET 10 SDK, Node 22 and pnpm 11.

git clone https://github.com/lyfie-org/papyra.git
cd papyra
pnpm install
pnpm dev        # API on :5220, web app on :5173, live-editing engine on :5231
FolderWhat it is
papyra.api/.NET 10 Minimal API, plus xUnit and black-box edge tests
papyra.web/The React 19 + Vite web app (also built as the in-browser demo)
papyra.collab/The live-editing engine, run by the API as a child process
papyra.app/This website: Astro, docs and the demo host

A few rules the code lives by

  • The .md files are the source of truth. SQLite and the search index are caches that can be rebuilt from the folder. Never make them the only copy of anything.
  • Writes are atomic — temp file, flush, replace. A crash must never leave half a note.
  • Papyra’s own state lives in .papyra/, never inside the notes folder.
  • Never move someone’s caret. A remote change must not hijack the editor.
  • Design tokens only. Colours come from var(--token); fonts are Marcellus, Sora and Roboto Mono; everything meets WCAG AA in light and dark.

Before you open a pull request

Run the checks for whatever you touched:

# API
dotnet build Papyra.slnx
dotnet test papyra.api/tests/Papyra.Tests/Papyra.Tests.csproj

# Web app (from papyra.web/)
pnpm run build          # type-check + bundle — catches more than tsc --noEmit
pnpm test
pnpm run check:a11y     # WCAG 2.2 AA in real Chromium (CI fails on any violation)

# Live-editing engine (from papyra.collab/)
pnpm run typecheck && pnpm run lint && pnpm test

# Website (from papyra.app/)
pnpm run build

Then:

  1. Branch from development and open your pull request against development — main only receives releases.
  2. Use Conventional Commit prefixes (feat:, fix:, docs:, chore:…). The changelog is generated from them.
  3. Keep it focused: one change per pull request, with a sentence on why.
  4. If it changes what a user sees, include a screenshot.

Part of Lyfie

Papyra is a Lyfie project, alongside its editor, luthor. Other projects that could use a hand are listed at lyfie.org/contribute.

License

Papyra is GPL-3.0. By contributing, you agree your work is released under the same license.