# Papyra

> Papyra is a free, open-source, self-hosted note-taking app — a private Google Keep alternative. Every note is a plain Markdown file on your own server. No telemetry, ever.

Papyra is for anyone who wants a calm, beautiful notes app they own outright: home-labbers, privacy-minded people, families and small teams.
It feels like Google Keep — a desk of colourful note cards — and goes as deep as a wiki: links, backlinks, search, history and live collaboration.
Every note stays an ordinary Markdown file on the user’s own server, so nothing is ever locked in.

- Website: https://papyra.app
- Live demo (runs entirely in the browser, no sign-up): https://papyra.app/demo/
- Source code: https://github.com/lyfie-org/papyra (GNU GPL v3.0)
- Docker image: https://hub.docker.com/r/lyfie/papyra (6,200+ pulls)
- Made by Lyfie (https://www.lyfie.org), the open-source organisation founded by Rahul N. Anand; its editor is luthor (https://www.luthor.fyi)
- Price: free. No paid tier, no licence key, no account with Lyfie.
- Privacy: no telemetry, analytics, crash reports or usage pings; no third-party requests from the app.

## Features

- Every note is a plain Markdown (.md) file with YAML frontmatter, on your own server
- No telemetry, analytics, crash reports or usage pings — nothing is sent anywhere
- Autosave with full version history; scrub back to any earlier version
- Full-text search across notes, to-dos and collections, with highlighted matches
- Wiki links ([[note]]) and backlinks
- Live collaboration on shared notes, with cursors and presence
- Sharing, @mentions, comments and notifications
- Locked notes, encrypted at rest, opened with a vault PIN or biometrics
- Passkey sign-in, authenticator-app two-factor, and single sign-on (OIDC)
- Email alerts through your own SMTP server
- Works offline as an installable web app; edits sync when you reconnect
- Pictures, PDFs and video in notes, previewed inline
- Import from Google Keep (Takeout) and Obsidian; drag in any .md file
- Backups: Git sync (optionally encrypted), zip export, encrypted archives
- Smart collections, tags, to-do lists, focus mode, light and dark themes
- Multiple private accounts on one server
- REST API with API keys, and signed webhooks
- One Docker container, one volume; amd64 and arm64

## Install

```bash
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lyfie-org/papyra/main/docker-compose.hub.yml
docker compose -f docker-compose.hub.yml up -d
# then open http://localhost:8080 — the first account created is the admin
```

## Documentation

- [Install Papyra](https://papyra.app/docs/install.md): One compose file, one command. Papyra is a single container — no sidecars, no reverse proxy, no database to run.
- [Configuration](https://papyra.app/docs/configuration.md): Every environment variable Papyra reads, what it is for, and when you actually need it. Most people need none of them.
- [HTTPS and reverse proxies](https://papyra.app/docs/https.md): Why sessions and passkeys need real HTTPS, a working Caddy and nginx config, and what to tell Papyra about your proxy.
- [Working with the files directly](https://papyra.app/docs/files.md): Papyra is not the only thing allowed to touch your notes. How to use Obsidian, Syncthing, git or a text editor alongside it without anything getting confused.
- [Backups and git](https://papyra.app/docs/backups.md): Four ways to get your notes out — copying the folder, zip export, encrypted archives, and an automatic git mirror.
- [Importing your notes](https://papyra.app/docs/importing.md): Bringing a vault in from Obsidian or Google Keep, dragging in single files, or simply copying Markdown into the folder.
- [Writing, embeds and attachments](https://papyra.app/docs/writing.md): Slash commands, embedding any link — a map, a song, a page — and how pictures and documents look in a note and in its Markdown file.
- [Sharing and mentions](https://papyra.app/docs/sharing.md): Public links that expire, sharing with someone on your server, and what exactly a mention gives away.
- [People, invites and SSO](https://papyra.app/docs/accounts.md): Adding people to your server, sending invites and password resets, and pointing Papyra at an identity provider.
- [Security posture](https://papyra.app/docs/security.md): What Papyra does to protect your notes, what it deliberately does not claim, and how to report a problem.
- [Troubleshooting](https://papyra.app/docs/troubleshooting.md): The failures people actually hit, what causes them, and what to do — starting with the sign-in loop.

## Optional

- [Everything above in one file](https://papyra.app/llms-full.txt)
- [Releases](https://github.com/lyfie-org/papyra/releases): every release, with notes
- [API reference](https://papyra.app/api/): the REST API
- [Contributing](https://papyra.app/contribute/): how to help
- [Lyfie](https://www.lyfie.org): the organisation behind Papyra