Trilium Notes
Hierarchical note-taking with backlinks, search, and automation
Trilium Notes is a personal knowledge base for organizing notes in a hierarchical tree while also supporting cross-linking between notes. It combines a fast web UI, rich editing (including code and Markdown), and powerful search to manage large, interlinked knowledge collections.
Key Features
- Tree-structured notebooks with cloning (same note in multiple places)
- Rich-text (WYSIWYG) editing plus code notes with syntax highlighting
- Markdown import/export and other bulk import/export options
- Bidirectional links and backlinks; note relations/attributes and tagging
- Full-text search with filtering to navigate large note collections
- Versioning/revision history for notes
- Web clipper for capturing content into notes
- Scripting/automation (JavaScript) and custom widgets for extending behavior
Use Cases
- Personal knowledge management (Zettelkasten-style linking, research notes)
- Technical documentation and “second brain” for projects (snippets, runbooks)
- Journaling and structured life logs organized by a timeline/tree
Limitations and Considerations
- Collaboration features are limited compared with team-first tools (e.g., comments, real-time multi-user editing)
- The data model (tree + clones + attributes) can require a learning period for new users
Trilium is well-suited for users who want a fast, local-first feeling knowledge base with a strong hierarchy, links, and extensibility. It is commonly used as a private alternative to commercial note and knowledge apps while retaining advanced organization and automation capabilities.
Categories:
Tags:
Tech Stack:
Node.js
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