FAQ

LibreDiary is an open-source, self-hosted, local-first workspace for notes, documents, and databases. It is designed as a privacy-focused alternative to tools like Notion, giving you full control over your data.

Yes, LibreDiary is completely free and open-source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. There are no paid tiers, no feature gates, and no usage limits. You can self-host it on your own infrastructure at no cost.

LibreDiary is released under the GNU Affero General Public Licence v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). This means you are free to use, modify, and distribute it, provided that any modifications are also shared under the same licence.

Absolutely. LibreDiary supports multi-tenant organisations with role-based access control. You can create workspaces, invite team members, and manage permissions — all within your self-hosted instance.

LibreDiary is built with a Fastify backend that exposes a RESTful API. The API is used internally by the frontend client and can be accessed for integrations and automation. Full API documentation is available in the GitHub repository.

LibreDiary supports 31 languages through its internationalisation system. The AI-powered writing assistant also supports multiple languages via OpenRouter integration.

You can self-host LibreDiary using Docker (recommended) or by setting it up manually. The quickest way is to use our Docker Compose file — just clone the repository, configure your environment variables, and run "docker compose up". See our Getting Started documentation for full instructions.

LibreDiary requires Node.js 20 or higher, pnpm 9 or higher, and PostgreSQL as the database. For Docker deployments, you need Docker and Docker Compose. The minimum recommended specs are 1 CPU core, 1 GB RAM, and 10 GB of storage.

LibreDiary uses PostgreSQL as its primary database, managed through Prisma ORM. PostgreSQL was chosen for its reliability, performance, and excellent support for JSON data types used in the block editor.

For Docker deployments, pull the latest image and restart your containers. For manual installations, pull the latest code from the repository, run migrations with Prisma, and restart the application. Always back up your database before updating.

Yes. Since you self-host LibreDiary, your data never leaves your infrastructure. The application supports SSO authentication, domain lockdown for enterprise environments, and role-based access control. All data is stored in your own PostgreSQL database.

Yes, LibreDiary supports SSO integration for enterprise environments. You can configure authentication providers through the admin panel to allow your team to sign in using your existing identity provider.

LibreDiary includes a built-in backup system accessible through the admin panel. You can schedule automated backups, configure backup retention policies, and store backups locally or on external storage. We recommend regular backups of both your database and uploaded files.

No. LibreDiary does not include any telemetry, tracking, or analytics in the application itself. Your usage data stays entirely within your self-hosted instance. The marketing website uses privacy-first Umami analytics, but the application has zero tracking.

Migration support from Notion and other platforms is on the roadmap. In the meantime, you can export your data from Notion as Markdown and manually import content into LibreDiary. Community contributions to migration tooling are welcome.

Yes. Since LibreDiary is self-hosted and you control the database, you always have full access to your data. The application supports data export, and you can also directly access your PostgreSQL database for custom exports.

There are many ways to contribute: submit code via pull requests, report bugs, improve documentation, help with translations, or suggest new features. Visit our Contribute page for detailed guidelines and our GitHub repository for open issues.

The frontend is built with Vue 3, Vuestic UI, Tiptap (block editor), Pinia (state management), and Yjs (real-time collaboration). The backend uses Node.js, Fastify, Hocuspocus (WebSocket CRDT server), and Prisma ORM with PostgreSQL. The project uses pnpm workspaces and Turborepo for monorepo management.

Yes! We maintain a "good first issue" label on our GitHub repository for tasks that are well-suited for new contributors. These include documentation improvements, bug fixes, and small feature additions. Check the GitHub Issues page filtered by this label to get started.

LibreDiary uses Yjs, a CRDT (Conflict-free Replicated Data Type) framework, paired with Hocuspocus as the WebSocket server. This enables real-time collaborative editing where multiple users can work on the same document simultaneously without conflicts.