Many Notes: True Data Ownership for Your Digital Brain

For self-hosters, the ultimate goal is control.

Control over your data, your infrastructure, and your digital life. While many note-taking apps promise self-hosting, Many Notes takes this commitment to a whole new level by uniquely combining a powerful web interface.

Plus, peace of mind that comes from storing your actual notes as individual Markdown files directly on your server’s filesystem.

This isn’t just a detail; it’s a game-changer.

Unlike applications that bury your notes deep inside a database, Many Notes offers the best of both worlds: the convenience of a web application for writing and searching, coupled with direct, human-readable file access for ultimate data sovereignty.

Understanding Many Notes’ Data Storage: A Hybrid Approach

This is a crucial point that differentiates Many Notes from many other note-taking applications.

Does Many Notes require a database? Yes, it does. Many Notes utilizes a database (SQLite by default, but configurable for MySQL or PostgreSQL) to manage:

  • Application Metadata: User accounts, vault configurations, settings, and permissions.
  • Note Metadata: Things like note IDs, creation/update timestamps, tags, and internal links (for efficient querying and relationships).
  • Search Index: For robust and fast searching across your notes (especially when integrated with a search engine like Typesense).

Is data stored as plain Markdown files? Yes, absolutely!

This is Many Notes’ core strength for self-hosters. While the database handles the metadata, the actual content of your notes is stored as separate, individual .md Markdown files directly on your server’s filesystem.

This “hybrid” approach means:

  1. Direct Accessibility: You can navigate to the designated “notes” volume on your server and see plain .md files, organized into folders corresponding to your vaults. You can open them with any text editor, even if Many Notes is not running.
  2. Easy Migration & Backup: Backing up your notes is as simple as copying the manynotes_notes volume. If you ever decide to switch applications, your raw Markdown files are immediately available for import into other Markdown-compatible tools (like Obsidian, Logseq, VS Code, etc.).
  3. Future-Proofing: Your valuable content is not locked into a proprietary database format. It lives in a universal, human-readable format.

Why Many Notes is a Game-Changer for Self-Hosters

Many Notes provides a compelling package for anyone looking to truly own their notes:

  • Files You Can See and Touch: This is the standout feature. Your notes are saved as plain .md Markdown files within a structured “vault” on your server. This means:
    • Easy Backups: Simply copy the directory containing your Markdown files.
    • Future-Proof: Your notes are in a universal, readable format, accessible even if the Many Notes application itself is no longer running.
    • Direct Access: Use any text editor, code editor, or Markdown viewer to read and edit your notes directly from the file system, outside of the Many Notes application.
  • Simple & Intuitive Markdown Interface: Focus on your content with a clean and user-friendly web editor that fully supports Markdown.
  • Multiple User & Vault Support: Perfect for families or small teams, allowing each user to have separate, protected “vaults” (collections of notes) that are securely managed.
  • Powerful Search: Leveraging modern search engines like Typesense, Many Notes offers fast, typo-tolerant search across all your notes, even with a vast collection.
  • Organized Tree View: Navigate your notes effortlessly with a familiar file explorer-like tree view, making it easy to find and organize your thoughts.
  • Self-Hostable by Design: Built from the ground up to be deployed on your own server, with Docker Compose being the recommended and most efficient method.
  • Automatic Saving & Templates: Write without worry, as notes are saved automatically. Use templates to quickly create new notes with predefined structures.
  • Flexible Authentication: Supports various OAuth providers for easy and secure login integration with your existing identity management.

Self-Hosting Many Notes: The Docker Compose Way

Deploying Many Notes is streamlined using Docker Compose, allowing you to set up the application, its database, and even a search engine (like Typesense) with a single command.

Here’s a common docker-compose.yml structure for Many Notes.

This example includes the Many Notes app and a SQLite database (for metadata and user info) as the default:

#version: '3.8'

services:
  manynotes:
    image: brufdev/many-notes:latest # Always use a specific version in production, e.g., v0.9.0
    container_name: manynotes
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8000:8000" # Host_Port:Container_Port - Access Many Notes via this port
    environment:
      # General configuration
      - APP_ENV=production
      - APP_DEBUG=false
      - APP_KEY=YourSuperSecretAppKeyGoesHere # IMPORTANT: Generate a secure, unique key!
      - APP_URL=http://localhost:8000 # IMPORTANT: Change to your server's URL/IP if accessing remotely
      # Database configuration (for SQLite)
      - DB_CONNECTION=sqlite
      - DB_DATABASE=/app/database/database.sqlite # Path inside the container
      # Storage volume for Markdown files and DB
      - APP_NOTES_PATH=/app/notes # Path inside the container where Markdown files will be stored
    volumes:
      - manynotes_data:/app/database # For the SQLite database file
      - manynotes_notes:/app/notes   # For your actual Markdown notes
    depends_on:
      # If using MySQL/PostgreSQL, you would add your DB service here
      # - db

# Define named volumes for persistence
volumes:
  manynotes_data:
  manynotes_notes:

For production and larger installations, you might want to replace SQLite with MySQL/PostgreSQL and add Typesense.

#version: '3.8'

services:
  manynotes:
    image: brufdev/many-notes:latest # Use a specific version for production, e.g., brufdev/many-notes:v0.9.0
    container_name: manynotes
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8099:8080" # Host_Port:Container_Port - Access Many Notes via http://your-server-ip (or http://your-server-ip:80 if default port)
    environment:
      - APP_ENV=production
      - APP_DEBUG=false
      - APP_KEY=YOUR_GENERATED_APP_KEY_HERE # <--- IMPORTANT: Generate and replace with a unique, strong key!
      - APP_URL=http://192.168.1.8:8099 # <--- IMPORTANT: Replace with your server's actual IP or domain
      # Database configuration for MariaDB
      - DB_CONNECTION=mariadb
      - DB_HOST=mariadb # Use the service name as the hostname
      - DB_PORT=3306
      - DB_DATABASE=manynotes
      - DB_USERNAME=user
      - DB_PASSWORD=USER_PASSWORD # <--- IMPORTANT: Replace with a strong password!
      # Path where Many Notes stores the actual Markdown files
      - APP_NOTES_PATH=/var/www/html/app/notes # This path is critical for your notes' persistence

    volumes:
      # Named volume for Laravel logs
      - manynotes_logs:/var/www/html/storage/logs
      # Named volume for Laravel internal private storage
      - manynotes_private:/var/www/html/storage/app/private
      # CRITICAL: Named volume for your actual Markdown notes files
      - manynotes_files:/var/www/html/app/notes # <-- ADDED THIS CRITICAL VOLUME!

    depends_on:
      - mariadb # Ensure MariaDB starts before Many Notes

  mariadb:
    image: mariadb:11
    container_name: manynotes_mariadb # Good to name this container too
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD=ROOT_PASSWORD # <--- IMPORTANT: Replace with a strong root password!
      - MARIADB_DATABASE=manynotes
      - MARIADB_USER=user
      - MARIADB_PASSWORD=USER_PASSWORD # <--- IMPORTANT: Replace with the same strong password as in Many Notes service!
    volumes:
      - manynotes_db_data:/var/lib/mysql # Named volume for MariaDB database persistence

# Define named volumes for persistence
volumes:
  manynotes_logs:
  manynotes_private:
  manynotes_files: # <-- ADDED THIS VOLUME
  manynotes_db_data:

Before you deploy:

  1. Generate a strong APP_KEY: This is crucial for security. You can typically generate one from a Linux terminal using a command like head /dev/urandom | tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 | head -c 32 ; echo ''.
  2. Update APP_URL: Change http://localhost:8000 to your server’s actual IP address or domain name if you plan to access it remotely.
  3. Choose a specific image tag: Instead of :latest, it’s recommended to use a specific version like :v0.9.0 (check their GitHub releases) for stability in production.

To deploy Many Notes:

  1. Save the above content as docker-compose.yml in an empty directory (e.g., ~/manynotes).
  2. Navigate to that directory in your terminal.
  3. Run the command: 
    docker compose up -d

Accessing Your Notes Directly

Once Many Notes is up and running, you can access the web interface at http://your-server-ip:8000.

To find your Markdown files on your host system (assuming manynotes_notes is a named volume):

  1. Find the volume’s actual mount point: 
    sudo docker volume inspect manynotes_notes
    Look for the "Mountpoint" field (e.g., /var/lib/docker/volumes/manynotes_notes/_data).
  2. Navigate to that directory as root: 
    sudo cd /var/lib/docker/volumes/manynotes_notes/_data
    Inside, you’ll see directories representing your vaults and within them, your .md files!

Conclusion

Many Notes offers a compelling proposition for self-hosters: a robust, web-based Markdown note-taking experience combined with the peace of mind of having your data truly accessible as standard files on your own server. If data ownership and flexibility are high on your priority list, Many Notes is definitely a project worth exploring for your personal knowledge management needs.