cropflre/nowen-note

What it solves

Nowen Note is a self-hosted knowledge base and productivity workbench designed to give users full control over their data. It eliminates the need to switch between multiple tools by unifying note-taking, daily journaling, task management, and AI-powered knowledge retrieval into a single, private infrastructure that can be run on a NAS or personal server.

How it works

The system uses a client-server architecture deployable via Docker, with a backend powered by Node.js and SQLite (with support for FTS5 and sqlite-vec). It provides a unified "knowledge tree" for organizing both rich-text and Markdown documents. To enable AI capabilities, it implements a RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) system that indexes local notes and attachments, sending only relevant snippets to a configured LLM (such as OpenAI, DeepSeek, or local models via Ollama) rather than the entire database.

Who it’s for

It is designed for individuals and teams who prioritize data sovereignty and privacy, particularly those who own a NAS (like UGOS or fnOS) and want a cross-platform workspace (Web, Desktop, Android, iOS) for managing long-term knowledge and daily tasks.

Highlights

• Self-Hosted Infrastructure: Full support for Docker and NAS deployment with data backups to WebDAV or email.
• Hybrid Editor: Dual support for rich-text and Markdown with real-time preview and format conversion.
• AI RAG Integration: Knowledge-base Q&A that uses local indexing to maintain privacy, supporting various LLM providers and local models.
• Comprehensive Toolset: Includes a task center (Kanban, Gantt charts), daily records, and a knowledge graph.
• MCP Server Support: Allows AI clients like Claude Code or Cursor to search and update notes via a dedicated MCP server.
• Cross-Platform Sync: Real-time collaboration via Yjs and WebSocket across Web, Electron, and mobile apps.