emanote (legacy Obelisk app)

Write plain-text notes, but do complex things with it - such as to emanate a smart notebook.

emanate: (of something abstract but perceptible) issue or spread out from (a source).

NOTE: This is the old Obelisk app, as distinct from emanote the neuron successor.

Purpose

Goals: large private Zettelkastens, dynamic navigation, simplicity, performance.

Non-goals: static site publishing, theming.

Maybe-goals: use emanote-core as a core library in neuron.

Give it a test-drive

Clone the source, and read ./doc/Development.md

Self-host it in production

If you use NixOS, obelisk-systemd can be used to automate self-hosting. Otherwise, on other Linux, follow the instructions below.

1. Install Nix
2. Set up nix cache by following instructions here
3. Build it (might take a while):

   nix-build -A exe -j auto -o ./result
   

4. Prepare runtime files:

   mkdir ~/my-emanote
   cp -r ./result/* ~/my-emanote
   cp -r config ~/my-emanote/
   

5. Tell emanote where your Zettelkasten (directory of Markdown files) lives:

   vim ~/emanote/config/backend/notesDir  
   

6. Run it! (on http://localhost:8000)

   cd ~/my-emanote
   ./backend -p 8000  #
   

7. NOTE: When self-hosting and exposing under a different address, say www.example.com, you must edit ~/my-emanote/config/common/route to contain the corresponding URL, i.e., https://www.example.com.

Editing notes

Emanote does not provide a editor. However, if you use Syncthing - and edit your notes locally, Emanote's view will update automatically without refresh. This mimicks the "live preview" feature (have your text editor open on side, and the web browser with emanote on another side).

Talk about it

Join us in Matrix: https://app.element.io/#/room/#neuron:matrix.org