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Table of Contents
💡 Introduction
SiYuan is a privacy-first personal knowledge management system, supporting fine-grained block-level reference and Markdown
WYSIWYG.
To learn more, read the online user guide or join the SiYuan English Discussion Forum.
🔮 Features
Most features are free, even for commercial use.
- Content block
- Block-level reference and two-way links
- Custom attributes
- SQL query embed
- Protocol
siyuan://
- Editor
- Block-style
- Markdown WYSIWYG
- List outline
- Block zoom-in
- Million-word large document editing
- Mathematical formulas, charts, flowcharts, Gantt charts, timing charts, staves, etc.
- Web clipping
- PDF Annotation link
- Export
- Block ref and embed
- Standard Markdown with assets
- PDF, Word and HTML
- Copy to WeChat MP, Zhihu and Yuque
- Database
- Flashcard spaced repetition
- AI writing and Q/A chat via OpenAI API
- Tesseract OCR
- Multi-tab, drag and drop to split screen
- Template snippet
- JavaScript/CSS snippet
- Android/iOS/HarmonyOS App
- Docker deployment
- API
- Community marketplace
Some features are only available to paid members, for more details please refer to Pricing.
🏗️ Architecture and Ecosystem
🗺️ Roadmap
🚀 Download Setup
It is recommended to give priority to installing through the application market on desktop and mobile, so that you can upgrade the version with one click in the future.
App Market
Mobile:
Desktop:
Installation Package
Package Manager
siyuan
siyuan-note
Docker Hosting
Docker Deployment
Overview
The easiest way to serve SiYuan on a server is to deploy it through Docker.
File structure
The overall program is located under /opt/siyuan/, which is basically the structure under the resources folder of the Electron installation package:
- appearance: icon, theme, languages
- guide: user guide document
- stage: interface and static resources
- kernel: kernel program
Entrypoint
The entry point is set when building the Docker image: ENTRYPOINT ["/opt/siyuan/entrypoint.sh"]. This script allows changing the PUID and PGID of the user that will run inside the container. This is especially relevant to solve permission issues when mounting directories from the host. The PUID (User ID) and PGID (Group ID) can be passed as environment variables, making it easier to ensure correct permissions when accessing host-mounted directories.
Use the following parameters when running the container with docker run b3log/siyuan:
Note: Since v3.7.0, the serve subcommand must be passed explicitly (e.g. docker run b3log/siyuan serve --workspace=...). Run docker run --rm b3log/siyuan serve --help to see all serving options.
--workspace: Specifies the workspace folder path, mounted to the container via -v on the host--accessAuthCode: Specifies the lock screen password
More parameters can be found using --help. Here’s an example of a startup command with the new environment variables:
docker run -d \
-v workspace_dir_host:workspace_dir_container \
-p 6806:6806 \
-e PUID=1001 -e PGID=1002 \
b3log/siyuan \
serve \
--workspace=workspace_dir_container \
--accessAuthCode=xxx
PUID: Custom user ID (optional, defaults to 1000 if not provided)PGID: Custom group ID (optional, defaults to 1000 if not provided)workspace_dir_host: The workspace folder path on the hostworkspace_dir_container: The path of the workspace folder in the container, as specified in --workspace
- Alternatively, it's possible to set the path via the
SIYUAN_WORKSPACE_PATH env variable. The commandline will always have the priority, if both are set
accessAuthCode: Lock screen password (please be sure to modify, otherwise anyone can access your data)
- Alternatively, it's possible to set the lock screen password via the
SIYUAN_ACCESS_AUTH_CODE env variable. The commandline will always have the priority, if both are set
- To disable the lock screen password set the env variable
SIYUAN_ACCESS_AUTH_CODE_BYPASS=true
- OIDC can replace the lock screen password as the required Docker access authentication. Set
SIYUAN_OIDC_ENABLED=true, SIYUAN_OIDC_PROVIDER (custom, google, microsoft, or github), SIYUAN_OIDC_CLIENT_ID, and the provider-specific values below. GitHub uses its OAuth 2.0 user API adapter; the other providers use OpenID Connect discovery and ID Token validation. An invalid enabled configuration stops Docker startup when no lock screen password is available
SIYUAN_OIDC_ISSUER_URL: Issuer URL required by the custom and microsoft providers; Microsoft must use a tenant-specific issuer such as https://login.microsoftonline.com/<tenant-id>/v2.0SIYUAN_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET: Optional client secret for OpenID Connect providers; required by the GitHub OAuth adapter. Every authorization-code flow also uses PKCESIYUAN_OIDC_SCOPES: Comma- or space-separated scopes; openid is always includedSIYUAN_OIDC_REDIRECT_URL: Public HTTPS callback URL ending in /api/system/oidc/callback, required for remote browser accessSIYUAN_OIDC_ALLOW_ALL: Explicitly grant SiYuan administrator access to every identity authenticated by the providerSIYUAN_OIDC_CLAIM_RULES: JSON array of claim rules used when allow-all is disabled, for example [{"claim":"email","operator":"equals","values":["[email protected]"]},{"claim":"email_verified","operator":"equals","values":["true"]}]; values within a rule use OR, while rules use AND- Native mobile apps use the fixed callback URI
siyuan:/oidc-callback; register it exactly as written. Mobile configuration verification uses this callback before saving. Custom providers, Microsoft, and GitHub can be used only when their application registration accepts this callback URI. Google does not accept this private-use URI for its Android client type, so Google login is limited to browser and desktop flows
SIYUAN_LANG: Interface language (optional, defaults to en if unset in Docker). Accepts BCP 47 tags like zh-CN/zh-TW/en/ja/pt-BR; legacy underscore values like zh_CN/en_US are also accepted for backward compatibility. Omit it if you want the language chosen in Settings to persist across restarts; if set, it is applied on every startup and overrides the saved setting
- Alternatively, use the
--lang command-line parameter. If both are set, the command-line takes priority
To simplify things, it is recommended to configure the workspace folder path to be consistent on the host and container, such as having both workspace_dir_host and workspace_dir_container configured as /siyuan/workspace. The corresponding startup command would be:
docker run -d \
-v /siyuan/workspace:/siyuan/workspace \
-p 6806:6806 \
-e PUID=1001 -e PGID=1002 \
b3log/siyuan \
serve \
--workspace=/siyuan/workspace/ \
--accessAuthCode=xxx
Docker Compose
For users running SiYuan with Docker Compose, the environment variables PUID and PGID can be passed to customize the user and group IDs. Here's an example of a Docker Compose configuration:
version: "3.9"
services:
main:
image: b3log/siyuan
command: ['serve', '--workspace=/siyuan/workspace/', '--accessAuthCode=${AuthCode}']
ports:
- 6806:6806
volumes:
- /siyuan/workspace:/siyuan/workspace
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
- TZ=${YOUR_TIME_ZONE} # A list of time zone identifiers can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones
- PUID=${YOUR_USER_PUID} # Customize user ID
- PGID=${YOUR_USER_PGID} # Customize group ID
In this setup:
PUID and PGID are set dynamically and passed to the container- If these variables are not provided, the default
1000 will be used
By specifying PUID and PGID in the environment, you avoid the need to explicitly set the user directive (user: '1000:1000') in the compose file. The container will dynamically adjust the user and group based on these environment variables at startup.
User Permissions
In the image, the entrypoint.sh script ensures the creation of the siyuan user and group with the specified PUID and PGID. Therefore, when the host creates a workspace folder, pay attention to setting the user and group ownership of the folder to match the PUID and PGID you plan to use. For example:
chown -R 1001:1002 /siyuan/workspace
If you use custom PUID and PGID values, the entrypoint script will ensure that the correct user and group are created inside the container, and ownership of mounted volumes will be adjusted accordingly. There’s no need to manually pass -u in docker run or docker-compose as the environment variables will handle the customization.
Hidden port
Use an NGINX reverse proxy to hide port 6806. Please note:
- Configure the WebSocket reverse proxy for
/ws
Note
- Be sure to confirm the correctness of the mounted volume, otherwise the data will be lost after the container is deleted
- Do not use URL rewriting for redirection, otherwise there may be problems with authentication, it is recommended to configure a reverse proxy
- If you encounter permission issues, verify that the
PUID and PGID environment variables match the ownership of the mounted directories on your host system
Limitations
- Does not support desktop and mobile application connections, only supports use on browsers
- Export to PDF, HTML and Word formats is not supported
- Import Markdown file is not supported
Unraid Hosting
Unraid Deployment
Note: First run chown -R 1000:1000 /mnt/user/appdata/siyuan in the terminal
Template reference:
Web UI: 6806
Container Port: 6806
Container Path: /home/siyuan
Host path: /mnt/user/appdata/siyuan
PUID: 1000
PGID: 1000
Publish parameters: serve --accessAuthCode=******(Lock screen password)
TrueNAS Hosting
TrueNAS Deployment
Note: First, run the commands below in the TrueNAS Shell. Please update Pool_1/Apps_Data/siyuan to match your dataset path.
zfs create Pool_1/Apps_Data/siyuan
chown -R 1001:1002 /mnt/Pool_1/Apps_Data/siyuan
chmod 755 /mnt/Pool_1/Apps_Data/siyuan
Navigate to Apps - DiscoverApps - More Options (on top right, besides Custom App) - Install via YAML
Template reference:
services:
siyuan:
image: b3log/siyuan
container_name: siyuan
command: ['serve', '--workspace=/siyuan/workspace/', '--accessAuthCode=2222']
ports:
- 6806:6806
volumes:
- /mnt/Pool_1/Apps_Data/siyuan:/siyuan/workspace # Adjust to your dataset path
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
- TZ=America/New_York # Replace with your timezone if needed
- PUID=1001
- PGID=1002
Test Channels
Select Beta or Alpha in Settings - About - Update channel to receive prereleases. Beta includes stable, RC, and Beta releases; Alpha includes all releases. Test channels require access to GitHub.
⌨️ Command-line Interface
The built-in CLI provides direct access to workspace data — no running server required.
Quick Start
# List all notebooks
siyuan notebook list -w ~/SiYuan
# Full-text search with JSON output
siyuan search "keyword" -w ~/SiYuan -f json
# Search inside asset files (PDF/Word/Excel/txt etc.)
siyuan search "phrase" --asset -w ~/SiYuan
siyuan search "phrase" --asset --ext pdf --ext docx -w ~/SiYuan
# Export a doc
SiYuan is an open-source, privacy-first, self-hosted knowledge workspace that combines block-level note-taking with AI agent collaboration, letting humans and AI agents work on the same knowledge base together.