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flatnotes flatnotes

Stack

ProductivityDocuments

Distraction-free notes app with no folders or database, just a folder of markdown files behind full-text search, tags, wikilinks and a raw or WYSIWYG editor. Source: https://github.com/dullage/flatnotes

Image details

Pulls: 2.2M
Architecture: amd64, arm64, arm64/v8
Image size: 91 MB
Latest: v5.5
User: dullage
Created: Aug 22, 2022
Updated: 1 month ago
Status: active

Source details

Repo: dullage/flatnotes
Stars: 3k
Forks: 220
Language: Vue
License: MIT
Latest: v5.5.5 · 1 month ago
Updated: 1 month ago

Configuration

Type
Compose
Platform
linux
Image
dullage/flatnotes:v5
Ports
${FLATNOTES_PORT:-8780}:8080
Volumes
/data : flatnotes-data
Env vars
FLATNOTES_AUTH_TYPE=passwordFLATNOTES_USERNAME=${FLATNOTES_USERNAME:-admin}FLATNOTES_PASSWORD=${FLATNOTES_PASSWORD:?Set a password}FLATNOTES_SECRET_KEY=${FLATNOTES_SECRET_KEY:?Set a secret key}FLATNOTES_PORT=8780
Restart
unless-stopped
Source
Repo

Template by NotAFlightRisk·Source

Report issue

Notes

Set the password and secret key before you deploy (openssl rand -hex 32 makes a good key), since the stack won't start without them. Then open http://<your-host>:8780 (or whichever port you picked) and log in with that username and password. It's one account, read fresh on every start, so changing the password here and redeploying changes it, and a new secret key just logs you out. Notes are plain .md files in the flatnotes-data volume, with uploads in its attachments folder and the search index in .flatnotes. Docs: github.com/dullage/flatnotes/wiki

Standalone Install

Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying flatnotes

Installation method

Install on Portainer

Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys

  1. Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
  2. Log into your Portainer web UI
  3. Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
  4. Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
  5. Select flatnotes, fill in any config options, and hit Deploy

Template Import URL

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me demo
Original stackfile

The compose file this template deploys, straight from its repo:

services:
  flatnotes:
    image: dullage/flatnotes:v5
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "${FLATNOTES_PORT:-8780}:8080"
    environment:
      FLATNOTES_AUTH_TYPE: password
      FLATNOTES_USERNAME: ${FLATNOTES_USERNAME:-admin}
      FLATNOTES_PASSWORD: ${FLATNOTES_PASSWORD:?Set a password}
      FLATNOTES_SECRET_KEY: ${FLATNOTES_SECRET_KEY:?Set a secret key}
    volumes:
      - flatnotes-data:/data

volumes:
  flatnotes-data:

Or deploy it directly from the source:

git clone https://github.com/NotAFlightRisk/portainer-templates-extras
cd portainer-templates-extras
docker compose -f apps/flatnotes/compose.yml up -d

More install options in our documentation, or see dullage/flatnotes for app-specific guidance.

Logo
A self-hosted, database-less note taking web app that utilises a flat folder of markdown files for storage.
Log into the demo site and take a look around. Note: This site resets every 15 minutes.
See flatnotes.io for more information.

Available Tags

FormatExample
Latestlatest
Major Versionv5
Minor Versionv5.5
Patch Versionv5.5.5

Check the logs first

Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.

  • In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run docker logs <container>
  • Exit codes help too: 137 means killed, usually out of memory. 126 or 127 means the command inside the image is broken.

Image won't pull

Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull dullage/flatnotes:v5

  • "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists.
  • "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with docker login to raise it.
  • "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with docker system prune

"exec format error"

This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.

  • This image supports: amd64, arm64, arm64/v8
  • Check yours with uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.

Container keeps restarting

The unless-stopped restart policy relaunches the app after every crash, so the real error can scroll past.

  • Check the logs right after a restart, the last few lines before it died are the useful ones.
  • Get the exit code with docker inspect <container> --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}'
  • Still stuck? Redeploy once with the restart policy set to no so the failure stays visible.

Stack won't deploy

Compose stacks fail fast on small mistakes, and Portainer shows the reason just above the editor.

  • YAML only accepts spaces for indentation, a single tab breaks the whole file.

Raise an issue

Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.

A Compose stack

flatnotes is a Compose stack, a set of containers defined in one file and brought up together by Portainer, then started and stopped as a single app.

The app image

An image is the app packed up ready to go, everything flatnotes needs bundled into one download. This template pulls dullage/flatnotes:v5, which Docker fetches once (about 91 MB) and then starts your own copy from.

Where the image comes from

Docker pulls its images from registries, public libraries of ready-built apps. flatnotes's comes from Docker Hub, published by dullage.

Version tags

The bit after the colon in the image name is the version tag. This one pins v5, so every redeploy gives you that exact build until you bump it yourself.

Which machines it runs on

Every image is built for particular CPU types. This one ships for amd64, arm64, arm64/v8, so it runs on both regular x86 servers and ARM boards like a Raspberry Pi.

Volumes

A volume is where flatnotes keeps its files so they survive an update or a restart. Without one, anything it saves would sit inside the container and vanish the moment it's recreated. This template mounts:

  • /data kept in the flatnotes-data volume Docker manages

Environment variables

Environment variables are the settings you hand over when you deploy, things like a password or a timezone. flatnotes takes 5 of them, and 2 need a value before it'll start properly:

  • FLATNOTES_AUTH_TYPE, defaults to password
  • FLATNOTES_USERNAME, defaults to admin. Username
  • FLATNOTES_PASSWORD, needs a value. What you'll log in with. Anything long and hard to guess.
  • FLATNOTES_SECRET_KEY, needs a value. Signs your logins. Generate one with: openssl rand -hex 32
  • FLATNOTES_PORT, defaults to 8780. Host port for the web UI

Restart policy

The restart policy here is unless-stopped, so Docker restarts flatnotes after a crash or reboot, but leaves it off when you stop it on purpose. You can change this on the deploy screen. The choices are no (never restart), on-failure (only after a crash), unless-stopped (restart unless you stop it), and always (bring it back no matter what).

Networking

Nothing custom is set, so flatnotes sits on Docker's default bridge network: its own private space that reaches the outside world only through the ports it publishes.

Container name

Once it's deployed, Portainer names the container flatnotes. That's what you'll spot in the containers list and use in commands like docker logs flatnotes.

Platform

The platform is linux, the kind of system the container is built to run on. Docker and Portainer handle this on a normal Linux server.

Open source license

flatnotes is open source, released under the MIT license. In plain terms the code is out in the open, so you're free to run it and change it to fit what you need.

Portainer app templates

Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set flatnotes up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying flatnotes is a click rather than a wall of config.