What is silicon?

Silicon Notes is a lightweight personal knowledge base built for low-friction note-taking. It offers plaintext Markdown editing that renders to HTML, code block syntax highlighting, two-way page linking, full-text and title search, revision history, and a sidebar table of contents. The interface works well on mobile and includes built-in documentation. Since it lacks any authentication, it must run on a trusted network or behind a VPN. The app is a Python Flask project with an optional CodeMirror editor. Data lives in SQLite and can be exported to or imported from JSON. You can deploy it via Docker, Docker Compose, or locally with uv and poe.

Should you self-host silicon?

silicon scores 43/100 on selfhost.directory (how scoring works) and ranks #27 of 42 in Knowledge Management. It has 266 GitHub stars.

There was no stable release in the past 12 months, so check the repository's recent activity before you rely on it.

Setup is moderate: expect some configuration beyond a single command. An official Docker image is available. It is Other-licensed and written mostly in Python.

Its closest alternative on selfhost.directory is Project N.O.M.A.D. (85/100, 41 107 stars). It scores higher overall, so compare the two before you pick. See silicon vs Project N.O.M.A.D. side by side.

Features

Bi-directional links
Built-in documentation
CodeMirror editorOptional; can be disabled via SILICON_EDITOR=textarea
Data Export/ImportWork in progress; supports full export/import via CLI commands
Full-Text Search
Markdown editing
No built-in authenticationExplicitly stated as having no auth
Page history
Syntax highlighting
Table of Contents