SiYuan is a [[AGPLv3]] licensed knowledge management and note-taking app written in [[Typescript]] with a backend in [[Go]]. - [Website](https://b3log.org/siyuan/en/) - [Source](https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan) - Documentation - [AlternativeTo](https://alternativeto.net/software/siyuan/about/) > SiYuan is a privacy-first personal knowledge management system that supports complete offline usage, as well as end-to-end encrypted data sync. > > Fuse blocks, outlines, and bidirectional links to refactor your thinking. # Notability Featureful, relatively intuitive. A little nicer than some of the alternatives, but still very busy. Configuration seems to lack some things. # Philosophy The name `siyuan` may mean "temple". Company based in China. Other than their weird lack of info about the hosted services and storage of data in China, I have no issues with anything they've set out here. Probably the best licensing and monetization strategy out of any of the related [[KM]] apps. ## Licensing Most everything is [[AGPLv3]] which is great, but there's no meaningful privacy policy, even though there is a cloud service. This is the full extent of the site's mention of their cloud service license as of [[2024-02-05]]: > SiYuan cloud service, it is forbidden to share user accounts, otherwise the account will be deactivated. Their "Bazaar" plugin repository is oddly licensed under the [[Mulan Permissive Software License v2]]. ## Pricing A $64 lifetime license for "Pro" features and a "temporary Lifetime Subscription" for $148. The subscription tier comes with 8G of storage, sync, backup, "inbox" email to note, and publish. Presumably this will actually be billed annually in the future. ## AI Has integrated AI features. At least the allow you to easily direct it at a local service, but by default it points at [[OpenAI]]. Information may be sent to this server by accident. It is recommended to disable it immediately. # Platform Support - [[Linux]] - [[MacOS]] - [[Windows]] - [[Android]] - [[iOS]] # Features - Live editor - With kind of odd separate pop up windows for inserting diagrams via text box instead of inline, which means you kinda need to use the mouse - Basic tables - Slash `/` commands - Callouts - Block-oriented ## Restricted - Web Clipping (Chromium-based browsers only) - Sync (paid) - Can use SiYuan's hosted service, [[AWS S3]] directly, or [[WebDAV]] for syncing instead - Security - End to end encryption with AES GCM - Key stored locally - Each device stores changed locally, sync will not destroy anything - Login and data sync can be configured to use servers in China or North America - Email to note ## Missing Features - Cannot be used with an *external* sync service, high potential for corruption they say - No canvas / mindmap # Tips # References - https://choosealicense.com/licenses/mulanpsl-2.0/ - https://github.com/orgs/siyuan-note/projects/1/views/1?pane=issue&itemId=5355376