SilverBullet

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# SilverBullet
SilverBullet is a Programmable, Private, Browser-based, Open Source, Self Hosted, Personal Knowledge Database — a fancy term for a "notes app on steroids".

_Yowza!_ That surely is a lot of adjectives to describe a browser-based Markdown editor programmable with Lua.

Let’s get more specific.

SilverBullet combines a clean live-preview editor with wiki-style linking, a built-in database and query language, and a fully integrated Space Lua scripting environment, turning your notes into a programmable system that grows with you.

In SilverBullet you keep your content as a collection of Markdown Pages (called a Space). You navigate your space using the Page Picker like a traditional notes app, or through Links like a wiki (except they are bi-directional).

If you are the **writer** type, you’ll appreciate SilverBullet as a clean Markdown editor with Live Preview. If you have more of an **outliner** personality, SilverBullet has Outlining tools for you. Productivity freak? Have a look at Tasks. More of a **database** person? You will appreciate Objects and Queries (SLIQ). 

And if you are comfortable **programming** a little bit — now we’re really talking. You will love _dynamically generating content_ with Space Lua (SilverBullet’s Lua dialect), or to use it to create custom Commands, Page Templates or Widgets.

You were told there’s no such thing as a silver bullet. You were told wrong.

[Much more detail can be found on silverbullet.md](https://silverbullet.md)

## Installing SilverBullet
Check out the [instructions](https://silverbullet.md/Install).

## Developing SilverBullet
SilverBullet's frontend is written in [TypeScript](https://www.typescriptlang.org/) and built on top of the excellent [CodeMirror 6](https://codemirror.net/) editor component. Additional UI is built using [Preact](https://preactjs.com). [ESBuild](https://esbuild.github.io) is used to build the frontend.

The server backend is written in Go.

## Code structure
* `client/`: The SilverBullet client, implemented with TypeScript
* `server/`: The SilverBullet server, written in Go
* `plugs`: Set of built-in plugs that are distributed with SilverBullet
* `libraries`: A set of libraries (space scripts, page templates, slash templates) distributed with SilverBullet
* `plug-api/`: Useful APIs for use in plugs
  * `lib/`: Useful libraries to be used in plugs
  * `syscalls/`: TypeScript wrappers around syscalls
  * `types/`: Various (client) types that can be references from plugs
* `bin`
  * `plug_compile.ts` the plug compiler
* `scripts/`: Useful scripts
* `website/`: silverbullet.md website content

### Requirements
* [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/) 24+ and npm 10+: Used to build the frontend and plugs
* [Go](https://go.dev/): Used to build the backend

The project includes `.nvmrc` and `.node-version` files. If you use [nvm](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm) or another Node version manager, it will automatically use the correct Node.js version:

```shell
nvm use  # If using nvm
```

It's convenient to also install [air](https://github.com/air-verse/air) for development, this will automatically rebuild both the frontend and backend when changes are made:

```shell
go install github.com/air-verse/air@latest
```
Make sure your `$GOPATH/bin` is in your $PATH.

First, install dependencies:

```shell
make setup
```

To build everything and run the server (which automatically restarts upon file changing):

```shell
air <PATH-TO-YOUR-SPACE>
```

Alternatively, to build:

```shell
make
```

To run the resulting server:

```shell
./silverbullet <PATH-TO-YOUR-SPACE>
```

### Useful development tasks

```shell
# Clean all generated files
make clean
# Typecheck and lint all code
make check
# Format all code
make fmt
# Run all tests
make test
# Run benchmarks
make bench
```

### Build a docker container
Note, you do not need Node.js nor Go locally installed for this to work:

```shell
docker build -t silverbullet .
```

To run:
```shell
docker run -p 3000:3000 -v <PATH-TO-YOUR-SPACE>:/space silverbullet
```