Trilium Notes — Self-Hosted Hierarchical Knowledge Base

What it is

Trilium Notes is a self-hosted note-taking application designed for building personal knowledge bases. It features a hierarchical note structure, rich WYSIWYG editing, note cloning (one note in multiple places), relation maps for visualizing connections, and a scripting API for automation. Notes are stored in a SQLite database with full-text search.

Researchers, developers, and knowledge workers who maintain large personal knowledge bases benefit from Trilium. It excels at organizing interconnected information that does not fit a flat folder structure.

How it saves time or tokens

Trilium's note cloning feature eliminates information duplication. Instead of copying a note into multiple categories, you clone it so it appears in all relevant places while maintaining a single source of truth. The relation maps visualize connections between notes, helping you find related information faster than text search alone.

How to use

1. Deploy Trilium via Docker or download the desktop app
2. Create a note hierarchy and start organizing your knowledge
3. Use cloning, relation maps, and attributes to build connections between notes

Example

# Docker deployment
docker run -d --name trilium \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v trilium-data:/home/node/trilium-data \
  triliumnext/notes

# Open http://localhost:8080
# Create notes with hierarchical structure:
# Root
#   -> Projects
#     -> Project A
#   -> Technologies
#     -> Python (cloned into Project A too)
#   -> People
#     -> Team member (linked via relation map)

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Common pitfalls

• The SQLite database can grow large with many image attachments; monitor disk space and configure regular backups
• Note cloning creates implicit dependencies; deleting the original note affects all clones
• The scripting API is powerful but underdocumented; expect trial-and-error when building custom automations