Outline — Fast Knowledge Base for Growing Teams

What Outline Does

• Rich Editor: Markdown-based editor with slash commands, embeds, and real-time collaboration
• Nested Documents: Infinite nesting with drag-and-drop reordering
• Collections: Organize documents into team spaces (Engineering, Product, HR, etc.)
• Full-Text Search: Lightning-fast search across all documents
• Templates: Create document templates for recurring content types
• Comments: Inline and page-level commenting with @mentions
• Revision History: Full version history with visual diff and restore
• API: Complete REST API for automation and integration
• Integrations: Slack, Figma, Loom, Diagrams.net, Google Docs embed

Architecture

┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐
│  Browser     │────▶│  Outline     │────▶│  PostgreSQL  │
│  (React)     │     │  Server      │     │  (Data)      │
└──────────────┘     │  (Node.js)   │     └──────────────┘
                     └──────┬───────┘
                            │
                  ┌─────────┼─────────┐
                  │         │         │
           ┌──────┴──┐ ┌───┴───┐ ┌───┴───┐
           │  Redis  │ │ MinIO │ │  OIDC  │
           │ (Cache) │ │(Files)│ │ (Auth) │
           └─────────┘ └───────┘ └────────┘

Self-Hosting

Docker Compose

services:
  outline:
    image: outlinewiki/outline:latest
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgres://outline:outline@postgres:5432/outline
      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379
      SECRET_KEY: generated-secret-key
      UTILS_SECRET: generated-utils-secret
      URL: http://localhost:3000
      FILE_STORAGE: local
      FILE_STORAGE_LOCAL_ROOT_DIR: /var/lib/outline/data
      # Auth (choose one): Slack, Google, OIDC, SAML
      OIDC_CLIENT_ID: your-client-id
      OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET: your-client-secret
      OIDC_AUTH_URI: https://auth.yourdomain.com/authorize
      OIDC_TOKEN_URI: https://auth.yourdomain.com/token
      OIDC_USERINFO_URI: https://auth.yourdomain.com/userinfo
    depends_on:
      - postgres
      - redis
    volumes:
      - outline-data:/var/lib/outline/data

  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: outline
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: outline
      POSTGRES_DB: outline
    volumes:
      - pg-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine

volumes:
  outline-data:
  pg-data:

Key Features

Slash Commands Editor

Type / to access:

/heading    — Insert heading (H1-H3)
/list       — Bullet or numbered list
/todo       — Task/checkbox list
/table      — Insert table
/code       — Code block with syntax highlighting
/image      — Upload or embed image
/embed      — Embed YouTube, Figma, Loom, etc.
/diagram    — Draw.io diagram
/math       — LaTeX math equation
/notice     — Info/warning/tip callout box
/divider    — Horizontal divider

Collections & Structure

Knowledge Base
├── 📘 Engineering
│   ├── Architecture Decisions
│   │   ├── ADR-001: Database Choice
│   │   └── ADR-002: API Design
│   ├── Runbooks
│   │   ├── Deploy to Production
│   │   └── Database Migration
│   └── Onboarding
│       ├── Day 1 Setup
│       └── Week 1 Checklist
├── 📗 Product
│   ├── PRDs
│   ├── Research
│   └── Roadmap
└── 📕 Company
    ├── Handbook
    ├── Policies
    └── Benefits

Integrations

API

# Search documents
curl -X POST https://outline.yourdomain.com/api/documents.search 
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" 
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" 
  -d '{"query": "deployment guide"}'

# Create document
curl -X POST https://outline.yourdomain.com/api/documents.create 
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" 
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" 
  -d '{"title": "New Guide", "text": "# Getting Started

Welcome!", "collectionId": "collection-uuid", "publish": true}'

Outline vs Alternatives

FAQ

Q: What does Outline's BSL license mean? A: The Business Source License (BSL) allows free use and modification but restricts offering it as a hosted service to third parties. It automatically converts to Apache-2.0 after 4 years. Self-hosting is completely unrestricted.

Q: Is SSO login required? A: Yes — Outline requires an OAuth/OIDC authentication provider (Slack, Google, or self-hosted OIDC like Keycloak/Authentik). Simple email-password login isn't supported. This is a deliberate design choice for enterprise-grade security.

Q: Can I migrate from Notion or Confluence? A: Yes. Outline supports importing from Confluence (XML export) and Notion (Markdown export). Batch imports from Markdown files are also supported.

Sources & Credits

• GitHub: outline/outline — 38K+ ⭐ | BSL
• Website: getoutline.com