lokus-ai/lokus

Lokus - A modern, intuitive note-taking application with powerful editing capabilities

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updated Aug 27, 2026

lokusmd.com

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README

Lokus

The Open Source Note-Taking App for People Who Own Their Data

Local-first. Privacy-focused. Blazing fast.

Website · Documentation · Changelog

Why Lokus?

Most note-taking apps fall into two categories: powerful but cloud-dependent (Notion) or local but closed-source (Obsidian). Lokus is neither.

Fair Source — FCL 1.0 licensed. Read every line. Fork it. Make it yours.
Local-First — Your notes are markdown files on YOUR device. No proprietary format.
Fast — Built with Tauri & Rust. ~50MB RAM vs 300MB+ for Electron apps.
No Subscription — Free forever. No $10/month sync tax.

Features

Editor

Rich text with live markdown preview
Wiki links with [[autocomplete]]
LaTeX math rendering (KaTeX)
100+ language syntax highlighting
Tables with resize & sort
Task lists with 18 states
Smart paste (HTML → Markdown)

Organization

Graph view (2D & 3D)
Infinite canvas (TLDraw)
Database views (Notion-style)
Template system (90+ features)
Daily notes
Full-text search
Tags & folders

Integration

Plugin marketplace
Theme customization
Keyboard-first design
~30 slash commands

Privacy

No account required — guest/local by default
Works 100% offline
Standard markdown files
Anonymous product analytics, opt-out anytime in Preferences (crash reporting off by default)
Optional encrypted cloud sync (Supabase)

Installation

macOS
Download .dmg
_{Intel & Apple Silicon}

Windows
Download .exe
_{Windows 10/11 x64}

Linux
Download .AppImage
_{.deb and .rpm also available}

# Or build from source
git clone https://github.com/lokus-ai/lokus.git
cd lokus && npm install && npm run tauri build

Quick Start

1. Download and install Lokus
2. Create a new workspace (or open existing markdown folder)
3. Start writing

Coming from Obsidian? Just point Lokus at your vault. It works with your existing notes.

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 19, Tailwind CSS, Vite 7
Backend	Rust, Tauri 2.0, Tokio
Editor	ProseMirror (raw), KaTeX, Shiki
Canvas	TLDraw
Graph	Three.js, D3-force
Testing	Vitest, Playwright

Development

Prerequisites

Node.js 18+
Rust (via rustup)
Platform-specific dependencies (see docs)

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/lokus-ai/lokus.git
cd lokus

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start development server
npm run tauri dev

# Run tests
npm test

Project Structure

lokus/
├── src/                    # React frontend
│   ├── components/         # UI components
│   ├── core/               # Core functionality
│   ├── editor/             # ProseMirror editor
│   └── views/              # Main views
├── src-tauri/              # Rust backend
│   └── src/                # Tauri commands
├── tests/                  # Test suites
└── docs/                   # Documentation

Roadmap

Current (v1.0.0-beta)

Contributing

We welcome contributions of all kinds:

Bug reports — Open an issue
Feature requests — Start a discussion
Code contributions — Fork, code, submit PR
Documentation — Help us improve the docs

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Community

GitHub Discussions — Questions & ideas
Discord — Real-time chat
Twitter — Updates & news
Youtube - Youtube

Support

If you find Lokus useful, consider:

Starring this repository
Sponsoring on Open Collective
Spreading the word

License

Lokus is licensed under the Fair Core License 1.0 (FCL-1.0-MIT).

Free for personal use — Always
Free for education & research — Non-commercial
Commercial licensing — Required for competing products/services

The license automatically converts to MIT after 2 years. Learn more about FCL

Download Lokus · Read the Docs · Join Discord

_{Built with care by the Lokus team and contributors.}

markdown

notes

open

open-source

open-source-project

open-source-projects

rust

source

tauri

Significant stargazers

Sebastian Thiel

1,431 followers · starred Oct 2025

Martin Hasoň

169 followers · starred Nov 2025

Hofer-Julian

161 followers · starred Oct 2025

Sleeyax

496 followers · starred Oct 2025

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