sheshbabu/zen
Selfhosted notes app. Single golang binary, notes stored as markdown within SQLite, full-text search, very low resource usage observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
65/100
- Activity 99
- Release rhythm 35
- Longevity 41
Flags: no_releases
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-02. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: n/a
- age_days: 580
- days_rel: n/a
- days_push: 9
- n_releases_24m: 0
Adoption not part of the score
1166 stars · 62 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded
Zen is a self-hosted note-taking application distributed as a single Go binary or Docker Compose deployment, storing notes as standard Markdown in a local SQLite database. It offers full-text search with BM25 ranking, flexible tag-based organization, image support, and an experimental MCP server for AI-assisted note access.
Use cases
- self-host a lightweight notes app
- take markdown notes without vendor lock-in
- search notes with full-text search
- run a low-resource note server on a VPS
- access my notes from an AI assistant via MCP
- import notes from other services and export portable markdown
When to choose
- you want a minimal, single-binary self-hosted notes app with very low resource usage
- you value data portability with standard Markdown and SQLite storage
- you prefer tag-based organization over folders
- you want MCP integration to let AI tools read your notes
When to avoid
- you need real-time multi-user collaboration
- you want a plugin ecosystem or rich third-party integrations
- you need a hosted sync service across devices out of the box
- you require active community maintenance, as it is a personal project
Facets
application · maturity active
search-engine markdown self-hosted mcp developer-tools self-hosted web-development self-hosted windows notes-app markdown-notes sqlite knowledge-base pwa go-binary full-text-search web-server docker linux macos
3 sources
- readme: https://github.com/sheshbabu/zen · fetched 2026-08-28 · 2ee977800446
- homepage: https://www.sheshbabu.com/zen/ · fetched 2026-08-29 · d291cb9a27a8
- site_page: https://www.sheshbabu.com/zen/documentation · fetched 2026-08-29 · 87873462dd7d
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| sheshbabu/zen | main | 65 |
For agents
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem