blinko

An open-source, self-hosted personal AI note tool prioritizing privacy, built using TypeScript .

⭐ 10,245 stars on GitHub · 🍴 722 forks · 📜 License: gpl-3.0 · 💻 Language: TypeScript

What is blinko?

If you want AI-assisted notes without handing your memory bank to a SaaS vendor, Blinko is one of the more practical self-hosted options. Its differentiator is the combination of fast “card-style” capture, Markdown storage, and natural-language retrieval powered by RAG.

Main components

• Card-based note capture for quickly saving short thoughts, memos, ideas, and snippets.
• AI-enhanced search using RAG so you can query your notes in natural language.
• Markdown support for lightweight formatting, portability, and easy reuse outside the app.
• Self-hosted data storage with PostgreSQL, giving you control over private notes and metadata.
• Web app stack built with TypeScript, Next.js, and React.
• Multi-platform client direction via Tauri, with support across macOS, Windows, Android, and Linux.
• Docker-based installation for straightforward deployment on a VPS, home server, or managed container host.

Clear use cases

• Build a private personal note vault with AI search across your own Markdown notes.
• Capture fleeting ideas, meeting takeaways, commands, links, and reminders before they disappear.
• Run a lightweight “second brain” for developers who want fast input rather than heavy knowledge-base structure.
• Keep sensitive personal or work notes out of commercial note platforms while still getting AI-assisted retrieval.
• Deploy a small team or family memo system where ownership of the database matters more than integrations.

The biggest strength is private AI-powered retrieval — Blinko gives you the convenience people expect from modern AI note apps while keeping the data in infrastructure you control. Compared with commercial tools like Notion AI, Mem, or Reflect, the value is not a huge plugin ecosystem or polished enterprise workflow; it is being able to ask natural-language questions of your own notes without making a hosted vendor the default owner of your personal knowledge base.

Blinko is best for developers, homelab users, privacy-conscious knowledge workers, and small technical teams who want a self-hosted Markdown note app with practical AI search rather than a full project-management suite.

Topics: the project is tagged with popular topics:

• 🏷️ markdown
• 🏷️ memos
• 🏷️ nextjs
• 🏷️ notebook
• 🏷️ openai
• 🏷️ postgres
• 🏷️ react
• 🏷️ self-hosted

📸 Screenshots

Quick install

The project supports Docker Compose:

git clone https://github.com/blinkospace/blinko.git
cd blinko
docker compose up -d

Check the README in the repo for required env variables.

Minimum system requirements

⚡ Deploy fast on VSIS

Use the VSIS VPS Mini 1GB RAM / 1 vCPU / 15GB SSD (~70k/tháng) plan from VSIS.NET — high-speed VN-based VPS, 24/7 support, ideal for running blinko smoothly.

🎯 Benefits:

• One-command docker compose up -d deploy in 2 minutes
• Dedicated IPv4, root access, unmetered domestic bandwidth
• Daily snapshot backup
• Free install assistance from the VSIS team

👉 See matching VPS plans at vsis.net

Resources

• 🔗 GitHub: blinkospace/blinko
• 🌐 Homepage: https://blinko.space
• 📚 Official docs: see README in the repo
• 💬 Community: GitHub Issues + Discussions

Article compiled from GitHub data on 05/05/2026. Star/fork counts may have changed — see live numbers via the GitHub link.