Hey folks! I’m completely new to Lemmy and still figuring out how everything works around here… But I’d love to share a project I’ve been building.

It’s called VOID (Versatile Open-source Infrastructure for Developers) - an open-source, local-first second-brain (note taking app but more powerful) application that combines the flexibility of Obsidian with the powerful organization of Notion.

Unlike many other tools, VOID is not just another note-taking app. It’s built with the idea of being a true second brain that you fully control. No vendor lock-in, no hidden cloud, no feature walls. Everything is open-source, customizable, and designed to adapt to your workflow instead of forcing you into someone else’s.

I’m currently building it with Rust, Tauri v2 and Vue.js. For certain plugins and configs, it also supports SurrealDB as a database.

check it out on my GitHub

  • vort3@lemmy.ml
    131·
    18 days ago

    the idea of being a true second brain

    It’s good that it’s built with this idea, but what is the actual implementation of this idea? What features make it «a true second brain» that other «second brain» apps (obsidian and hundred other note taking apps) don’t have?

    • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
      14·
      18 days ago

      I did a bunch of research into second brain/zettelkasten apps (that is to say, apps that support note taking with note interlinking and rich text) earlier this year, and I couldn’t find a single app in the category that’s (1) FOSS, (2) stores notes as .md files natively (Logseq will import/export to .md, but it’s not native), and (3) is cross-platform in some way (for my purposes, I need it to be on Linux, Android, and Mac OS, or have a usable web app). Even the ones that get close all have some kind of gimmick to them, or are super ugly or slow or otherwise hard to use.

      If Void can get those three nailed, and do it in a usable way, it will fill a very particular and exciting niche.

      • Ferk@lemmy.ml
        5·
        18 days ago

        Considering that one of your requirements is already using .md files, which is a format pretty common… maybe a combination of different apps on different platforms would work? Specially considering that mobile UIs are likely gonna have different requirements than desktop UIs.

        One approach I was considering was using neutrinote on Android (which is a relatively simple but functional no-bullshit markdown editor supporting cross-linking between markdown files) and VSCode / VSCodium on the desktop (which also supports cross-linking, and I think has some note-taking related extensions), or maybe zed, or whichever editor you might already be using that can support markdown. Then use syncthing for the sync.

        However, I have not yet really gotten into it, primarily because second brain/zettelkasten note-taking in general has never really fully clicked with me, most of the time when I take notes I just use them as a scratchpad / temporary storage… without much of a proper organization … just a note meant to be scrapped as soon as it’s acted on. Often I just use tabs in my notepad app, without really saving them to a file.

      • qaz@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        17 days ago

        Doesn’t logseq store the notes as .md files? There is a directory named pages which contained them last time I checked

        • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
          1·
          17 days ago

          It’s been a while since I read the details, but as I recall it stores them primarily in a database. The .mds are mirrors or something, maybe?

          In any case, it looked to me like they could get desynced pretty easily.

          • qaz@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            17 days ago

            AFAIK it stores the notes as .md and an index in it’s own proprietary format, which is mostly an issue because the index won’t be encrypted if you encrypt the notes.

  • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
    5·
    16 days ago

    I have one suggestion so far. Consider moving to Codeberg. Github has become a very unsafe place to keep FOSS projects.

    • Eyedust@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      8·
      16 days ago

      Note taking has it’s place, but I agree. Once you go from note taking into crippling habitual hivemind its lost the main point. The time I spent on making my notes look amazing and growing my thought library rather than working on executing my actual ideas was getting insane.

      I’ve seen some of the Obsidian maxi’s graphs in tutorial videos. There are people that have spent literal weeks of their precious time on these massive dot-to-line hoards. It really becomes literal e-hoarding. Like counseling levels of bad habit. Then they hold these humongous, continent-sized graphs up like a trophy. Mine’s bigger than yours. Whip it out and prove it.

      Now I only jot ideas I want to remember later if I’m in the middle of something, write down dreams I may forget (or nightmares, as it helps me calm down and analyze them logically), and keep to my diet and shopping lists.

      I really don’t need more than that. Any reminders or schedules go in my android FOSS calendar (Etar).

    • Transhumanist@lemmy.mlOP
      4·
      17 days ago

      Full markdown support, all notes are just .md files like in obsidian. I’m currently working on plugins api and trying to implement layer that would allow obsidian plugin’s compatibility. Automation: I don’t really understand what you’re trying to say, can you specify please?

      • mysticmartz@lemmy.world
        2·
        17 days ago

        Automation as in automatically moving notes to a specified folder, calendar sync , to do list sync.

        If you have Outlook , gmail ,Todoist and a few other app integrations and integrations with vim plugins it makes everyone’s lives easier.

        Set and forget.

        • Transhumanist@lemmy.mlOP
          1·
          17 days ago

          Ah, I get it. Integratons are planned as well as this kind of automations. I think that this feature is basic for every second-brain app

  • Erro@lemmy.world
    5·
    17 days ago

    Awesome! Thank you for all your effort on this. Looking forward to trying it out!

  • qaz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    17 days ago

    I saw you picked SurrealDB, what has been your experience with that so far?

    • Transhumanist@lemmy.mlOP
      2·
      17 days ago

      I really like SurrealDB. It has amazing compatibility with rust + tauri and can be used in file mode with rocksDB. For my usecase it fits the best. I love static types)

  • ComradeMiao@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    17 days ago

    A new competitor to Obsidian other than Trilium and Logseq would be awesome. I have to ask are you vibe coding? The length of the project and extensive use of emojis in the read me makes me question… I wish you the best. If you get a server container and an iPhone app I would seriously support it.

    • Transhumanist@lemmy.mlOP
      13·
      17 days ago

      I tried to make README less boring using emoji) And I’m pretty confident in my Rust and Vue skills, so not using chatGPT(or any other AI tool) in my work). I wrote all of the VOID by my hands.

  • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
    3·
    17 days ago

    Cool, I’ve been considering something like that, I was set on using trillium but now I guess I’ll also give this one a shot !

  • frozenspinach@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    17 days ago

    Awesome! I want more and better apps in this space. I personally don’t trust myself not to lose my phone, so I want to manually sync files to some trusted place, or preferably, have webdav/nextcloud for syncing the way some notes apps have it. It’s your project, so do what suits you, but that’s something that would push it to the top for me.