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
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I have one suggestion so far. Consider moving to Codeberg. Github has become a very unsafe place to keep FOSS projects.
I would think about that, maybe I will backup everything on codeberg
You might want to highlight what differentiates it from Obsidian, except being open source. Just from looking at the page, I don’t know what it means to have organization capabilities from Notion?
Yeah, the readme says stuff that don’t mean that much. Sure, all FOSS and no cloud but WHAT DOES IT DO??
Thanks, i’ll rework README in the near future.
Looking good!
Slightly off-topic, but with all the craps that’s going on with Github, ever consider having your projects on Codeberg instead?
can you tell me in short what’s wrong with GitHub? I totally missed it
MS bought it and is folding it into their “AI” division
no hidden cloud
Shots fired at Notesnook.
Neat project, shame on the basic premise. Just remember to delete your second brain once in a while, for the health of your first one, and actually use it for something creative once in a while.
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).
Good luck with the project! I hope it becomes everything you want it to be, in time!
thank you, these words mean a lot to me
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.
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.
Awesome! Just asking based on posts I frequent
Also iPhone app would be released after successful VOID open beta
Is it a notes app? Second brain doesn’t mean anything to me, and I don’t understand what it does from your README. The name is also confusing. What does it mean by open source infrastructure?
Yep, it’s just powerful notetaking app
Second brain and powerful note taking app just smells like somebody trying to make joplin but with AI assistants, I almost skipped your post because of the way powerful stopped meaning abundant and complex.
Second brain is a much used term really. There are plenty of second brain apps, it’s not some made up term.
Except, it is made up. All terms are made up. It still means something different to different groups of people.
“Second brain” is a term that has been around a while, but it does get used by a lot of people that are all in on AI these days so i totally see your skepticism. My issues with these second brain/knowledge base/etc tools is that I never end up going back to them to actually look up knowledge. Maybe that is why the AI people are all over it, because most people never use the actually notes they make. Either way, I found it best to just stop using the tools or leave myself semi-structured text notes with good file names.
I really like Obsidian for campaign notes and stuff while running ttrpgs. I’m sure the uses are possible to recreate in other ways, but it makes it simple and easy enough for me to actually use it.
I wrote a blog article about creating a second brain some time ago. It’s meant mostly for programmers, but the concepts hold true for other people as well :) https://blog.sewera.dev/second-brain
Oh, ok. I call that a knowledge base, or a personal knowledge base if it’s just for myself.
Nice :] sounds great. Any chance you will create a Flatpak?
Yep, 100% I will! But a little bit later, cause for now app is still WIP
So basically, a markdown editor?
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.
Nothing beats syncthing and git
I saw you picked SurrealDB, what has been your experience with that so far?
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)
Markdown support, plugin ecosystem, automation?
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?
oh, is it wysiwyg ? I settled on QOwnNotes this year and my only gripe is that the markdown editor and the actual note viewer are separated, which divides screen estate by 2 pretty much. Other than that I love that it’s a native program, very lightweight, and of course open source. I’ll be watching your progress. Cheers !
Yep, it’s wysiwyg. Huge thanks to obsidian. I took a lot of inspiration from their editor
ooooh ! Now I’m a bit more excited
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.
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
Looks super cool, I will have to check it out!
I know it’s definitely a massive ask, but has there been any consideration on collaboration tools in the future? Even if it’s not full multi-user editing, obsidian is really lacking in it’s ability to share with others, and those might be a huge add.
This is not super massive task, it’s already in my roadmap. I finish it in a short time after VOID’s beta
Incredible! Even more excited now!
this looks cool!
hi there, how it does compare with silverbullet?
https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet
like in the readme you say ‘no server’ then how do i use it on multiple devices?
i saw the editor video, cool, is way less snappy than silverbullet. in silverbullet they immediately render the markdown and that makes the cursor jump a bit.
I will create docker container for selfhosted synchronisation/collaboration server, and as option add p2p synchronization/collaboration. About silverbullet, didn’t try it, sorry
