OpenOb is an open-source, local-first personal knowledge management workspace and desktop application designed for maximum longevity, uncompromising data integrity, and strict human authority.
- Markdown-Canonical: Your notes remain plain text Markdown and YAML frontmatter on your local disk.
- Pure Derived SQLite Index: Instant full-text search, backlinks, and graph queries rebuilt deterministically.
- Embedded Gateway Authority: Local loopback daemon (
127.0.0.1) coordinating human edits, external agents, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) clients with optimistic concurrency control (OCC). - Database & Kanban Views: Table and Board views with live property mutation, filtering, sorting, and persisted
.openob/views/configurations. - Zero Cloud Lock-in: 100% private and offline-first with local hardware-backed secret storage.
Experience OpenOb directly in modern web browsers (Chrome, Edge) using the Origin Private File System (OPFS): 👉 Open Web Client
Note: In-browser web mode runs within browser sandbox storage. For native filesystem authority and live MCP AI agent integration, run the Desktop Application.
- Windows (x64): Release-Verified. Full release packaging gate validated (NSIS Setup installer and Portable executable). Pre-release builds are currently unsigned; Windows Defender SmartScreen may display an unknown publisher notification.
- macOS: CI Build-Verified. Packaged as DMG and ZIP; unsigned and unnotarized in developer preview.
- Linux: CI Build-Verified. Packaged as tar.gz and ZIP distributables (AppImage target configured); distribution-ready developer build.
- Node.js:
>= 22.x <= 24.x(Node 24 LTS recommended) - npm:
>= 10.x - Git
# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/sumosizedginger/OpenOb.git
cd OpenOb
# Install dependencies
npm ci
# Start web client in development mode
npm run dev
# Start desktop application in development mode
npm run desktop:devOpenOb maintains strict multi-lane verification gates:
# Run full verification suite (format check, lint, typecheck, unit, and browser E2E)
npm run verify:full
# Run desktop integration tests
npm run test:desktop
# Run Windows official desktop packaging and release gate
npm run verify:desktop:release- Changelog: Track recent and upcoming changes.
- Security Policy: Details on threat modeling and confidential vulnerability reporting via GitHub Private Vulnerability Reporting.
- Contributing Guide: Instructions for code contributions, invariants, and development workflows.
- Constitution: The immutable laws governing OpenOb's state, data safety, and single-writer architecture.
The canonical OpenOb brand mark is the Saint Jackass skull within the broken antique-gold sigil. All derived brand assets, favicons, multi-resolution Windows ICOs, and macOS ICNS are located in assets/brand/ and documented in assets/brand/README.md.
OpenOb is open-source software licensed under the MIT License.