Safi

A minimalist, self-hosted text editor for markdown files with a clean, mobile-friendly interface and file-based storage. Vaults are Obsidian-compatible — register any folder on the server as a vault, right from the app.

Features

• Minimalist, distraction-free interface
• Multiple vaults (Obsidian-style) — add, switch, and remove them from the dock
• Markdown file-based storage on the server
• Shortcuts for efficient workflow
• Focus mode for deep work
• File Explorer with basic operations (create, delete, rename)
• File search (per vault)
• Light and dark mode

Installation

The easiest way to run Safi is using the pre-built Docker image from GitHub Container Registry.

Safi uses two host directories:

• vaults/ — where you keep your vault folders. Nothing is auto-discovered: you register a vault from the app by browsing to its folder (mounted under /app/vaults). .obsidian/ directories inside vaults are preserved untouched.
• config/ — the vault list (vaults.json), preferences, and keybindings (shared across all vaults).

By default the container runs as uid/gid 1000:1000, which matches the first regular user on most Linux desktops — so files in ./vaults will be owned by you on the host and can be edited with any editor. If your host user has different ids (run id to check), set PUID and PGID accordingly.

Docker

docker run -d \
  --name safi \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -e PUID=$(id -u) -e PGID=$(id -g) \
  -v $(pwd)/vaults:/app/vaults \
  -v $(pwd)/config:/app/config \
  ghcr.io/ilyasturki/safi:latest

Visit http://localhost:3000, click Add vault, and browse to a folder under /app/vaults (e.g. create ./vaults/Personal/ on the host first) to register it.

Docker Compose

services:
    safi:
        image: ghcr.io/ilyasturki/safi:latest
        ports:
            - '3000:3000'
        environment:
            - PUID=1000
            - PGID=1000
        volumes:
            - ./vaults:/app/vaults
            - ./config:/app/config
        restart: unless-stopped

Then run:

docker-compose up -d

Upgrading from earlier versions

Older versions configured vaults through a path environment variable (NUXT_WORKSPACE_PATH, later NUXT_VAULTS_PATH). Neither is read anymore — vaults are now registered from the app and stored in config/vaults.json.

1. Keep mounting your vault folders under /app/vaults (or anywhere on the server) and bind your config dir: -v $(pwd)/config:/app/config.
2. Drop any NUXT_WORKSPACE_PATH / NUXT_VAULTS_PATH settings — they're ignored.
3. Open the app, click Add vault, and browse to each folder to register it.

NixOS

Add Safi as an input to your NixOS flake:

{
  inputs.safi.url = "github:Yasso9/safi";

  outputs =
    { nixpkgs, safi, ... }:
    {
      nixosConfigurations.your-host = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
        system = "x86_64-linux";
        modules = [
          safi.nixosModules.default
          {
            services.safi = {
              enable = true;
              host = "0.0.0.0";
              port = 3000;
              vaultsPath = "/var/lib/safi/vaults";
              configPath = "/var/lib/safi/config";
            };
          }
        ];
      };
    };
}

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/Yasso9/safi.git
cd safi
bun install
bun run build
bun run start

Optionally create a .env from the template to set the config dir (where the vault list, preferences, and keybindings live). It defaults to ~/.config/safi:

cp .env.example .env

NUXT_CONFIG_PATH=/path/to/your/safi-config

Then open the app and click Add vault to register a folder.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow the code style defined in CLAUDE.md and ensure all type checks pass:

bun run typecheck
bun run format
bun run lint

License

MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.