Fundamentals 6 min read

Why SiYuan Note Is the Ideal Open‑Source Markdown Notebook for Developers

This guide introduces SiYuan Note, an open‑source, cross‑platform Markdown notebook with WYSIWYG support, explains how to install it via Docker, and demonstrates key features such as theme switching, image insertion, marketplace plugins, and using it for project documentation.

macrozheng
macrozheng
macrozheng
Why SiYuan Note Is the Ideal Open‑Source Markdown Notebook for Developers

SiYuan Note Overview

SiYuan Note is an open‑source, cross‑platform Markdown notebook with WYSIWYG support, over 21K GitHub stars, and cloud sync across Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

Installation via Docker

Pull the Docker image and run the container, specifying a workspace directory and an

accessAuthCode

for first‑time login.

<code>docker pull b3log/siyuan
docker run -p 6806:6806 --name siyuan \
  -v /mydata/siyuan/workspace:/siyuan/workspace \
  -e PUID=1001 -e PGID=1002 \
  -d b3log/siyuan \
  --workspace='/siyuan/workspace/' \
  --accessAuthCode=siyuanAuth
</code>

After the container starts, open

http://<host>:6806

and enter the

accessAuthCode

.

Using SiYuan for Project Documentation

The guide demonstrates editing a sample “mall‑swarm microservice tutorial” document, creating notebooks, sub‑documents, inserting images, and viewing outlines.

Appearance Settings

Switch between light and dark themes and change the UI language from English to Chinese in Settings → Appearance.

User Guide

SiYuan provides a built‑in user guide that can generate a Chinese version with a single click.

Image Insertion

Copy an image to the clipboard (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V) directly into the editor to upload it.

Marketplace Plugins and Themes

The Marketplace offers plugins to extend functionality and additional themes for a more vibrant UI.

Conclusion

SiYuan Note is a powerful, fully open‑source note‑taking solution suitable for developers who need Markdown editing, code highlighting, and cross‑device sync.

Project repository: https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan

Cross-PlatformDockerOpen-sourceMarkdownnote-takingSiYuan
macrozheng
Written by

macrozheng

Dedicated to Java tech sharing and dissecting top open-source projects. Topics include Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Docker, Kubernetes and more. Author’s GitHub project “mall” has 50K+ stars.

0 followers
Reader feedback

How this landed with the community

login Sign in to like

Rate this article

Was this worth your time?

Sign in to rate
Discussion

0 Comments

Thoughtful readers leave field notes, pushback, and hard-won operational detail here.