Block Notes

Block Notes is a self-hosted, local-first knowledge management app for one user across desktop and mobile.

The project is currently in Phase 0: technical validation. Product work should wait until the risky assumptions in plan/PLAN.md are proven with scripts and notes.

Stack

Layer	Choice
Shell	Tauri 2
UI	React, TypeScript, BlockNote
Core	Rust
Database	Turso local database
Sync	Self-hosted Turso sync server
Search	SQLite FTS5

Development

Prerequisites:

• Node.js and npm
• Rust toolchain with Cargo
• Tauri system dependencies for the target OS

Install dependencies:

npm install

Run the frontend only:

npm run dev

Run the Tauri app:

npm run tauri dev

Build the frontend:

npm run build

Build the Tauri app:

npm run tauri build

Current State

• React and BlockNote render a smoke-test editor.
• Tauri command boundary exists through app_diagnostic, list_pages, and create_page.
• Rust initializes a local libsql database in the app data directory.
• The app creates a default workspace and welcome page on first run.
• Page references are stored as page_ref blocks plus typed rows in block_references.
• Sync server integration is not configured yet.
• npm run build passes for the frontend.
• npm run tauri -- build --bundles app passes for the macOS app bundle.

Phase 0 Rule

No phase is complete until its pass criteria are demonstrated and documented.