Show HN: Tolaria – open-source macOS app to manage Markdown knowledge bases
61 points
2 hours ago
| 10 comments
| github.com
| HN
Hey there! I am Luca, I write https://refactoring.fm/ and I built Tolaria for myself to manage my own knowledge base (10K notes, 300+ articles written in over 6 years of newslettering) and work well with AI.

Tolaria is offline-first, file-based, has first-class support for git, and has strong opinions about how you should organize notes (types, relationships, etc).

Let me know your thoughts!

stock_toaster
45 minutes ago
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I've been using octarine[1] recently (after having used obsidian for quite a while), but I'm definitely going to try this out.

[1]: https://octarine.app

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SpyCoder77
50 minutes ago
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As I was scrolling down the page I was like "what if I wanted to use a notion-style editor instead of markdown" and my requests were instantly met
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r0bbie
1 hour ago
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Super nice! I've ended up settling on Logseq for note-taking for a while now, but never loved the UI.

This is clean and love the git-backed approach. Would love to see a dark mode too!

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redaantar
1 hour ago
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That’s awesome! I’m a huge fan of projects like that. I recently launched ckourse.com (open-source) to help manage downloaded courses. Combining tolaria and Ckourse will give a smooth learning experience. Thanks for the tool.
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bovermyer
1 hour ago
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I'm glad you've built something that works for you! Keep at it. Experiment, don't just leave it the same way it is now.
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antonkochubey
1 hour ago
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Doesn’t Obsidian already do pretty much the same?
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hoppyhoppy2
1 hour ago
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>open-source
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jimmcslim
1 hour ago
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And I was going to say Mac native as well, but uses Tauri. I’d love some app with the polish of Bear Notes but that just edited raw Markdown files. Ideally Obsidian with the Notebook Navigator plugin (strongly inspired by Bear Notes perhaps?) and (checks list) this very specific list of plugins that I need and should be good for everyone else thanks.
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bovermyer
1 hour ago
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Zettlr would like a word.
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morelikeborelax
39 minutes ago
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I really like Zettlr, but I find it is always crashing when markdown changes behind the scenes and it has the document open.

It's so good for viewing all markdown in a repo, but dies all too often.

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jryio
1 hour ago
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Exactly - cooperation is not incentivized properly
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subdomain
2 hours ago
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I run a newsletter too, so this is cool to see! Not sure if I need it yet (my "knowledge base" is still pretty small), but I'll definitely keep it in mind for the future.
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Pym
1 hour ago
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Wow thanks!

Better than the one I was planning to build for myself.

Love the UI. Love the fact that the app was made with Tauri.

Nice work, will share!

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kskzjsjdjw
56 minutes ago
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A freaking web app?

Boo. Boooooooooo. Thanks but no thanks.

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droidjj
48 minutes ago
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At least it's Tauri!
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jryio
2 hours ago
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Just another disposable piece of software maintained by a single person that does 80% of what other apps do but worse.

Max lifespan 2 years

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rglover
1 hour ago
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Please cut this out. You really don't want to live in a world where individuals are discouraged from trying to build things that are good.

If you want something to stick around: you have to use and pay for it.

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lbreakjai
44 minutes ago
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You're right. We should absolutely only rely on "Ask sales for price" closed-source software from megacorps, that get worse on every release, and get sunset anyway when the funding runs out.
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morelikeborelax
37 minutes ago
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I hAvE a FeW qUaLmS wItH tHiS aPp

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

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qsort
2 hours ago
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But if they ever choose to decommission it, they have the chance to do the funniest thing:

https://scryfall.com/card/plst/INV-156/obliterate

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SpyCoder77
1 hour ago
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Some people...
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