WHile wandering around r/pkms I found someone discussing using SilverBullet, a free "Programmable, Private, Browser-based, Open Source, Self Hosted, Personal Knowledge Management Platform" that's been in development for five years.

https://silverbullet.md/
https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet
https://fosstodon.org/@silverbulletmd

Intro & demo video from a year ago. (User page contains numerous SilverBullet videos.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mik1EbTshX4

It's a system you run locally inside a web browser. In the browser lives a Markdown editor with live preview as you type, a la Typora or Obsidian (which can be turned off if desired to provide inline Markdown).

You can navigate file-by-file via a meta glossary page, or via bi-directional links within pages. It has basic outlining capabilities, and folding, although no hoist or zoom -- it realistically is more a wiki than an outliner.

https://silverbullet.md/Outlines

Simple tasks with checkboxes.

https://silverbullet.md/Task

Simple database tables created using tagging, frontmatter attributes, and bidirectional links. You can query tables, tasks, tags, pages.

An attractive concept, but a very personal one. Frankly, all the messing about with frontmatter attributes, tagging etc. to produce databases, meta-glossaries etc. is a bit OTT (in fact, my appalled discovery that I was rapidly succumbing to the CRIMPer's ultimate temptation – to Optimise my System – is why I removed Dataview from Obsidian!).

But otherwise, Silverbullet is a rather attractive piece of software.

Whenever a maker suggests

Perhaps you [install this] on a Raspberry Pi you didn't have a use for

I see the rock guarding the entrance to a deep, dark rabbit hold sliding aside …

Silverbullet seems a rather optimistic name. If/when it folds (as so many apps do in this space) we'll be able to say "There is no Silverbullet".

Although I realise that some of the comments are rather tongue in cheek, I feel that the overall negative vibe towards Silverbullet is unwarranted.

I installed it practically when it was launched and ran it first locally, then hosted on Pikapods and now self-hosted on my own server and found it to be very powerful *despite* spending only minutes configuring it to my liking.

We really should be asking ourselves why we keep criticising note taking software for either being too focused but inflexible or, conversely, rabbit holes for futzing around with configs rather than getting anything done.

Silverbullet a refreshingly modern take on an old problem and, whilst exposing literally all the internals to the die hards, it manages to run on minimal resources on literally every platform and still looking good.

It is possible to modify every bit of its visual presentation as well as its functionality but you can get really far by just adapting already existing solutions in the forum or library.

Prion wrote:

We really should be asking ourselves why we keep criticising note taking software for either being too focused but inflexible or, conversely, rabbit holes for futzing around with configs rather than getting anything done.

Don't assume that a reply here means no evaluation is going on. I dug around in the SilverBullet site and found a beta standalone desktop version for macOS Silicon. I've been running it. I like much of what I see, but it overlaps in most respects with Obsidian and Tana (tags in SB vs supertags in Tana), both of which I use already.

It also reminds me of parts of Christian & Sascha's Archive app (interface, mainly), and parts of NVUltra.

I'll keep SilverBullet around as insurance since Tana looks to be sliding down the slippery slope toward oblivion.

Trouble is, when one's exchanging news and views in writing, it's not always easy to read (what passes for) humour into people's remarks, and in my experience quite a lot of the criticism on our forum is intended humorously. I mean, we wouldn't be here if we weren't interested in experimenting with different solutions! And as it happens, I've still got Silverbullet open in a browser tab and spend a few minutes every so often playing with it. I like it!

But as Paul says, I already use very similar solutions, so was perhaps unfairly dismissive in my earlier remarks. Apologies if that was the case! And it's nice to hear from someone who's actually using it "in anger", as it were, because positive feedback is actually much more valuable than anything else. Although it's also important to remember that negative feedback is a useful incentive to improve (usually in direct dialogue with the developer).

What underlies your comment about Tana sliding toward oblivion? The fumbled communications regarding its new version? The fact that it is basing its future on AI and shared workspaces? Something else? I have been using it for a couple of years, and while it has become more like Tinderbox in the requirement of real expertise to access many of its capabilities, it is still pretty usable and helpful for the basics (much like Tinderbox).

I will say, though, after reading favorable recent comments about Remnote "leapfrogging" Tana, I have been trying it out and have been impressed.

This is my personal reading of the situation. I love Tana and I admire the whole team. I just believe that doing a major pivot to build a "new Tana" (their words) with as-yet vaguely defined features and use cases, while promising to keep the old product, somehow, and while having earnest but not highly effective marketing skills, seems like a downward slope.

I strongly hope I'm wrong.

exatty95 wrote:

What underlies your comment about Tana sliding toward oblivion?

Although I realise that some of the comments are rather tongue in cheek, I feel that the overall negative vibe towards Silverbullet is unwarranted.

The developer can't expect to call something 'Silverbullet' and not get some ribbing for it. ;0)

At least it isn't as grandiose as 'The Last One':
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_One_(software

Interesting discussion and responses. I just want to make it clear that I am just a regular user of SB and many other pieces of software aiming to solve the same problem, i.e. NOT the author of some of these in disguise :-)
I feel similarly about the quest for the one and only solution, however futile it may be, being part of the fun hence absolutely no apology needed.

MadaboutDana wrote:

Trouble is, when one's exchanging news and views in writing, it's not always easy to read (what passes for) humour into people's remarks, and in my experience quite a lot of the criticism on our forum is intended humorously. I mean, we wouldn't be here if we weren't interested in experimenting with different solutions! And as it happens, I've still got Silverbullet open in a browser tab and spend a few minutes every so often playing with it. I like it!

But as Paul says, I already use very similar solutions, so was perhaps unfairly dismissive in my earlier remarks. Apologies if that was the case! And it's nice to hear from someone who's actually using it "in anger", as it were, because positive feedback is actually much more valuable than anything else. Although it's also important to remember that negative feedback is a useful incentive to improve (usually in direct dialogue with the developer).

Andy Brice wrote:

The developer can't expect to call something 'Silverbullet' and not get some ribbing for it. ;0)

At least it isn't as grandiose as 'The Last One':
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_One_(software

Haha, I totally understand and I hope that the eternal CRIMPers dilemma described above was recognised by many of you. I just thought it fair to also raise my voice and add a few positive aspects of Silverbullet to the mix to balance it out a bit.

I will say that my first look at the new Tana does not fill me with hope for sticking with the program. I just spent a couple of minutes with it, but it seems to be all about collaborative work. I don't see anything so far that suggests taking and making sense of notes has any significant role to play.

Just been taking a first *serious* look at Silverbullet and (with this time genuine apologies to @Prion!), colour me impressed! I had failed to realise just how "simple but sophisticated" it is until installing it on my home server to use as a private home notebook. What a lot of nice, carefully curated features! Well worth a second look!

Also, the developer is genuinely witty, e.g. taking the p*ss out of himself on his SilverBullet Plus website (https://silverbullet.plus

Reminds me VoodooPad, which also supports Lua.

Just took a quick look at the video. Very nice app. Not only is there a Silverbullet, but also a Silverbullet+, the Lone Ranger will be please! ^D

I actually really like this app. I love the minimalism and the underlying power of lua. I've never like Obsidian's interface and plugin architecture.

My one concern would be how easy it is to create lua code blocks. I'm no coder. I like Tinderbox, but the coding puts me off. I have to keep relearning it. The benefit now of course is using AI to create the code.

How does this app scale? Is it still snappy with 10k notes?

Is anyone actually using it in real life rather than just demoing it who can comment on how it works?

I heard from someone on Brett Terpstra's mailing list that nvUltra is said to be nearing release. Whether that's near as in the way Alpha Centauri crowds Sol on a cosmic scale or just around the corner, I don't know. I hope the rumor is real. Too many writing apps is never enough.

My experience with the Notational Velocity ecology is all recent and limited to The Archive. I bought it as a curiosity then discovered elegance in the design.

Modern software thrives on bells and whistles to do your work for you. Often that's good. The NV ecosphere is more of a few tools producing what you need without a lot of features.

The link-by-search idea is powerful. That's where [[filename]] acts like a link but it's really a search. If you use the built in UUID generator, you can preface your file names with a unique integer. Your links should just use the integer, so if you rename a file all the links still work, at least as long as you just changed the file name suffix and left that integer alone.

Backlinks are automatic, since when you search for a UUID it finds the ID in filenames and in the body of notes as well.

Devonthink is ingrained in my life. I think, though, I may use The Archive in cases where I need a cluster of Markdown notes, for instance as a facts database backing a story outline.

Without doubt I've picked up some good ideas from zettelkasten.de and the way The Archive is used.

Paul Korm wrote:

It also reminds me of parts of Christian & Sascha's Archive app (interface, mainly), and parts of NVUltra.

Amontillado wrote:

I heard from someone on Brett Terpstra's mailing list that nvUltra is said to be nearing release.

Brett himself has said that, including I think on Mastodon. But he's also admitted that they missed not only their launch date (by a lot; it was announced in 2019!) but their moment. The market has evolved, the competition has changed, and the expectations of users has changed.

In the interim Obsidian became the de facto standard for local Markdown knowledge management, with plugins transforming it from "Markdown editor" into an ecosystem. And so now many users expect features like graph views, backlinks, canvas, mobile sync, plugins, AI integrations, and community extensions.

And Bear finally shipped Bear 2 after its own very long gestation, and it occupies the "beautiful native Mac/iOS Markdown" niche that nvUltra might once have owned.

More generally, since 2023 expectations have changed due to the AI shift, and people increasingly expect options like semantic search, summarization (granted, this is now in macOS for all apps that integrate it), related-note suggestions, transcription, and local or cloud AI assistants.

And that doesn't even touch on users' current-day expectations of mobile interoperability.

nvUltra's signature feature of finding related notes looked futuristic in 2019, but today it competes against LLM-powered discovery and is becoming table stakes for the category.

If the app launches as a fast, polished, stable, one-time-purchase it can build an audience but it will be a pretty niche one, I think.

Well said, @satis. You're right about the market. I enjoy using more fundamental tools. If all I had for a word processor was vim, life would go on.

Way back, I used nvALT intensively. I can no longer remember why. Nor do I remember why nvUltra was going to be a good thing. These are only within the past decade or a bit more, but so much is different, as @satis underscores, with expectations for an app. Plus, nowadays we can watch an enthusiastic dev pound out a huge system for notetaking with (I assume) Cowork or the like sitting next to them. Makes me wonder what the deal is with Terpstra and Penney's time management. Anyway, nvUltra is definitely a pass.

Paul Korm wrote:

nowadays we can watch an enthusiastic dev pound out a huge system for notetaking with (I assume) Cowork or the like sitting next to them.

To that end I can recommend looking at the free Zed text editor (Mac/Windows/Linux) which is a native Mac app and really fast. I don't run it with agents but it's built from the ground up to do so. And I am a fan of their choice of Lilex monospace font (which for some reason the app wrongly identifies as .ZedMono)

https://zed.dev/

https://lilex.myrt.co/

Makes me wonder what the deal is with Terpstra and Penney's time management.

Over the years Terpstra has been open about his issues with bipolar disorder and ADHD and how his coding would get sidetracked or derailed by manic and other phases. And in 2021 he said his partner Penney had some 'time consuming' events in his personal life which affected development of the app.

¯\_(?)_/¯

Terpstra also simply makes promises he doesn't deliver on. A decade ago I bought an inexpensive menubar utility from him which almost immediately broke because it could not access a needed web service API - he promised a free update "out shortly" that restored functionality but when I followed up ~ 5 months later he wrote "I rewrote the whole thing to circumvent the API. And then I got too busy to put out the update… I'll get one out soon."

He never did. And he ended up 'retiring' the utility.