Erable

A structured, IDE-style wiki: extended Markdown pages, categories with inheritance, typed and validated properties, typed links between elements, attachments.

Warning

Warning: This project is a personal project designed and developed with the help of Anthropic's Claude AI, and it is meant to remain experimental. My free time is limited, so I do not plan to actively maintain it. You are free to use it as you wish, knowing this.

Erable runs in two ways, from the same code:

• local desktop application (Windows, macOS, Linux): a project is a folder on your disk (SQLite + attachments), with no service to install;
• multi-user server mode, for working together (Docker or plain executable), usable from a browser, a phone or the Android application.

Features

• References go through the identifier ([[3F2A9C14E07B5D21]]): renaming or moving an element never breaks anything. Typing [[ in the editor opens a palette to pick the target by name.
• Categories with inheritance give pages typed properties (number, text, list, date, reference…) with rules; validation warns, it does not block.
• Typed links between pages ("mentor of" / "student of"), backlinks, attachments (images, video, PDF…) embedded with ![[ID]].
• Full-text search that ignores accents, with filters on categories and properties.
• Nothing is lost by mistake: trash, plus revisions that can be compared and restored.
• Working together: accounts and roles per project, live presence, concurrent saves merged on the server.
• Backing up = copying a folder (or continuous replication with Litestream on the server side).
• Interface in English, French, German and Spanish; light and dark themes; usable with the keyboard alone.
• erable-cli extracts a project as JSON or Markdown for other tools (docs/cli.md).

Install

Platform	How
Windows	Erable-win-Setup.exe from the latest release
macOS	Erable-osx-<arch>-Setup.pkg from the latest release
Linux	Erable-linux-x86_64.AppImage from the latest release; needs WebKitGTK 4.1 and libnotify (sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0 libnotify4)
Server	docker run -d -p 8080:8080 -v erable-data:/data -e ERABLE_ADMIN_LOGIN=admin -e ERABLE_ADMIN_PASSWORD='a strong password' ghcr.io/leptitdev/erable — then put an HTTPS reverse proxy in front of it, see docs/deployment.md
Android	the .apk of the latest release, when present (a client of Erable servers)

The installers are not signed yet: Windows SmartScreen and macOS Gatekeeper warn on first launch. Installed applications update themselves.

Then read the user guide.

Building from source

Prerequisites: .NET 10 SDK, Node.js and Corepack (pnpm).

scripts/build.sh              # web dependencies, SPA, .NET solution
scripts/run.sh desktop        # desktop application
scripts/run.sh server ./MyWiki 5080   # server on a project folder
scripts/test.sh               # PR pipeline checks (--e2e for Playwright)
scripts/serve.sh ./MyWiki --lan              # host a server without Docker (Release build)
scripts/compose.sh setup wiki.example.org    # host with Docker Compose + Caddy (HTTPS), then: scripts/compose.sh up

On Windows, use the .bat equivalents. Every script and its arguments: scripts/README.md. The full list of commands (tests, e2e, performance, publishing) is in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Stack

Layer	Choice
Backend	C# / .NET 10, ASP.NET Core (Minimal API), SignalR
Storage	SQLite + Dapper, FTS5 for search, content-addressed attachments
Frontend	React + TypeScript + Vite, CodeMirror 6
Desktop	Photino (PhotinoX) with an in-process backend
Android	.NET for Android, WebView client of the servers
Distribution	Velopack (desktop), Docker image (server)

Repository layout

src/Erable.Core       pure domain (no IO dependency)
src/Erable.Storage    SQLite, migrations, FTS5, attachment storage
src/Erable.Server     API, SignalR, authentication, CLI (serve, doctor)
src/Erable.Desktop    Photino shell
src/Erable.Cli        erable-cli: read-only extraction of a project as JSON / Markdown
src/Erable.Android    Android application
src/web               React/TypeScript SPA
tests/ · spec/        tests and shared C# ↔ TypeScript cases
docs/                 documentation

Documentation

Document	Content
docs/user-guide.md	User guide: getting started, [[ID]] links, shortcuts
docs/deployment.md	Installing a server: Docker, Compose, Litestream
docs/cli.md	erable-cli: extracting a project for other tools (commands, JSON contract)
docs/markdown-syntax.md	Extended Markdown syntax
docs/architecture.md	Stack, data model, storage, API, security, decisions
docs/features.md	Features, rules and acceptance scenarios
docs/testing.md	Testing strategy
docs/release.md	Publishing a release

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome, within the limits of the warning above: see CONTRIBUTING.md and the code of conduct. Security problems: SECURITY.md. AI agents follow CLAUDE.md in addition.

License

MIT © 2026 Arthur Ferre