Memos

What it is

Memos is an open-source, self-hosted note-taking app for everyday thoughts. A memo can be a single sentence or a longer entry in Markdown. Each one stays with the day you wrote it, so your notes build up into a personal timeline you can look back through. Tags connect related thoughts across days. The record lives on your own server, and you choose what stays private, what goes to family and friends, and what is published on the web.

1. You start the server with Docker or a release binary
2. The first account you create becomes the host admin
3. You write memos in Markdown and pick who can read each
4. Tags and saved Views bring related memos back later
5. Visibility, Spaces and share links decide who reads them

The server ships as one Docker image or one binary. SQLite is the default database, and MySQL and PostgreSQL are options.

Who it suits

People who want one private place for quick thoughts and are happy to run a small server to get it. It also fits small groups, because a Space lets members write side by side while each keeps their own memos. Skip it if you do not want to look after a server. You run the backups and the upgrades yourself. The live demo at https://demo.usememos.com lets you try it first.

Where to use it

Memos runs on hardware you control and opens in a browser. The README and the docs name these ways to connect it to other tools.

• The Memos Web Clipper for Chrome and Firefox saves pages, selections and images as Markdown with a link to the source. Its page says it also works with Edge, Brave and Arc
• Memogram, a Telegram bot that saves your messages and images to Memos
• The built-in MCP server at /mcp, which lets AI assistants such as Claude search, create and update your memos
• The REST and gRPC APIs, with personal access tokens
• Webhooks that post when a memo is created, updated or deleted, or when a comment is created

How to set it up

Get it saves a zip of Mindket’s setup notes in your downloads folder, with a page for each route and add-on from the maker’s README and docs. The main route is one Docker command.

1. Install Docker if it is not there yet.
2. Run the command below.
3. Open http://localhost:5230 and create the first account.
4. In the instance settings, choose private or public access and decide whether registration stays off.

docker run -d \
  --name memos \
  -p 5230:5230 \
  -v ~/.memos:/var/opt/memos \
  neosmemo/memos:stable

The Docker page gives the same command with --restart unless-stopped added. If the page does not load, the Getting Started page points you to the container’s logs.

docker logs memos

How to use it

Open the composer from the sidebar and write. Markdown works, checklists work, and a tag is a word after a hash sign. The Getting Started page suggests a first memo like this one, shortened here (its Code section is left out).

# Welcome to Memos

This is my first memo.

## Tasks
- [x] Install Memos
- [ ] Write a real note

## Tags
Trying #memos and #getting-started

Choose a visibility in the editor: PRIVATE, PROTECTED, PUBLIC or SPACE. New memos start as PRIVATE. To bring memos back, search with Quick Find or save a View. A View is a named filter, and opening it shows the memos that match right now.

tag in ["work"] && has_incomplete_tasks
created_ts >= now - duration("168h")
visibility == "PUBLIC"

Those three come from the docs’ list of example Views. They find open work items, notes from the last week and public posts. Settings has an Export & Import page that moves one account’s memos as a ZIP. Since 26.10 an instance administrator exports, and every account can import.

Example

You want a place for quick thoughts and a list of what is still open. You start the server with the command above, open http://localhost:5230 and create your account. In the composer you paste the first memo from the Getting Started page. Then you open Views from the sidebar, choose Create, give the View a title and enter the filter the docs give for unfinished tasks.

has_task_list && has_incomplete_tasks

Validate checks the filter without saving it, and Save adds the View to the sidebar. Opening it lists the memos that still have a task to do, which is how the docs say to keep browsing unfinished tasks.

For newcomers and experts

If you are new. Self-hosted means the app runs on a computer you control, not on a company’s servers. A memo is one note, short or long. With the README’s command, everything Memos keeps sits in the ~/.memos folder, so that one folder is what you back up. The first account you create is the admin. New memos start as PRIVATE, so only you, and the instance’s administrators, can read them. Try the demo first if you only want to see how it feels.

For experts. In 0.31 the docs split the canonical address from the access policy. MEMOS_INSTANCE_URL sets the public address, and the ACCESS instance setting picks private or public. Changing the URL later never changes an existing policy. A fresh instance started with the quick-start command comes up private, because that command leaves the URL out.

All MEMOS_* variables map to command-line flags, and a flag beats its variable. MEMOS_DRIVER takes sqlite, mysql or postgres, and MEMOS_DSN carries the connection string. The Docker image also reads a _FILE suffix on any of them, so a Docker secret can supply the value. Since 26.10, declarative configuration files can manage identity providers, instance settings and bootstrap administrators. Memos applies them at startup unless MEMOS_CONFIG_APPLY is set to off.

Views use a subset of CEL that Memos translates for SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL, so a regular expression behaves as each engine does. New webhooks get a Standard Webhooks-compatible signing secret, older unsigned ones can generate one in the edit dialog, and a receiver should verify the raw body before it parses anything. On Kubernetes, a Service named memos injects MEMOS_PORT=tcp://10.x.x.x:5230. Memos cannot parse that and falls back to port 0, until you turn service links off or set the port yourself.

Good to know

You run the server, so the care is yours. These points come from the README and the docs.

• Backups: the README says to back up the ~/.memos folder. With MySQL or PostgreSQL you also dump the database, and attachments kept outside the database need their own copy. The Backup & Restore page says to test a restore once
• Upgrades: migrations run at startup, and downgrading after one has run is not supported. Your backup is the way back. From 0.22 through 0.30, go to 0.31.0 first, then to 26.10. From a version earlier than 0.22, run 0.25.3, then 0.31.0, then 26.10. Every user signs in again after 26.10, and personal access tokens keep working
• Versions: the stable tag follows stable releases. The Upgrade page says to pin a specific version tag in production and upgrade on purpose
• First run: the quick-start command starts private, so ordinary memo pages need a sign-in. Explicit share links still open their one memo without a sign-in until you revoke them or they expire. Switching to private mode does not revoke them
• Public memos: they can expose attached files and links along with the text. The Security page says to review visibility and attachments
• Tokens: a personal access token shows its value once and has no expiry unless you set one. The Security page says to use one per integration and to rotate any that leak
• Demo mode: never enable it in production. It uses a fixed JWT secret
• Data sent out: the pages say nothing about the server reporting usage. The Web Clipper page says the extension has no analytics, ads or usage tracking. Webhooks post only to addresses users add, and private addresses are refused unless you allow them. If you set them up, attachments go to an S3-compatible store, and the API Reference’s AI Service sends audio to the instance’s configured transcription provider
• Export: it covers one account’s memos, is not encrypted and leaves out other people’s memos, accounts and settings. It does not replace an instance backup
• Web Clipper: it needs Memos 0.26.0 or later, and it cannot read browser-owned pages such as settings screens. There it saves only the title and URL
• License: MIT. The LICENSE file reads “Copyright (c) 2025 Memos”