How much RAM does Blinko need?

Blinko and its PostgreSQL database together idle at roughly 400–600 MB RAM. A 1 GB VPS is sufficient for a single-user instance. For a team instance with AI search enabled (Ollama sidecar on the same server), plan for at least 4 GB depending on the model size.

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Blinko

Name: Blinko
Availability: InStock

AI-powered self-hosted notes — capture ideas, search semantically, own your knowledge. GPL-3 · 11 k+ stars.

1 GB RAM 1 vCPU Port 1111 Available

Tech stack

DockerNext.jsPostgreSQL 14

Minimum RAM1 GB

Minimum CPU1 vCPU

Default port1111

Compatible OSChoice of Linux distributions

Blinko is an open-source, AI-first note-taking app (GPL-3.0, 11 k+ stars) built for developers and knowledge workers who want more than a text editor. Cards replace documents as the unit of capture: one card, one thought, indexed instantly.

Blinko's standout feature is its built-in RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) engine. Connect a local Ollama model or an OpenAI-compatible endpoint and Blinko can semantically search your notes, surface related cards automatically and answer questions over your entire history — without sending your data to the cloud.

Deployed on a ServOrbit VPS, Blinko runs as two Docker containers: a Next.js app and a PostgreSQL 14 database. Total RAM at rest: roughly 400–600 MB. No domain required — access via an SSH tunnel or attach a domain for HTTPS. The first user to sign up becomes admin.

Key features

Card-based capture — each note is an atomic card, optimised for quick capture and retrieval rather than long-form writing.

Built-in AI/RAG — connect Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint to semantically search and ask questions over your entire note history.

Full-text + semantic search — combines keyword search with vector-based similarity so you find notes even when you can't recall the exact words.

Tag and filter — organise cards by tag, type (note, task, bookmark) and filter the timeline in one click.

Progressive Web App — accessible on any device without installing an app; mobile-optimised layout for quick on-the-go capture.

Multi-user support — invite team members, each with their own private note space on a shared instance.

REST API — automate card creation from scripts, CI pipelines, bots or any HTTP client.

GPL-3.0 — no telemetry, no cloud account, no lock-in.

When to use this solution?

Daily work log for developers

Use Blinko as a frictionless developer journal: what shipped, what is blocked, what changed. The semantic search surfaces yesterday's debugging note when you hit the same issue today. The REST API lets you auto-log deployment events or CI failures directly into your timeline.

AI-augmented research notes

Capture reading notes, paper summaries and code snippets. With an Ollama sidecar (or an OpenAI key), Blinko's RAG engine answers questions like "what did I write about rate limiting last month?" in natural language — without leaving your own infrastructure.

Lightweight team knowledge base

One Blinko instance, multiple developer accounts. Tag project cards #decision, #incident or #todo, and the team searches across everything. Lighter than Notion, cheaper than Confluence, and your data never touches a third-party server.

Deploy Blinko on your VPS

Guide optimized for ServOrbit Cloud VPS.

Order a ServOrbit VPS

A 1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM plan on Ubuntu 24.04 is sufficient. Blinko and PostgreSQL idle at roughly 400–600 MB RAM. You can co-locate it with other lightweight apps on a 2 GB VPS without issue.

One-click deploy from the Marketplace

Open your ServOrbit control panel, go to Marketplace → Collaboration & Productivity → Blinko, and click Deploy. Docker pulls blinkospace/blinko:latest and postgres:14-alpine, runs migrations and starts both containers.

Create your admin account

Open the address shown in your app card. Without a domain: open an SSH tunnel with ssh -L 1111:127.0.0.1:<port> root@<your-vps-ip> (the port shown in your client area, not necessarily 1111) then browse to http://localhost:1111. Click Sign up — the very first account becomes the administrator.

Start capturing notes

Type a thought in the input box and press Enter. Assign tags inline with #tagname. The search bar searches full-text; enable AI search in Settings → AI to search semantically across your entire history.

Connect an AI model (optional)

In Settings → AI, enter an OpenAI-compatible endpoint URL (or point to a local Ollama instance on the same VPS) and a model name. Blinko indexes your notes as vectors and makes the search bar understand natural-language queries over your entire history.

Frequently asked questions

Blinko is an open-source AI-powered note-taking app (GPL-3.0, 11 k+ stars). It organises notes as atomic cards with built-in semantic search and optional RAG — connect a local Ollama model or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint and ask questions over your entire self-hosted note history.

No. Blinko publishes its port on localhost only. Without a domain, open an SSH tunnel: ssh -L 1111:127.0.0.1:<port> root@<vps-ip> (use the port shown in your client area, not necessarily 1111) and open http://localhost:1111. To get a public HTTPS address, attach one of your domains or use the free {app}.{dns_slug}.servorbit-dns.com subdomain included with every VPS.

In Blinko → Settings → AI, enter an OpenAI-compatible endpoint URL and a model name. To keep everything on your server, deploy an Ollama instance on the same VPS (available in the Marketplace under AI & Machine Learning), then point Blinko at http://localhost:<ollama-port>/v1. Blinko indexes your notes as vectors and the search bar becomes a natural-language interface to your history.

All data lives in two Docker volumes: blinko-db (PostgreSQL) and blinko-uploads (file attachments). Back up with docker exec blinko-app-1 sh -c 'pg_dump -U blinko blinko -h db' > backup.sql for a text dump, or copy the volume directories via SFTP. Restore by importing the dump into a fresh PostgreSQL container.

Embed the deploy button

Maintaining a project that uses Blinko? This button lets your readers deploy it on a VPS in one click, without reading Docker documentation.

Markdown

[![Deploy Blinko on ServOrbit](https://servorbit.com/brand/deploy/button.svg)](https://servorbit.com/vps-cloud?template=blinko&utm_source=deploy-badge&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=blinko)

HTML

<a href="https://servorbit.com/vps-cloud?template=blinko&utm_source=deploy-badge&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=blinko"><img src="https://servorbit.com/brand/deploy/button.svg" alt="Deploy Blinko on ServOrbit" height="40"></a>

The button points to a VPS order with the template preselected. The image is served from servorbit.com — nothing to host on your side.

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Activate Blinko on your infrastructure.

Dedicated Cloud VPS — IPv4 included, server in Europe, support included. Your data never leaves your server.

Recommended configuration: 1 GB RAM · 1 vCPU

Need help?

Browse our help center and FAQ, or reach our team — callback, WhatsApp or email. Support in French, English and Arabic.

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