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.

Support

Share information and collaborate.

Blinko

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

1 GB RAM 1 vCPU Port 1111 In validation

In validation

Automatic installation for this solution is ready and currently going through our tests on a real server. Ordering will open as soon as validation is complete.

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.

Complementary solutions

Collaboration & Productivity

Memos

Lightweight open-source note-taking app: capture ideas, run a personal journal or share notes with your team — self-hosted on your VPS.

Collaboration & Productivity

SiYuan

SiYuan is an open-source personal knowledge workspace: block-level notes, bidirectional links and AI agents — your data stays on your own VPS.

Collaboration & Productivity

Linkwarden

Self-hosted collaborative bookmark manager for teams and agencies (AGPL-3.0, ~9k GitHub stars). Organize links in shared collections, assign granular read/write permissions, detect broken links, and archive web pages locally — screenshots and full-text snapshots immune to link rot.

Share information and collaborate.

Blinko isn't orderable yet.

Automatic installation for this solution is ready and currently going through our tests on a real server. Ordering will open as soon as validation is complete.

Need help?

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

Message us on WhatsApp

or write to us