Collaboration & Productivity
Blinko
AI-powered self-hosted notes — capture ideas, search semantically, own your knowledge. GPL-3 · 11 k+ stars.
About Blinko
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.
What gets installed
Ready when the VPS starts
- Compatible OS
- Choice of Linux distributions
- Application
- Blinko
- Tech stack
- DockerNext.jsPostgreSQL 14
- Minimum RAM
- 1 GB
- Minimum CPU
- 1 vCPU
- Default port
- 1111
- Access
- root over SSH
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.
Guide
Deploy Blinko on your 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:latestandpostgres: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 tohttp://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
Questions about Blinko
← Back to Collaboration & ProductivityAll applicationsEmbed 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.
[](https://servorbit.com/vps-cloud?template=blinko&utm_source=deploy-badge&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=blinko)<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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Need help?
Browse our help center and FAQ, or reach our team — callback, WhatsApp or email.
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