Alexandria
Alexandria
An emoji is an optional page icon stored as the emoji core property under Alexandria's built-in note metadata. When unset, the UI falls back to the default page emoji.
akb ingest article <url> saves a web article into an Alexandria workspace: it extracts the content and metadata, converts the body to Markdown, stores the pictures locally so the article reads offline, and files it on the timeline under its publication date.
Frontmatter is the YAML block at the top of each note file. Alexandria stores the note UUID, core metadata, tags, tag definitions, and applied property values there.
A tag's default view is a table: one row per tagged note with columns for that tag's properties. A tag can instead use gallery view, which shows cards using the first image in each note body as the cover.
akb-importer brings supported external exports into Alexandria. The supported importer today is Notion, which creates Alexandria notes, tags, and properties from a Notion Markdown and CSV export.
The index/ directory holds a derived SQLite index for fast lookup and search. It is rebuilt on demand from the Markdown files and is not part of the synced workspace data.
A Link DB embed uses the exact Markdown syntax <link-db id="tag-id">. It renders notes tagged with the specified tag as a live table and supports property editing from the embedded table.
Media files live under media/ and are represented by companion notes with the built-in Media tag. Media is content-addressed: Alexandria stores a SHA-256 content hash and reuses an existing media entry when identical bytes are uploaded again.
A note is a Markdown file with YAML frontmatter and a Markdown body. It has a stable UUID, title and timestamps, optional tags, and optional applied property values.
A property is a typed value that a tag can define and apply to notes carrying that tag. Alexandria supports exactly seven property types: boolean, select, multi-select, date, number, money, and string.
A secret is a small named value — an API key, a token — kept encrypted inside the vault instead of in plaintext on disk. Reading or writing one needs an unlocked vault. Secrets sync with the workspace, so entering one on the desktop makes it available on every device.
Sync keeps a workspace available on multiple devices with end-to-end encrypted, file-level blob sync. The self-hostable server is zero-knowledge: it stores ciphertext, an encrypted manifest, and a hash of the access token, not plaintext notes or keys.
A tag is a note that can organize other notes; any note can become a tag. Tags are many-to-many, so one note can carry several tags at once.
Tag properties are defined on a tag note in the tag-properties frontmatter map, from property name to property type. When a note is tagged, values for that tag are stored under a properties-<tag-name>-<tag-id> frontmatter key.
trash/ is the workspace area for deleted items before permanent removal. Sync includes regular files under trash/ along with notes/ and media/.
The vault is the encryption feature: a passphrase and a vault name derive the 32-byte key that protects a workspace. It works with no server configured; sync borrows the key from it once unlocked. The vault also holds the workspace's secrets.
A workspace is the folder that holds an Alexandria knowledge base. Its known layout includes notes/, media/, trash/, the rebuildable index/ cache, top-level preferences, and the encrypted vault.