Shared journals is a requested features: https://github.com/journiv/journiv-app/issues/62 Please upvote the issue so it can be prioritized better.

Thank you using Journiv. Please report and feature request or bugs on Github. Regarding how long term:

• It is very dependent on the support and sustainability the project gets from the community. So if you feel the project makes your life better and is valuable to you then definitely consider contributing and supporting it https://journiv.com/sponsors
• Journiv, core mission is to let users completely control their data and enable freedom to do whatever they wan’t with it. So open data formats and robust export is being built from day one. Journiv-viewer (coming soon https://journiv.com/docs/guides/journiv-viewer#exporting-to-markdown) allow users to access their journiv export as HTML webpages completely client side and standalone HTML pages. So even if you don’t have journiv instance running years down the line you have easy access to your journals. This viewer can also generate markdown export zips with frontmatter which can then be imported to any markdown viewer or note app which support markdown without any metadata loss.

The article and discussion here is about open source software which is not free software. Thats where the problem lies it is assumed that open source software has be free.

Freedom in software does not mean free software.

It’s funny how common this mindset is in the self-hosting community: “If I’m running it on my own hardware, the software should basically be free… maybe I’ll toss a tiny ‘tip’ if I feel generous.”

The logic seems to be that since there’s no ongoing server cost, the developer’s time, skill, and effort must somehow be worth nothing and that we should magically fund the entire project through some hypothetical cloud version that they themselves will never use.

It’s like showing up to a brewery with your own growler and expecting the beer to be free because you didn’t use their glass.

Definitely!

Exactly for the reason you said. They don’t care about your privacy they want your verified email address to sell to the higher bidder.

Burning the midnight oil on my self hosted journal app: https://github.com/journiv/journiv-app

Import/Export are coming very soon! Here is sneak peek https://github.com/journiv/journiv-app/issues/92#issuecomment-3535960988 Built in a way that we can easily make and keep backup without fiddling with docker.

I am happy to hear that :)

Thanks! My main focus right now is simply building the product, the license doesn’t matter much if the product itself isn’t good yet. It’s always easier to move to a less restrictive license later than to go the other way, so this is the approach I’m starting with.

non-docker ways will come later. Stay tuned!

Thank you for adopting Journiv! Yes the export will be added. I do agree with you that a human accessible export is very important. I am a software engineer who knows how to make docker backups etc etc but I never do it :) I know I can set it be automated but the friction is too high to do it.

Journiv is being built for out of need and to be the solution of owning memory so it long term strategy is at it’s core. I am personally using it for all my memories with my young family so it will be devastating to lose it because of backup friction.

My plan for Journiv is:

1. 1 Click export which periodically created a static HTML site with all the entries and media. Zips it and put in local location configured by user. Since journiv run in a docker container the first phase will be putting it but not tied to docker container lifecycle. Second phase will be integration with a network file share where Journiv can automatically dump the export. Once I configure it I want it to just work not fiddle or worry about making backup. If backup fails I get some discord/telegram notification or within Journiv app.
2. Flat JSON export with media. HTML static site will allow user to see entries but JSON export is critical so that the entries can also be exported some where else if the need be.

Thank you.

You can if you can run docker on it. As of now that is the documented path. It is possible to run it without docker but that need some documentation.

Yes, mobile clients are coming. I want to have adoption and sustainability before investing time and resources in launching mobile clients. That is the reason why they will come little after. There has been lot of interest and appreciation for the app as you can see in github issues so stay tuned.

Hello, Thanks for your interest. It is possible but a little work as it will require one to have Python interpreter installed and do few things to run it. Yes, thise instructions are not there. I will add them. Do you have Python installed?

Thank you.

Journiv is source-available but not “Free Software” under the FSF/OSI definition. I chose the PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 license intentionally to keep the code open for personal and educational use which allow hosting for non-commercial while preventing “commercial” redistribution or hosting for commercial gain without permission.

My motivation behind Journiv is to give a solution to self hosted people like me and other a journal first experience on par with any major cloud offering so that they don’t have to mold their usage to a notes app and be unsatisfied and frustrated like me. This license enables everyone in the self hosted community to use Journiv.

I did consider permissive and copyleft licenses (Apache, GPL, BSD, etc.), but sustainability is a major concern for this project. I have already spent hundreds of hours on this over last couple of months and there is so much more to build (take a look at the issues page of github repo). I want to keep development open and transparent while ensuring that commercial entities can’t simply repackage and profit from it.

No. There are feature requests to add support for imports from various places. If you plan to use the app please open an issue.

Thanks.

Please read the documentation linked in the ReadMe and you can try out all the security features.

There are docs for auth model, the code around it, the limitation of in-mem tokens, the clear documentation around token handling, the code to support CORS, trusted host middleware, CSP, HSTS, rate limiting. You can read the env.template and configure and try it out. I doubt there are self hosted (vibe coded, ai-assisted or even non vibe coded) existing apps which have these security feature in v0.1 or even later.

Like mentioned in comment and ReadMe the project is written with AI assistance not vibe coded or AI driven development. If you will read the code, look at design and db model you will find the answers you are seeking. Having said that I am always looking to make the project better so if you find anything which can be improved please open a PR.

Thank you.