Dendron v100 — Open source note taking for developers

How does this compare with Obsidian? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...

Hey Product Hunt 👋 Founder here. I started Dendron because I wanted a solution that could help me find the information I already had. I was tired of looking up the same stack overflow solution for a problem I had already encountered and wanted a tool that could help me externalize information in such a way that made it easy to find again later. After spending years experimenting with different systems, I came to realize that having a *well-structured organization* for knowledge was the only way I could consistently find things. It's not a radical concept in itself but requires a lot of work from the individual to make it work. Dendron enables knowledge management at scale by helping users organize their knowledge, not through good intentions, but with the aid of software. It lets you create flexible hierarchies that can be consistently applied and also refactored so that you can slowly evolve the structure of your knowledge base over time. Dendron borrows heavily from prior work in developer tooling and programming languages, taking concepts like type systems and schemas and applying them to general knowledge. Dendron is available as both a VSCode/VSCodium plugin as well as a CLI. All notes are stored locally and can also be selectively published as a static site using our open-source nextjs template. You can use Dendron standalone or in the same workspace where you keep your code - if you choose the latter, you can link to code files inside of Dendron and vice versa! You can learn more about Dendron and our approach to knowledge management via the following links: - [It's Not You - It's Your Knowledge Base](https://www.kevinslin.com/notes/... Dendron's philosophy on knowledge management - [A Hierarchy First Approach to Note Taking](https://blog.dendron.so/notes/3d... Dendron's methodology for note-taking - [Dendron Inc](https://blog.dendron.so/notes/N9... Dendron's business plan We also have an active discord community where we talk about all things knowledge management: https://discord.gg/AE3NRw9 Thanks for reading, Kevin

I have used Dendron nearly every week for the past year and a half. It was already compelling when I first discovered it, but it's been amazing thrilling to watch the product get better with every weekly release. Both the core software and the wonderful Dendron discord community have been a core part of my programming and personal organization workflow. The team's unique approach to improving the capture, retrieval, and organization phases of knowledge management via interactions and techniques honed in the world of software engineering (refactoring, transclusion, etc) has the potential to be very transformative, even for folks who are not working in software engineering roles.

I like dendron. I funded for about 7 months on the 10 dollar contribution plan because i like their mission. Happy to see them do well.

I've been using Dendron for about a year now and absolutely love it. It's very versatile and customizable so it's not only suited for programming but also for e.g. personal notes, study notes and as a journal. Being an extension for VSCode gives access to the huge number of other extensions. Being able to use git is really useful too.

Very rarely does a product cause a paradigm shift, but Dendron has done exactly that for me. When I first saw Dendron's hybrid approach of combining a traditional hierarchical structure with the fluidity of bi-directional linking, it altered my approach to organizing my personal information - I spent the next week reorganizing all of my personal notes into Dendron and haven't looked back since. Accessing my personal information has never been easier or faster, and it has incentivized me to keep track of all kinds of information that I hadn't been before. The other big idea of Dendron that has drawn me in is the idea of applying programming concepts to information management. IDE's have become very powerful tools for scaling and maintaining code bases, so why can't the same ideas scale and maintain information as well? This is the Dendron's key differentiator for me - having the ability to use concepts like refactor to quickly reorganize my thoughts without breaking links is a game changer. And there's so much more potential in this area that's unexplored - from having structural benefits like a type system and schemas to enabling fast querying with db like data models. I'm excited to see what Dendron will become.

I choose to use Opensource products only and I had tried various Opensource note taking tools , and a few non Opensource ones. I Really loved Basket Notepads because it have organization features and getting things done features but it was dead since 2014 and I was struggling to find something that close to it. I found out dendron around a year ago but at first I didn't like the Idea of having a note taking tool as an Extensions . I would like it to lightweight , and take notes quickly and look back quickly. So I tried QOwnNotes which is written in QT and have direct integration to nextcloud. The developer there is really nice and I contributed a few extensions. But then When notes are becoming big and many , it requires proper search and When i want to write proper markdown plus some code I found VSCode is best . Then i realize since i have to open VScode as daily basis why not just use Dendron ? So i give a tried and fall in love. It is full of features that is required to organize my researches. Very easy to organize Notes in Hierarchyn and then i found it have the most powerful organization system with auto-completions which making easy to store and retrieve information , super fast too . Combined with powerful search system of VSCode it become a match made in heaven. I use Dendron to : - Write project specifications - Store Research and Learning - Save code Snippets - Daily Logging Only thing i missing are Secret/Encrypted notes with unlock key , Launching Dendron Directly as seperate app, and ability to park to systemtray which i think it would need its own application (not sure it would be easy or worth it - since it requires forking vscode.)

I use Dendron both as a personal knowledge base and to document my open source software personal projects. For my personal knowledge base, I keep notes on everything I might find useful. From how to replace the battery on my car to how to cook a great pizza, everything goes into Dendron. Now you'd think keeping all these different topics in the same place would make it hard to find anything, but Dendron makes it very easy to organize the knowledge so I can always find what I'm looking for. My recipes have their own hierarchies, and so do the list of video games I want to play and movies I want to watch, my notes on the books I've read, or the ideas on blog posts I've had. What's also amazing is that Dendron allows me to create schemas that describe these structures. Not everything has schemas, but for some things like recipes I have a structure in mind that I want them to fit. So I created schemas to organize the recipes how they make sense to me. At the same time, Dendron doesn't stop me if I need to take a quick note and I don't care about where it goes in the hierarchy of notes. Instead, Dendron allows me to reorganize these notes later so I can take notes now and figure out where the notes fit later. I also love that I can publish my notes on a website. I've published my recipes with Dendron, which is very convenient when I'm at the grocery store and trying to remember what ingredients I need! It's also a good way to share your notes with others.

Dendron is a fantastic platform for team and personal knowledge management - especially for developers and technical teams. @kevin_s_lin has been working on this problem since well before the existence of Dendron and he has a deep passion for solving knowledge management in a way that is accessible to everyone. I am excited to see what the future holds for the product 🎉🚀 I love that Dendron is open source, takes advantage of the VSCode ecosystem and uses Markdown in a standard file hierarchy.

I've been using Dendron for the last few months for my notes for work as well as for a Dungeons & Dragons game I DM. The graph-based approach to organizing data has been a huge benefit and the reason it has worked so well for me. That graph-based approach has removed the need for an extremely powerful search that I needed before and was unable to find. By tagging and referencing other notes I can more easily find everything relating to a topic or project.

I've been using Dendron since February and it's changed the way I take notes for the better. Dare I say, note taking is now fun! When I started using it, I was a software tester so I was able to organize my test data, users, steps and link them with the user stories. What made it a game changer for me was being able to paste screenshots directly into the notes, I was blown away by this. Now I'm a Scrum Master and I'm taking more notes than ever before and I'm taking advantage of the "@user" linking which has been incredibly useful as I can type someone's name and find out what meetings they were in. Just like with any note taking system, it takes discipline to stay organized and Dendron is no different, however getting organized is incredibly easy because files and hierarchies can be renamed on the fly and all of the links and backlinks will still work. One other great thing is, you can just create a quick note a "Scratch Note" start typing and then later on, rename it with ease. Templates and schemas are really incredible and with the new "Apply Template" command, that will make things even easier. In addition to the product, the Founder (Kevin), team and the community have been really great. There's still a lot for me to discover with this tool and I'm really excited to see where this project goes as I truly believe it has a bright future! Congrats Kevin and team for hitting this milestone!!! :)

I use Dendron to store all the standard operating procedures we have in our project. The workflows range from uploading an image to aws to onboarding a new member. The impressive thing about Dendron is that it is flexible and can be strict as needed. One can start writing notes in free form and can restructure them as they develop. Alternatively, it can be organized using schemas and templates. For personal organization, I use Dendron to keep track of my monthly readings and language course notes. For every article/novel I read, I summarize my takeaways under a reading hierarchy and by the end of the month, I can see my reading progress through a graph. I love the keyboard-focused ux which makes every command a hotkey away.

I love Dendron! I've been using it for, ooh, almost 10 months now, and it is just superb for jotting down notes, structuring tasks, documenting my work, and generally keeping myself organised with my "Most Important Tasks"! Love it. And I know I've barely scratched the surface with what it can do. I need to spend a little more time setting up my workspace so that it is _just_ as I like it. Well done Kevin and Dendron Team on a superb product! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Would Dendron again.

Dendron is the perfect tool to organize "knowledge" in a new way. In fact, in **your own** way. And if you don't have one, you are also covered because Dendron enables you to grow one. I tried similar tools in the past, but nothing makes me so comfortable and with so much freedom. For example, the refactor tool allows you to change your mind about your notes/knowledge base/concepts with just some keystrokes, effectively making your notes evolve painlessly. Embracing your way, it's a great everyday companion for this kind of stuff. It's not even easy to describe the Dendron experience in words.

Dendron has been incredibly useful in my job and daily life. I work as a software developer consultant and need to keep track of a lot of information, preferably in Markdown. It has helped me not only store info, but pull it up quickly, and share it with fellow team members and new hires. Here are some of the things I use it for: • Sprints issues and progress • Meeting notes • Notes on current projects • Drawing process flow charts with Unicorn syntax • Store code snippets • Creating README files • Storing contacts and notes (especially helpful when working with customers!) • Topics I am currently learning about • Topics I have already learned • Tracking work hours And Dendron works with source control and can be published online into a clean, user-friendly webpage. Dendron is also great for recording campaign information for games like Call of Cthulhu or Dungeons & Dragons!

Dendron is a game changer, we replaced Confluence with it at our startup. Confluence wasn’t scaling well, made it difficult to find information, and difficult to reorganize. Dendron is unopinionated and is more of a library than a framework - but they offer opinions and sane defaults when you need them - it’s the result of strong software design decisions, reminiscent of react in my opinion. I have great faith in dendron and I’m very proud to be a part of the community and use them at my workplace and in my personal life to manage my information at scale no matter where it comes from.

I've been using Dendron daily, mainly for its journal function. It has a lot of complexity under the covers, but for just daily work journaling it's really simple to use. The search function (leveraging VS Code) is phenomenal, and the reorganization tools are really helpful. I have quit using more tools like Dendron than I care to admit, but I am hopeful that Dendron will continue to be fun and useful.

Dendron has definitely been a tool that has solved all my needs, without the need to overwhelm me with a lot of customization options. Plus its integration within VSCode has made me feel like I never have to change applications, which makes me feel comfortable while keeping my notes on steroids using Dendron and VSCode features at the same time! That is great! Dendron has an amazing community.Wow I'm speechless. They are always whiling to help. Kudos to all Dendron team, and thanks for creating an amazing solution and community. :)

I have been using Dendron since last 2 months and I have to say I am in love with the product. It is so amazing for Developers who want to keep a personal knowledge management and easier to store and find whatever piece of information you're looking for. I am so grateful to be a part of the Dendron community.

As someone who was not from a technical background (never used VSCode and wasn't familiar with markdown), you would think Dendron would be not be my natural first choice for note-taking. However, in a short span of 2 months, I can safely say that I have found a solution to my problems with knowledge management! My primary issue with note-taking and the tools I used earlier, was categorization and then finding the notes that I had written more than a week ago. Dendron's flat folder hierarchy and note referencing features have made it easier for me to navigate between my notes and find ways of connecting different subjects with related topics (my earlier approach was just a jumbled up pile of links on one note). While Dendron functions primarily as my tool for note-taking, is has also largely been a resource to learn better practices for knowledge management and my overall productivity. I have no excuse not to track my goals and projects, especially with structurally-supporting features like schemas and hierarchies. More than anything, the reason this tool is so effective for me is that it allows me to use my working style to set up my workspace. There is still so much of the tool and it's features that I am yet to learn and use, but that's what makes it more fun. The journey to improve knowledge management has begun and I'm excited to be on the ride!