outline — Outline is a fast, real‑time collaborative knowledge base for teams. Built with React and Node.js, it supports markdown, offers hosted and self‑hosted deployments via Docker, and includes extensive documentation, translation, and contribution guidelines.

Outline is a fast, real‑time collaborative knowledge base for teams. Built with React and Node.js, it supports markdown, offers hosted and self‑hosted deployments via Docker, and includes extensive documentation, translation, and contribution guidelines.

About this project

Outline is an open‑source knowledge‑base platform designed for growing teams that need a fast, beautiful, and collaborative space for documentation. The application is built with React on the front‑end and Node.js on the back‑end, and it fully supports markdown, making it easy to write and format content. ## Key Features - Real‑time collaborative editing with instant updates for all users. - Markdown‑compatible editor for rich text formatting. - Styled with styled‑components, providing a modern UI. - Internationalisation via Crowdin, with community‑driven translations. - Docker images for quick self‑hosting (stable release and nightly builds). - JSON‑structured logs for easy integration with log‑aggregation pipelines. - Comprehensive test suite using Vitest for both backend and frontend. ## Getting Started - **Hosted version:** No setup required – simply sign up at https://www.getoutline.com. - **Self‑hosting:** Follow the official hosting guide (https://docs.getoutline.com/s/hosting/) which covers production‑grade deployment, environment configuration, and database migrations. Docker images are available on Docker Hub under `outlinewiki/outline`. ## Development & Contribution - The repository contains the full source code for the web app and supporting services. - Contribution guidelines emphasize thoughtful, human‑written changes; AI‑generated pull requests are discouraged. - New contributors can start with translation work, "good first issue" tickets, performance tweaks, or documentation improvements. - A detailed architecture document (docs/ARCHITECTURE.md) explains the system’s components and data flow. - Debugging is straightforward: development logs are plain text, while production logs are JSON. Logging can be toggled with the `DEBUG` and `LOG_LEVEL` environment variables. - Tests are run via `make test` (all) or `yarn test:server` / `yarn test:app` for targeted backend or frontend suites. - Database migrations are managed with Sequelize (`yarn db:create-migration`, `yarn db:migrate`, `yarn db:rollback`). ## Community & Support - Documentation, guides, and a discussion forum are available on the Outline website and GitHub Discussions. - Users can report bugs, request features, or ask for help through GitHub Issues. ## License Outline is released under the Business Source License 1.1 (BSL 1.1), allowing free use while restricting certain commercial activities. Outline provides a robust, self‑hostable alternative to proprietary knowledge‑base tools, making it suitable for teams that value control over their data and the ability to customise the platform to their workflow.