Install trilium-notes with Homebrew Cask

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

No executable aliases were found in the local package database.

Project history

Trilium originated with developer Zadam in 2017 as an open-source hierarchical note-taking and personal-knowledge-base application.

In January 2024, Zadam announced that the original project would enter maintenance mode and invited a community fork. TriliumNext began as that fork; the original repository was later transferred to the community organization so development could continue in the canonical Trilium repository.

The community project continued under the Trilium Notes name, expanded its release line beyond the original v0.63.7 series, and maintained migration compatibility through TriliumNext v0.90.4 before incrementing the synchronization protocol.

Adoption history

Trilium attracted self-hosters and personal-knowledge-management users by combining desktop applications with a server edition, browser access, synchronization, Docker deployment, scripting, and an API.

The community continuation retained compatibility with the original project's database through TriliumNext v0.90.4, reducing migration friction. Current releases are available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, with server and container deployment options.

How it is used

Users organize rich-text, code, image, attachment, canvas, and other notes in arbitrarily deep trees; notes can be cloned into multiple positions and connected with links and relations.

Trilium can run as a local desktop application or as a self-hosted server with browser access and synchronization. The official documentation recommends backing up the whole data directory, which contains the SQLite document database, configuration, logs, and automatic backups.

The data directory can be relocated with `TRILIUM_DATA_DIR`; `TRILIUM_CONFIG_INI_PATH` can override the configuration-file path. Users should not place the live SQLite database in generic file-sync tools such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive.

Why package nerds care

Trilium sits at the intersection of desktop packaging and self-hosted infrastructure: users can install a native Electron client, run a packaged server, or deploy a container while retaining local ownership of an SQLite knowledge base.

Package enthusiasts care about its explicit data directory, portable deployment options, environment-variable overrides, database compatibility boundaries, and broad ecosystem of desktop, server, Docker, Linux-distribution, and Homebrew packages.

Timeline

• 2017: The original Trilium project began.
• 2024: Zadam announced maintenance mode and invited a community continuation.
• 2024: TriliumNext emerged as a community fork of the original project.
• 2025: The original repository was transferred to TriliumNext and became the continuing canonical project.
• 2026: Trilium Notes continued shipping cross-platform desktop and server releases.

Related projects

• zadam/trilium, the original project lineage
• TriliumNext web clipper
• TriliumNext Helm charts
• Docker and self-hosted Trilium server deployments

Sources

• Official community history note: https://github.com/TriliumNext/Notes/blob/develop/README.md
• Official data-directory documentation: https://triliumnext.github.io/Docs/Wiki/data-directory.html
• Official repository README: https://github.com/TriliumNext/Trilium#readme
• Official server-installation documentation: https://triliumnext.github.io/Docs/Wiki/server-installation.html
• Original maintainer's maintenance-mode announcement in the canonical repository: https://github.com/TriliumNext/Trilium/issues/4620