DEV Community: Rahul Anand

A Tour of Papyra 1.0 in 20 Pictures

Rahul Anand — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 20:03:01 +0000

This is the short tour of Papyra, a notes app you run on your own server. Mostly pictures, very few words.

Want to click along? There's a live demo. It's the real app with a fake backend, running in your browser. No sign-up.

1. The desk

Notes are cards. Pin them, colour them, tag them, drag them around.

2. Light or dark

3. Writing

Click a card and it opens on top of the desk, so you never lose your place.

There's no save button. Stop typing and it saves.

4. Linking notes

Type [[ and pick a note.

Every note shows what links to it at the bottom.

5. Finding things

Ctrl+K searches titles, text, tags, and the text inside pictures (if you turn OCR on).

6. To-do lists

7. Tags and smart collections

A smart collection is a saved rule, like "tagged work and pinned". Notes show up while they match.

8. Pictures and PDFs

Drop files in. Pictures get thumbnails. PDFs open in place.

9. Going back in time

Every note keeps its earlier versions. Step through them, see what changed, restore one.

10. Editing together

Share a note with someone on your server and you can both type in it at once.

11. Comments

Select text, comment on it, resolve it when it's done.

12. Sharing

Share with a person (view or edit), or make a link. Links can expire or stop after a number of views.

Here's what someone sees when they open a link:

13. Shared with me

14. Notifications

15. The vault

Lock a note and it's blurred everywhere. Your PIN (or fingerprint) opens it.

16. Offline

No signal? Keep typing. It catches up when you're back.

17. Sign-in

Every account has an authenticator app. Passkeys and single sign-on work too.

18. Security settings

Authenticator apps, passkeys, the vault PIN, and every signed-in browser (which you can rename or sign out) live here.

19. Data in and out

Import from Obsidian or Google Keep. Export everything as plain Markdown in a zip.

20. On your phone

That's the tour. The demo is the same app. Go break it.

I'm Rahul. I vibe-coded Papyra: what would have taken me a year or more to build by hand took a few months. It's GPLv3 and self-hosted: one Docker container, your notes as plain Markdown files.

GitHub · Live demo, no signup · Docs

Papyra v1: Self-Hosted Notes That Are Just Markdown Files

Rahul Anand — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 05:00:48 +0000

Papyra 1.0 is out. It's a notes app you run on your own server. It looks like Google Keep, and every note is a plain .md file.

That's the whole idea. The rest of this post is pictures.

The desk. Cards you can pin, colour, tag and drag around.

The folder is the storage

Every note is a Markdown file with a small YAML header. Here's one, straight off the disk:

No database blob. No export step. Just a file.

And here's the whole data folder. Your notes live in users/1/notes/. Everything Papyra keeps for itself goes in a hidden .papyra/ folder.

There is a SQLite database and a search index. They're caches. Delete them and Papyra rebuilds them from the files.

Other tools can edit your notes

Because they're files, anything can change them. Papyra notices and catches up. Here I add a line to a to-do list from a shell, and the open app updates on its own:

A real command on the real file. No reload.

Point Obsidian at the folder and it opens. Write a new note in Obsidian and it shows up in Papyra. grep works. Syncthing works. Git works.

What's in 1.0

Live editing together. Share a note and two people can type in it at the same time, with named cursors. It's still a .md file on disk.

Fast full-text search. Press Ctrl+K and type.

Links between notes. Type [[ to link another note. Every note lists what links to it.

Version history. Step back through earlier versions and see what changed.

A vault for private notes. Locked notes are blurred, open with a PIN (or your fingerprint), and are encrypted on disk.

Comments. Select text, leave a comment, resolve it later.

Pictures and PDFs inside notes. Drop them in. PDFs preview in place.

Works offline. Keep typing with no signal. It syncs when you're back.

Also in the box: two-step sign-in with an authenticator app, passkeys, single sign-on (OIDC), sharing by link, import from Obsidian and Google Keep, export to a zip, sealed backup files, and backup to a private GitHub repo.

It works on phones, too.

Install

One container, one volume:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lyfie-org/papyra/main/docker-compose.hub.yml
docker compose -f docker-compose.hub.yml up -d

Open http://localhost:8080 and create the first account. That's it. The image is built for amd64 and arm64, so a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 works too.

Release Note

1.0 means I use it every day and I'm happy for you to. It does not mean it's finished or bug-free. It makes backups for you: keep them.

There's no hosted version and no native mobile app. There's an AI assistant in the code, but it's switched off for now.

And if Papyra isn't for you, delete it. You still have a folder of Markdown files. That's the point.

I'm Rahul. I vibe-coded Papyra: what would have taken me a year or more to build by hand took a few months. It's GPLv3 and self-hosted: one Docker container, your notes as plain Markdown files.

GitHub · Live demo, no signup · Docs

Luthor: A WYSIWYG React Text Editor for Performance and Control

Rahul Anand — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 17:20:26 +0000

I built Luthor to end the editor tradeoff: fast setup with lock-in, or full control that burns weeks before you ship anything real at scale.

I just want to build my app! Not wonder what a toolbar icon should look like on the text editor.
I wanted one ecosystem where I can ship fast, then go deep only when I actually need to.

Quick Links

Website: https://www.luthor.fyi
Playground: https://www.luthor.fyi/demo
Docs: https://www.luthor.fyi/docs/getting-started/index
GitHub: https://github.com/lyfie-org/luthor
npm (@lyfie/luthor): https://www.npmjs.com/package/@lyfie/luthor
npm (@lyfie/luthor-headless): https://www.npmjs.com/package/@lyfie/luthor-headless

The components that make Luthor

The Core - `@lyfie/luthor-headless`

Use this when you want full editor UI control.

runtime dependencies: 0
core engine and related packages are exposed via peerDependencies
you choose exactly what to install and what to customize
you build your own UI/UX, toolbar, behavior, and design-system integration

This package is lean by design. Performant by intention.

The Showoff - `@lyfie/luthor`

Use this when you want one-package-solution, shipping speed with polished defaults, this package does not bloat your application, it depends ONLY on Lexical packages and The Core @lyfie/luthor-headless.

includes the Lexical package set it needs under the hood
gives you presets out of the box, just plug and play
includes and exposes all extensibility of @lyfie/luthor-headless under the hood
still lets you move into deeper customization when needed

This is the practical all-in-one lane.

QYSIQYG/WYSIWYG style, but without losing the escape hatch.

Performance at a glance

Both packages are built for fast, responsive editing in real apps.

@lyfie/luthor is intentionally super lightweight for a ready-to-ship WYSIWYG package.
@lyfie/luthor-headless is even more lightweight, since it keeps runtime dependencies at zero and relies on peer dependencies for composition.

Tree-Shaking

Tree-shaking helps keep shipped code lean:

headless is especially tree-shake friendly because it is ESM and marks sideEffects: false
preset package also tree-shakes JS imports, while stylesheet imports stay intentional

Result: you can avoid dragging unnecessary editor code into production bundles, keeping your final build as lean as possible on the users browser.

Features Developers Might Love (I know I do)

Writing + structure that feels solid

typography controls
formatting essentials
links, headings, alignment, and list workflows

Productivity without friction

slash command center
command workflows
undo/redo and keyboard-first speed

Real product features, not just demo features

embeds (image, iframe, YouTube)
code blocks
custom blocks and extension-level flexibility
dark/light ready behavior

Minimal Setup: Preset Lane

npm install @lyfie/luthor

import { ExtensiveEditor } from "@lyfie/luthor";
import "@lyfie/luthor/styles.css";

export function App() {
  return <ExtensiveEditor placeholder="Start writing..." />;
}

Minimal Setup: Headless Lane

npm install @lyfie/luthor-headless

npm install lexical @lexical/code @lexical/link @lexical/list @lexical/markdown @lexical/react @lexical/rich-text @lexical/selection @lexical/table @lexical/utils

import {
  createEditorSystem,
  RichText,
  richTextExtension,
  boldExtension,
  italicExtension,
} from "@lyfie/luthor-headless";

const extensions = [richTextExtension, boldExtension, italicExtension] as const;
const { Provider, useEditor } = createEditorSystem<typeof extensions>();

function Toolbar() {
  const { commands, activeStates } = useEditor();
  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={() => commands.toggleBold?.()} aria-pressed={activeStates.bold === true}>
        Bold
      </button>
      <button onClick={() => commands.toggleItalic?.()} aria-pressed={activeStates.italic === true}>
        Italic
      </button>
    </div>
  );
}

export function App() {
  return (
    <Provider extensions={extensions}>
      <Toolbar />
      <RichText placeholder="Write here..." />
    </Provider>
  );
}

Why Developers Stick With It

clear split between preset workflow and headless workflow
practical docs for getting started, presets, architecture, and API usage
live playground to evaluate flows before integration
feature depth that covers real product requirements, not just demos
developer-first approach: open source, MIT, no paywalls

Final Take

If you want a clean editor stack with zero confusion:

choose @lyfie/luthor-headless for maximum UI/UX control and lean dependency strategy
choose @lyfie/luthor for all the built in presets for fast QYSIQYG/WYSIWYG plug and play shipping and built-in ergonomics (bonus: you get luthor-headless features within this package too, best of both worlds)

Either way, you stay in one ecosystem and scale without redoing everything.

Quick Links (Again)

Website: https://www.luthor.fyi
Playground: https://www.luthor.fyi/demo
Docs: https://www.luthor.fyi/docs/getting-started/index
GitHub: https://github.com/lyfie-org/luthor
npm (@lyfie/luthor): https://www.npmjs.com/package/@lyfie/luthor
npm (@lyfie/luthor-headless): https://www.npmjs.com/package/@lyfie/luthor-headless