LeafWiki – Recap After the First Release
One evening, over a beer and a classic dev-rant, a colleague and I hit on a familiar problem:
Why is setting up a simple wiki always such a hassle?
At work, we’re currently using Wiki.js — a powerful tool, but way too overengineered for our use case. All we really wanted was:
- Markdown
- Simple structure
- No database
- No dependencies
So I started building a tiny tool from scratch: LeafWiki.
What LeafWiki Can Do Today
LeafWiki is a minimalist, self-hosted wiki that focuses on structure and simplicity:
- Single statically-linked Go binary
- No database
- All content stored as Markdown files
- Per-page uploads for images and files
- Real tree structure (not a flat list)
- Basic role system (admin/editor)
You can copy, back up, or version the content freely — no lock-in.
Where It’s At: MVP Is Live 🎉
After a few weeks of focused development (and many “just one more tweak...” moments), I released the MVP as v0.1.0.
I’m already using it internally, and it does what I need.
But: It’s far from finished.
What’s Next (v0.2.0)
Right now, the editor is a basic split view with a <textarea>.
Next, I want to make it feel much smoother:
- ✍️ Integration of CodeMirror for live Markdown styling
The goal is an editor that feels more powerful!
Want to Try It? Have Feedback?
LeafWiki is open source – I’d love to hear what you think.
Feedback, issues, stars — all very welcome.
👉 https://github.com/perber/leafwiki
It’s a beginning — but a usable one.
Top comments (4)
Great informative article
Hey Muskan,
thanks so much! Glad you liked the article 😊
Since then, the UI has changed a lot — I shared a screenshot in my latest post:
👉 LeafWiki v0.4.0 – Dogfooding Ready
Still fixing some bugs, but it's getting there!
Do you think LeafWiki could be useful to you?
Would love to hear your thoughts — especially from a frontend perspective.
Best regards,
Patrick
Hey Patrick! 😊
Thanks for the update — I just checked out the LeafWiki v0.4.0 post and wow, the UI improvements look great! It's exciting to see how far it has come.
From a frontend perspective, I really appreciate the clean layout and the focus on usability. It definitely seems useful, especially for organizing and sharing knowledge in a simple, structured way. I can see it being helpful in personal projects or even small team collaborations.
Looking forward to seeing more updates — keep up the awesome work! 🚀
Best,
Muskan
The project LeafWiki is slowly growing and has changed a lot since this first article.
Let me know what your thinking. We are looking for feedback and people who would be interested to make LeafWiki better.