Docmost is an open-source, self-hostable wiki and knowledge base platform built as a modern alternative to Confluence and Notion. It empowers teams to collaboratively create, organize, and secure internal documentation with real-time editing, AI enhancements, and granular access controls—all while maintaining full data ownership. Ideal for enterprises requiring compliance with GDPR, ITAR, or FedRAMP, Docmost supports on-premises and air-gapped deployments.
Built with TypeScript and designed for scalability, Docmost integrates with Algolia for full-text search, supports SAML 2.0, OIDC, and LDAP for authentication, and includes built-in diagramming tools (Draw.io, Excalidraw, Mermaid). It offers migration tools from Confluence, Notion, HTML, and Markdown, and is licensed under AGPL 3.0 for the core platform, with enterprise features available under a commercial license.
What You Get
- Real-time Collaboration - Live cursors and instant sync across users and devices for simultaneous editing of pages.
- AI Assistant - Built-in AI for summarizing documents, translating pages, fixing grammar, and adjusting tone using self-hosted AI models.
- Diagrams (Draw.io, Excalidraw, Mermaid) - Native support for embedding and editing diagrams directly in the editor without external tools.
- RBAC Permissions - Granular page-level permissions for viewing, editing, and administration, with support for groups and team spaces.
- Enterprise SSO Login - Seamless authentication via SAML 2.0, OpenID Connect, and LDAP integrations with multi-factor authentication (MFA).
- Confluence & Notion Migration - Built-in importers to migrate content from Confluence, Notion, HTML, and Markdown files without data loss.
- Attachments Search & Indexing - Full-text search across PDF and DOCX file attachments within the knowledge base.
- Public Sharing - Easily publish selected pages as public wikis accessible to anyone with a link.
- Page History & Restore - Track and revert to previous versions of pages with a full version history.
- MCP Support - Integration with Model Control Protocol (MCP) to connect AI tools to external systems and workflows.
- Air-gapped & On-Premises Deployment - Deploy Docmost on private servers or isolated networks with no dependency on cloud services.
- SCIM Integration - Automated user provisioning and deprovisioning via SCIM for enterprise identity management (Enterprise plan).
- Audit Logs - Detailed activity logs for compliance and security monitoring (Enterprise plan).
- Page Verification/Review Workflow - Enforce content approval workflows before publishing (Enterprise plan).
Common Use Cases
- Running a secure internal knowledge base for regulated industries - A healthcare or finance team uses Docmost’s on-premises deployment and ITAR/FedRAMP compliance features to store SOPs and compliance documentation without exposing data to third parties.
- Migrating from Confluence to a self-hosted platform - An enterprise IT team replaces their aging Confluence instance with Docmost to reduce licensing costs and gain full control over data and backups.
- Building a public documentation portal for customers - A SaaS company uses Docmost’s public sharing feature to create a branded, searchable knowledge base for end-users without requiring logins.
- Enabling AI-assisted documentation for remote teams - A product team uses Docmost’s AI assistant to summarize meeting notes, translate documentation into 10+ languages, and auto-generate release notes from raw inputs.
Under The Hood
Architecture
- Monorepo structure managed by Nx with clear boundaries between client, server, and shared editor extensions, enabling cohesive development across domains
- Server and client layers are cleanly separated, with backend services handling auth and storage while frontend focuses on UI and real-time editing
- Real-time collaboration is implemented via Hocuspocus and Yjs, using fractional-indexing-jittered for conflict-free document state synchronization
- Dockerized multi-stage builds ensure consistent environments across development and deployment stages
Tech Stack
- React 18 and Next.js 14 power the client with TypeScript, Mantine, and Tiptap for rich-text editing and modular extensions
- Hono serves as the lightweight backend framework on Node.js 22, integrated with Prisma for type-safe database operations and Redis for real-time state management
- PostgreSQL provides persistent storage, while Tiptap’s collaborative extensions enable seamless real-time editing through Yjs
- pnpm manages monorepo dependencies with patch overrides to maintain stability in critical editor libraries
- NX orchestrates testing, building, and CI/CD readiness with environment-aware Docker deployments
Code Quality
- Domain validators are thoroughly tested with comprehensive edge-case coverage, but service and controller tests lack meaningful assertions
- Code organization follows conventional patterns with clear separation of concerns, though error handling is generic and lacks structured logging or custom exceptions
- Naming conventions are consistent and descriptive, particularly in validation logic, but TypeScript interfaces and type guards are underutilized beyond basic annotations
- Linting and formatting practices appear present but are unverified due to missing configuration files, and test coverage gaps suggest insufficient validation pipelines
What Makes It Unique
- Native emoji tracking with dynamic ranking based on user behavior enhances editor efficiency without external dependencies
- Spotlight search with HTML highlighting and sanitization enables secure, context-aware discovery in collaborative environments
- Theme toggle system uses CSS mixins to dynamically invert visibility rules, avoiding JavaScript-based DOM manipulation
- License validation is tightly integrated with workspace membership, delivering seamless enterprise access control
- Customizable export pipeline unifies content structure across formats using Handlebars and Prisma
- Shareable search interface with URL-based routing and dynamic icons allows public document discovery without authentication