Hey selfhosters 👋
A few weeks ago I shared Ideon here and got great feedback that shaped a lot of what I’ve been working on since.
Since my last post here, Ideon crossed 200 stars on GitHub and I wanted to say thank you ❤. It means a lot to see people interested in what started as a side project. It motivated me to work on it literally every day since then.
For those who missed it: Ideon is a self-hosted visual workspace where you lay out everything about a project on an infinite canvas: notes, Git repos, code snippets, checklists, sketches, links and connect them together. Two containers, no external dependencies.
Since then, a lot has changed and I wanted to share an update.
Self-hosting got smoother. Docker permission issues with bind mounts are gone, build times are faster, and there’s a new GIT_ALLOWED_HOSTS env variable so you can whitelist your internal Git servers (Gitea, Forgejo, GitLab behind a VPN, etc.) without the SSRF filter blocking them.
Collaboration got real structure. There are now 4 project roles (Creator, Owner, Editor, Viewer), a Request Access workflow for private projects, and the canvas supports real-time multiplayer with conflict-free editing.
The canvas got a lot more usable. Keyboard navigation (arrow keys + vim keys), a command palette, freehand sketch blocks, drag-and-drop checklists with progress bars, markdown tables and task lists, emoji reactions on blocks, edge labels, and a bunch of stability fixes for large projects.
Where this is going next:
Right now Ideon lets you see your project. Git stats, issues, PRs show up on the canvas, but you can only look at them. For the v1 I want to move from visibility to control. Merge a PR from the canvas. Trigger a deployment. Restart a service. Turn the workspace into an actual cockpit where you operate your project, not just view it.
That’s the direction. Curious what this community thinks about it.
If you tried it and hit something rough, or if you’ve been waiting to try it, now’s a good time. Feedback always welcome.
Okay, I’m not taking responsibility for any divorces caused by Ideon 😹
Really glad you liked the demo though, that means a lot. I honestly didn’t expect people to seriously consider moving their whole setup.
For Obsidian migration, yes, I can absolutely make it happen. But I want to be transparent, it’ll take a bit of time to build something clean and reliable :)
OK, ready to be a guinea pig for another nice self-hosted service. Just let me know what you want to test from now on, and I’ll freely do so, break it if necessary, and try to put it back together.
Thanks, this is pretty cool.
Also, as others have mentioned, a bit of on how to configure the .env file and other modifications to the docker-compose.yml is always a good idea to make sure people that may not be as tech savvy have some idea on how to troubleshoot. For example, in the .env file the instructions on the ‘App URL’ are clear to me, and evidently to you, but I know of many that would not be able to get it to work over a cloudflare tunnel, for example, only because they wouldn’t touch this part.
Just something to keep in mind.
Take your time. It’s by no means a deal breaker. I’m sucked into self-hosting deep enough that I can keep what’s in Obsidian right now while using Ideon, and just wait until I can move it to Ideon. It wouldn’t be the first time I have 2 services running in parallel until I figure out which one I’m keeping. Hell, I did that for almost a year when I was in Joplin and then decided to move to Obsidian.
As for the divorce, I don’t think it’s going to happen any time soon. She wanted to catch-up on Solo Leveling, so I joined her. I’ll spin up the server tomorrow when she leaves for work 🤣