Lontar

A local-first knowledge base — Obsidian-compatible, built with Tauri 2 + Svelte 5 + Rust.

Overview

Lontar is a desktop note-taking app that reads/writes plain Markdown files in an Obsidian-compatible vault structure — wikilinks ([[links]]), YAML frontmatter, tags, and folder hierarchy. Everything stays on your machine. No cloud, no accounts, no tracking.

Target: ARM64 (Raspberry Pi 5) primary, cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows).

Tech Stack

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Svelte 5 Frontend (webview)                        │
│  ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌────────────────────┐  │
│  │ Sidebar   │ │ TabBar   │ │ EditorPane (CM6)   │  │
│  │ FileTree  │ │          │ │ SidePanel          │  │
│  │ SearchBar │ │          │ │  ├ Backlinks       │  │
│  └──────────┘ └──────────┘ │  ├ Outline         │  │
│                            │  └ Tags             │  │
│                            └────────────────────┘  │
│  StatusBar                                          │
├────────────────── Tauri IPC ────────────────────────┤
│  Rust Backend                                       │
│  ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌────────┐ ┌────────┐  │
│  │ Vault    │ │ Indexer  │ │ Search │ │Watcher │  │
│  │ Manager  │ │ (rayon)  │ │(tantivy)│ │(notify)│  │
│  └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └────────┘ └────────┘  │
│  21 IPC commands via tauri::command                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Features

✅ Implemented (P0: Foundation)

• Vault management — open, close, lock file, path traversal protection
• File tree — recursive directory traversal, CRUD for notes & folders
• Atomic file writes — safe writes via temp file + rename
• FS watcher — real-time file change detection with debouncing
• Tantivy search — full-text search with autocomplete suggestions
• Rayon indexer — parallel index of frontmatter, wikilinks, tags, graph
• IPC layer — 21 Tauri commands exposing all backend functionality
• CI pipeline — cargo fmt + clippy + test (Rust), typecheck + build (Svelte)

🔨 In Progress (P1: Editor Core)

• Svelte 5 app shell + layout
• CodeMirror 6 editor integration

📋 Planned

• P1: Wikilink/tag CM6 extensions, file tree sidebar, tab system, auto-save, backlinks, search UI, tag index
• P2: Graph view (D3.js), markdown preview, daily notes, command palette, outline panel, templates
• P3: Theme system, settings panel, CSP hardening, trash system, cross-platform installers
• P4: Canvas editor (Obsidian-compatible JSON)

Project Structure

lontar/
├── src/                          # Svelte 5 frontend
│   ├── App.svelte                # Root layout
│   ├── app.css                   # Catppuccin Mocha theme
│   ├── lib/
│   │   ├── components/           # UI components (9 files)
│   │   ├── stores/               # Svelte 5 reactive stores
│   │   ├── cm6/                  # CodeMirror 6 setup + extensions
│   │   └── ts/                   # Types, IPC bridge, constants
│   └── main.ts                   # Entry point
├── src-tauri/                    # Rust backend
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── main.rs               # Entry point
│   │   ├── lib.rs                # Tauri builder, plugin setup
│   │   ├── commands.rs           # 21 IPC commands (901 LOC)
│   │   ├── atomic_write.rs       # Safe file writes
│   │   ├── vault/                # Vault manager + lock file
│   │   ├── indexer/              # Rayon parallel indexer
│   │   ├── search.rs             # Tantivy search engine
│   │   └── watcher.rs            # FS watcher with debouncing
│   ├── Cargo.toml
│   └── tauri.conf.json
├── .github/workflows/ci.yml      # CI pipeline
├── package.json
└── README.md

Development

Prerequisites

• Rust (edition 2024 / stable)
• Node.js 20+
• Tauri system dependencies:
  • Ubuntu/Debian: libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libappindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev patchelf libglib2.0-dev
  • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)
  • Windows: Microsoft Visual Studio C++ Build Tools

Setup

git clone https://github.com/ajianaz/lontar.git
cd lontar
npm install

Dev

npm run tauri dev

Build

npm run tauri build

Quality Gates

# Rust
cd src-tauri
cargo fmt --all --check     # Formatting
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings  # Lint
cargo test --all            # Tests

# Frontend
npx tsc --noEmit            # Type check
npm run build               # Build

Branch Strategy

main ──────── stable releases
  └── develop ─── active development (default branch)
       ├── feat/xxx
       ├── fix/xxx
       └── docs/xxx

All feature work happens on branches from develop, merged back via PR. CI runs on every push to develop and on all PRs targeting develop.

Stats

License

MIT