Mini Diarium

A local-only journal with serious encryption. Free, open source, and never touches the internet.

mini-diarium.com · Download · Documentation · Features · Philosophy · Benchmarks

☕ Support the Project

Mini Diarium is free, open source, and will always be. If you find it useful and want to support its development, consider buying me a coffee on Ko-fi. Every donation goes directly toward keeping this project alive and improving.

Prefer crypto? Monero, Bitcoin, and Lightning are below and in DONATE.md.

Donate with crypto (Monero · Bitcoin · Lightning)

Monero (XMR), standard mainnet address:

4ApNmqczyAoWsprSrCMsPNKTGhxaH1Cs6agLVaGiKuBBVSotWK9uj3oVQkWYUX9XUGQJyC9WB7cMofE8wfp5BbUoEdcwbjv

Bitcoin (BTC), on-chain native SegWit (bech32):

bc1q0y6v888ala2f8r7tm8g30vqt9ma09w9ww4jhum

Bitcoin over Lightning, a Lightning address that works with Cake Wallet, Phoenix, Zeus, Blink, and Wallet of Satoshi:

[email protected]

Always verify addresses against DONATE.md on master before sending. That file also covers network warnings and what donations do and do not buy.

Download

Download the latest release for your platform from GitHub Releases.

Requires Windows 10 (1809)+, macOS 10.15 Catalina+, or Linux (Ubuntu 20.04+, Fedora 36+, Arch, or equivalent).

Quick install:

Windows (Microsoft Store): apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PJFTX44ZS43
Windows (WinGet): winget install fjrevoredo.MiniDiarium
macOS (Homebrew): brew tap fjrevoredo/mini-diarium then brew install --cask mini-diarium
Linux (Flatpak): flatpak install flathub io.github.fjrevoredo.mini-diarium
NixOS / Nix (Flakes): nix run github:fjrevoredo/mini-diarium

For package formats, first-run notes (Gatekeeper / SmartScreen), and checksum verification, see docs/INSTALLATION.md.

Quick Start

Launch Mini Diarium
Create a password (this encrypts your journal; there is no recovery if forgotten)
Write your first entry. It auto-saves as you type
Navigate between days with Ctrl+[ / Ctrl+] or click dates on the calendar
Lock your journal when you're done

Background

Mini Diarium is a spiritual successor to Mini Diary by Samuel Meuli. I loved the original tool. It was simple, private, and did exactly what a journal app should do. Unfortunately, it's been unmaintained for years and its dependencies have aged out. I initially thought about forking it and modernizing the stack, but turned out impractical. So I started over from scratch, keeping the same core philosophy (encrypted, local-only, focused) while rebuilding completely with Tauri 2, SolidJS, and Rust. The result is a lighter, faster app with stronger encryption and a few personal touches.

Philosophy First

Mini Diarium is intentionally opinionated. The philosophy is not a side note, it is the product:

Small, extensible core: keep core responsibilities tight (encrypt, store, authenticate) and push extras to extension points
Boring security: use established algorithms and audited libraries, never custom crypto
Local-only by design: no cloud sync, no telemetry, no analytics, no hidden network behavior
Easy in, easy out: import from common formats and export in open formats to avoid lock-in
Focused scope: private journaling over feature sprawl
Simplicity over cleverness: fewer moving parts, smaller attack surface, easier maintenance

Read the full principles and how these translates to the architecture in PHILOSOPHY.md.

[!NOTE] Mini Diarium uses AI tooling as leverage for human engineers, never as a replacement. Every change still passes through deliberate design, careful implementation, proper testing, and direct feedback. Responsibility, authorship, and final judgment remain human.

mini-diarium v0.6.3