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.

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[email protected]

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

1. Launch Mini Diarium
2. Create a password (this encrypts your journal; there is no recovery if forgotten)
3. Write your first entry. It auto-saves as you type
4. Navigate between days with Ctrl+[ / Ctrl+] or click dates on the calendar
5. 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.

Features