About Ideon
Ideon is a self-hosted visual workspace for projects. Instead of abstract folders and tabs, it uses spatial organization: you place blocks on a shared infinite canvas, and what sits close together is related, so a project's repositories, design notes and tasks can be seen on a single map.
Blocks can hold Markdown notes, images, links, files and to-dos, and live integrations embed repositories and issues from GitHub, GitLab, Gitea and Forgejo directly on the canvas. Teams can collaborate in real time, and a time travel feature shows historical snapshots of the workspace to trace past decisions. A hosted demo is available to try without setup.
Ideon runs with Docker and Docker Compose, using a PostgreSQL database and a persistent storage volume, and there is a one-click template for the Easypanel deployment platform. You set a secret key in an environment file before starting the stack and open the dashboard on port 3000. It is written in TypeScript and licensed under AGPL-3.0.
Key features
- Infinite spatial canvas
- Embedded repositories and issues
- Markdown notes, images and files
- Real-time multiplayer collaboration
- Time travel snapshots
- Docker Compose self-hosting
Good fit for
- →Mapping a project's scattered context in one place
- →Visual brainstorming with a team
- Built with
- TypeScript
- Tags
- whiteboard
- visual-workspace
- self-hosted
- collaboration
- knowledge-base
- project-management
- docker
Ideon: questions and answers
- What is Ideon used for?
- Ideon is a self-hosted visual workspace where notes, files, repositories and to-dos live together on a shared infinite canvas. It is a good fit for mapping a project's scattered context in one place and visual brainstorming with a team.
- Is Ideon open source?
- Yes. Ideon is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at 3xpyth0n/ideon and is written mainly in TypeScript.
- Is Ideon free?
- Yes. Ideon is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
- Can I self-host Ideon?
- Yes. Ideon can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
- What is Ideon an alternative to?
- Ideon is an open-source alternative to Milanote, Miro, Apple Freeform and Conceptboard. Other open-source alternatives to Milanote include AFFiNE and Revezone.
- Is Ideon actively maintained?
- Yes. The most recent commit to Ideon was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v0.9.8, published on 1 October 2026. The project has 616 stars on GitHub.
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