# Flowplan documentation

> Flowplan is an open-source workspace (AGPL-3.0) for documents, databases (table, board, calendar, timeline, gallery, list, feed, chart, form), whiteboards and a daily journal. Hosted in Germany at app.flowplan.org or self-hosted as one Docker container (Next.js, SQLite; optionally PostgreSQL and several instances). Interface in German, English, French and Simplified Chinese. AI is optional and off by default – also completely local with Ollama.

Every page is available as Markdown at the linked address; the German version is under /de/…md.

To search the docs from an AI assistant: the MCP server https://docs.flowplan.org/mcp (Streamable HTTP, public, no sign-in) with the tools search_docs, get_page and list_pages.

## Using Flowplan: Getting started

- [First steps](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/first-steps.md): From signing in for the first time to your first own page: what you do with Flowplan in the first ten minutes.
- [Pages and spaces](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/pages-and-spaces.md): Everything in Flowplan is a page in a tree. Spaces structure the tree, workspaces keep teams apart.
- [Tags, properties and aliases](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/page-tags.md): Tags and properties organise every page across spaces and the page tree; aliases give it more names, an owner and a review date keep it current.
- [Members, roles and permissions](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/workspaces-and-permissions.md): A workspace belongs to a team: its own members, groups, spaces and templates. Permissions work from the workspace via the space down to the single page and the single record.
- [Customizing a workspace](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/workspace-appearance.md): A workspace's name, icon, colours and font, automatic links for recurring terms and your own print templates – set by its owners.
- [Encrypted spaces](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/encrypted-spaces.md): An encrypted space is meant for journals, passwords and other confidential notes. Content, files and – if you choose – titles are encrypted and decrypted in your browser. The server – and with it the operators, backups and the storage provider – only sees ciphertext.
- [Languages and translations](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/languages.md): Flowplan is available in four languages: German, English, French and Simplified Chinese (简体中文). English also comes as English (US): the same texts, but dates with the month first and weeks starting on Sunday. Further languages can be added without changing the app's code – with any translation tool that understands JSON files.

## Using Flowplan: Moving, import and export

- [Moving to Flowplan](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/migrate.md): Flowplan is an open-source alternative to Notion, Confluence and AppFlowy under the AGPL-3.0. This is how you bring over pages, databases, images and files from the tool you use now.
- [From AFFiNE](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/migrate-affine.md): Documents, databases and whiteboards come over from AFFiNE with their images and attachments – through the workspace export.
- [From Confluence, Evernote, Google Docs and Word](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/migrate-office.md): Step by step from Confluence, Evernote, Google Docs, Microsoft Word and OneNote to Flowplan – with the page tree, images and attachments.
- [From Obsidian and GoodNotes](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/migrate-notes.md): Markdown folders such as an Obsidian vault become pages or databases, handwritten notebooks from GoodNotes become Flowplan notebooks.
- [Import, content archive and versions](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/import-export-versions.md): Content comes in as Markdown, CSV or an archive and goes out again as Markdown, PDF or a complete archive. The version history brings back earlier states.
- [Export](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/export.md): Export pages, databases and whole spaces as Markdown, HTML, Word, PDF or e-book – and as text for Jira and Confluence.
- [Printing and PDF](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/print-and-pdf.md): Print pages or save them as PDF – with print options, presets and page breaks where you want them.

## Using Flowplan: Documents

- [Documents and the editor](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/documents.md): The editor works with blocks: every paragraph, list, table or embed is a block you can insert, format, indent and move. Everything is saved continuously, even without a connection.
- [Working with blocks](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/blocks.md): Every block has a handle on its left: drag it to move the block, click it to open the block menu for turning it into something else, colouring, duplicating and moving. Select several blocks at once with the mouse or the keyboard.
- [Markdown in the editor](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/markdown-editor.md): The editor understands Markdown: shortcuts as you type, whole pages edited as Markdown text, and answers from ChatGPT that arrive formatted when you paste them.
- [Formatting, callouts and captions](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/formatting.md): Format text, use callouts in five kinds and with your own icon, caption and number images and tables.
- [Tasks in documents](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/tasks-in-documents.md): Tasks right in the text: tick them off, assign them to a person, give them a due date and one of five statuses as in Obsidian.
- [Images, files and voice notes](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/media-and-files.md): Images, files, PDFs and embeds in documents – upload, annotate, delete again – and voice notes that Flowplan can transcribe.
- [Links, mentions and the graph](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/links-and-mentions.md): Link pages, records and people with @, point at single blocks and see in the graph how everything connects.

## Using Flowplan: Formulas, citations and presenting

- [Math, diagrams, code and calculations](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/math-and-code.md): LaTeX formulas, Mermaid diagrams and code blocks with highlighting, calculating right in the text and figures from databases.
- [Footnotes, citations and bibliography](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/academic-writing.md): For papers and theses: footnotes, citing sources in the text and a bibliography that writes itself.
- [Reading, presenting and overview](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/reading-and-presenting.md): Table of contents, collapsible sections, reading and focus mode, showing authors – and presenting a document as slides.

## Using Flowplan: Whiteboards and dashboards

- [Whiteboards](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/whiteboards.md): An infinite canvas for brainstorming, processes and workshops: sticky notes, shapes, connectors, pen, frames and tables – together and live.
- [Diagrams, mind maps and prototypes](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/whiteboard-diagrams.md): On the whiteboard: mind maps with Tab, shape libraries for flowcharts and networks, Mermaid, PlantUML, Excalidraw and draw.io, wireframes and roadmaps.
- [Whiteboards: together, with AI and presenting](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/whiteboard-collaboration.md): Live on one board with others, sticky notes as database records, AI for ideas and clusters, presenting frames as slides and starting from templates.
- [Racks and cabling](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/whiteboard-racks.md): On a whiteboard you plan server racks: racks with their rack units (U), devices in them, ports on the devices and cables from port to port. Racks and devices are elements like sticky notes and shapes – combine them freely with notes, text, frames and network diagrams from the shape library. Working together, undo, comments, presenting and the export as SVG, PNG or PDF work as for every other element.
- [Dashboards](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/dashboards.md): A page made of tiles: metrics, charts and views of your databases, tasks due, your journal streak and notes – at a glance, and for everyone with exactly the data they may see.

## Using Flowplan: Notebooks and journal

- [Notebooks and handwriting](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/notebooks.md): A notebook is a page of sheets to write on – with the Apple Pencil, another tablet pen, a mouse or a finger, like a paper notebook. The sheets sit one below the other and you scroll through them. Each sheet has its paper (lined, grid, dotted, Cornell, music staff …) or a page of a PDF as its background. There is also handwriting in documents: a drawing block in the middle of the text.
- [Notebook tools](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/notebook-tools.md): Pens, eraser, shapes, lasso, pictures and audio in a notebook – and the keyboard shortcuts that switch between them.
- [Journal](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/journal.md): A journal is a page with one sub-page per day. In the morning today's page is ready, with yesterday's open tasks already on it.
- [Overview and review in the journal](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/journal-review.md): Streak, heatmap and tracker history on the journal page, and the review of a week or a month – as numbers, as a page or summarised by AI.

## Using Flowplan: Databases

- [Databases](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/databases.md): A database is a collection of records with properties. The same records can be shown as a table, board, calendar, timeline, gallery, list, feed, chart or form.
- [Database properties](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/database-properties.md): A database's property types at a glance, colours for select options, formatted text in fields and multi-selects with the workspace's tags.
- [Views](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/views.md): A database can have as many views as you like. Every view shows the same records with its own layout, filters, sorting and groups.
- [Properties, formulas and rollups](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/properties-and-formulas.md): Relations connect databases, rollups calculate across linked records, formulas calculate values from the properties of the same record.
- [Forms](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/forms.md): A form view collects answers directly as records in the database – from members or, if enabled, from anyone with the link.
- [Contacts](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/contacts.md): A contacts database is an address book for people: every record has a profile page with a contact card, with room for notes below. Contacts can be imported from an LDAP directory and kept in sync, imported and exported as vCard, and subscribed to as an address book (CardDAV) on your phone.

## Using Flowplan: Projects and automation

- [Projects, tickets and sprints](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/projects-and-tickets.md): Tools for teams that work with tickets – all optional: a database behaves as before until you set one of them up.
- [Git and issues](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/git-and-issues.md): Connect databases to GitHub, GitLab and Forgejo: branches, commits and pull requests on the record, issues synced both ways.
- [Workflows](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/workflows.md): A workflow is a flow of nodes on a canvas: a trigger (a new page, a changed record, a schedule, an e-mail …), then logic and actions – change records and pages, notify people, ask the AI, call other services. No code at all.
- [Templates](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/templates.md): Templates are saved pages – documents, databases or whole page trees – from which new pages are created. On top of that there are record templates within a database.
- [Marketplace](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/marketplace.md): In the Flowplan Marketplace (marketplace.flowplan.org) people share what they built in Flowplan: document and database templates, workflows, whiteboard templates, appearances and rules for automatic links. Browse it and take templates over into your instance with one click – or publish your own. The templates that come with Flowplan are there too (public domain, CC0).

## Using Flowplan: Collaboration and search

- [Collaboration and comments](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/collaboration.md): Several people write on the same page at the same time without overwriting each other. Comments, mentions and the inbox keep conversations next to the content.
- [Sharing and publishing](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/sharing.md): Share at the top right of every page (on a phone at the top of the ⋯ menu) opens Share page. A line at the top sums up how the page is shared right now – space, people, links and whether it is published. Below, three tabs handle one thing each: People (who in the workspace may access it), Links (named links for outsiders; only for those who may do more than read) and Web (publishing). Longer explanations sit behind the small (i). At the bottom, Copy link to page copies the page's address for everyone with access, and Done closes the dialog.
- [Quick search and collections](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/search-and-notifications.md): The quick search finds content right down into file attachments. The inbox and push notifications tell you when someone needs you.
- [Inbox and notifications](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/notifications.md): What lands in the inbox and how you hear about it: by e-mail, as a push on phone and desktop or in Telegram, Gotify, ntfy and Matrix.

## Using Flowplan: Apps and devices

- [Offline and web app](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/offline-and-apps.md): Flowplan runs in the browser, can be installed as an app and keeps working without a connection.
- [Desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/desktop-app.md): A slim desktop app wraps your Flowplan instance. On first start it asks for the address and suggests https://app.flowplan.org – for your own instance enter its address instead (e.g. https://flowplan.example.com). More instances are added as profiles.
- [Apps for iPhone, iPad and Android](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/mobile-apps.md): The apps for iPhone, iPad and Android: install and update them, connect them to your own instance, several instances as profiles.
- [Widgets and notifications in the apps](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/mobile-widgets.md): On iPhone, iPad and Android: home screen widgets, buttons on notifications, Live Activities and Focus filters.
- [Capturing, sharing and scanning in the apps](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/mobile-capture.md): Capture notes, tasks and voice notes quickly, share from other apps, scan documents – and what the apps on iPhone and iPad can do on top.
- [Quick capture (desktop)](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/desktop-capture.md): A shortcut opens a small window above every app: a thought, a task, a link, a file, a screen region or a voice note – into the inbox, a database, today's journal entry or a page. Offline too.
- [Browser extension](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/browser-extension.md): With the browser extension you save web pages to Flowplan in one click: the whole article, just the selection, a bookmark or single highlights. It runs in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera and Firefox.

## Using Flowplan: Reference

- [Keyboard shortcuts](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/keyboard-shortcuts.md): All shortcuts at a glance. On Windows and Linux, Ctrl stands for ⌘ and Alt for ⌥.
- [Block menu commands](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/slash-commands.md): Every entry of the / block menu – what you type to find it and what it inserts.
- [Workflow nodes](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/workflow-nodes.md): Every node a workflow knows – with its type (as it appears in the JSON and the API), its ports and the values later nodes use as placeholders.

## Using Flowplan: AI

- [Setting up AI](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/ai.md): Optional AI for writing, summaries, questions to your workspace and databases – off by default, completely local with Ollama if you like, or with a key for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini or any OpenAI-compatible service. In the apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac optionally also right on the device with Apple Intelligence.
- [Writing assistant and summaries](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/ai-writing.md): The AI writes, shortens, translates and improves text at the cursor and summarises pages, meetings and comments.
- [Ask your workspace](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/ask-ai.md): Ask AI (sidebar, ++⌘ ⌥ A++ or ++Ctrl Alt A++, ++⌘ K++ → "Ask AI …" or the button in search) answers questions about your pages and databases – such as "When is the next heating maintenance due?" or "What did we decide about onboarding?".
- [AI actions, databases and workflows](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/ai-actions.md): An AI answer becomes tasks, records and pages; plus AI properties in databases, AI on whiteboards and AI nodes in workflows.
- [Meetings](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/meetings.md): Type /meet in a document or a record's document. The block records a meeting, writes the transcript and then summarises it automatically.

## Extending: API and integrations

- [API and webhooks](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/api-and-webhooks.md): With personal API tokens, scripts, n8n or Home Assistant access Flowplan; webhooks report new records, form answers and pages to other services.
- [OpenAPI and SDKs](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/openapi.md): Every instance describes its own API as an OpenAPI 3.1 document:
- [Inbound e-mail](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/inbound-email.md): Workspace owners create addresses with Create address under Settings → General → Inbound e-mail that file incoming e-mail in Flowplan:
- [Chat notifications](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/chat-notifications.md): Instead of JSON, a webhook can post a ready message to a chat. On the webhook's page under Settings → Webhooks, choose the format in the card Target:
- [MCP: AI assistants](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/mcp.md): Connect Claude, ChatGPT and other AI assistants to your Flowplan using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). They search, read and write with exactly your permissions, nothing more.
- [Flowplan docs in your AI](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/docs-in-your-ai.md): Ask Claude, ChatGPT or your coding assistant about Flowplan directly: the documentation is available as a public MCP server, as buttons on every page and as Markdown for language models.
- [Block extensions](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/plugins.md): Block extensions bring custom block types into the editor: a poll, a counter, a chart from a database, your team's own widget. An extension is a static web page with a manifest. Flowplan shows it isolated in a frame and only talks to it through messages.

## Running Flowplan: Installing and moving

- [Installation with Docker](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/installation.md): Flowplan runs as a single container with SQLite and a data directory. Postgres, Redis or a separate search service are not needed – PostgreSQL and several instances are possible, but optional.
- [Deploy in one click](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/one-click-deploy.md): No server of your own yet? Three ways to a running instance without setting up Docker by hand. All of them use the same image as the Compose file below.
- [Coolify and reverse proxies](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/coolify-and-proxy.md): Flowplan only needs an HTTPS proxy in front of it. WebSockets are not needed: collaboration runs over normal HTTP requests and server-sent events.
- [Moving an instance](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/move-instance.md): How to move a whole Flowplan instance to another server – say from a home server to a rented one – with all accounts, workspaces, files and keys, usually with only a few minutes of downtime.
- [Moving with the move tool](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/move-instance-tool.md): The move tool has the new instance fetch everything from the old one – database, files, keys – with a short downtime; plus troubleshooting a move.

## Running Flowplan: Sign-in and administration

- [Administering the instance](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/administration.md): Whoever administers the instance sees Administration in the sidebar: the instance's first account and everyone it gives the admin right to – with single sign-on also the members of the group in OIDC_ADMIN_GROUP.
- [Managing users](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/user-management.md): Create, lock, merge and delete accounts, grant admin rights and decide who may sign in and how.
- [Sign-in: password, passkeys and two-factor](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/sign-in.md): Flowplan signs people in with e-mail and password, optionally with passkeys. In addition – or instead – sign-in can go through an OpenID Connect provider (single sign-on), whose groups decide who administers the instance.
- [Stay signed in](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/sessions.md): How long a session lasts is set under Administration → Sign-in & SSO → Sessions (Administration); without a setting there, the environment variables and their defaults apply.
- [Single sign-on with OIDC](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/sso-oidc.md): Sign in through your own identity provider – Keycloak, Authentik, Entra ID, Google, Okta or any OpenID Connect service – with groups for admins and workspaces.
- [Users from a directory: SCIM and LDAP](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/scim-and-ldap.md): Have the identity provider create and remove accounts via SCIM, or check sign-ins against an LDAP directory such as Active Directory.

## Running Flowplan: Configuration

- [Configuration](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/configuration.md): All environment variables at a glance. Many values can also be set in the interface of the Administration (see In the interface); values set there take precedence.
- [Configuration: storage, database and security](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/configuration-storage.md): The environment variables for S3 and database backups, PostgreSQL and cluster, encryption, stored secrets, moving an instance and legal pages.
- [Configuration: e-mail, integrations and workflows](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/configuration-integrations.md): The environment variables for sending mail and inbound e-mail, integrations such as GitHub and calendars, chat apps and workflows.
- [Configuration: AI, voice notes and push](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/configuration-ai-push.md): The environment variables for AI providers, transcribing voice notes with Whisper and push notifications up to running your own push relay.
- [All environment variables](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/environment-variables.md): Every environment variable of Flowplan in one table, from A to Z – with its default, its meaning in one sentence and the section that describes it in full.

## Running Flowplan: Storage and operations

- [Storage, S3 and backups](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/storage-and-backups.md): All data lives in one directory. With S3 storage, files are mirrored and the database is backed up continuously – the container then holds nothing irreplaceable anymore.
- [Encrypting files and backups](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/storage-encryption.md): With a key of your own, Flowplan encrypts everything that leaves the server – files in the bucket, backups and the database copy – existing data too.
- [Markdown export and Git](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/markdown-git-export.md): A readable copy outside Flowplan – for emergencies when the instance is down, or as an archive in a Git repository. Administration → Markdown & Git export chooses pages and databases; with every scheduled backup (and with Back up now) each becomes a Markdown ZIP with its sub-pages, comments and earlier versions:
- [Operations and troubleshooting](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/operations.md): Health check, metrics, the storage overview and the most common causes when something does not run.
- [Monitoring and maintenance](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/monitoring.md): Watch the instance live: figures, statistics, alerts via webhook, maintenance notices and Prometheus.
- [Security and attack detection](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/security-monitoring.md): Which security events Flowplan records, how it detects attacks and how to pass them on to logs, OpenTelemetry, fail2ban or CrowdSec.

## Running Flowplan: Scaling

- [PostgreSQL](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/postgresql.md): Instead of SQLite, Flowplan can use a PostgreSQL database – when you already run a well-kept database server, when more people work at the same time, or when you want several instances in cluster mode.
- [Switching the database: SQLite and PostgreSQL](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/database-migration.md): With the bundled tool you move an instance from SQLite to PostgreSQL – or back. The downtime is the copy itself, usually a few minutes; afterwards every table is compared row by row.
- [Cluster mode](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/cluster.md): In cluster mode, several Flowplan instances serve one installation: one PostgreSQL database, one Redis, one S3 bucket and any number of instances behind a load balancer – for more people active at the same time and updates without downtime.
- [Sizing](https://docs.flowplan.org/en/sizing.md): How many people a Flowplan instance carries, what runs out first and what hardware to plan for small, medium and large teams – based on the load tests.

## Optional

- [All pages in one file](https://docs.flowplan.org/llms-full.txt)
- [MCP server of the docs](https://docs.flowplan.org/mcp): search_docs, get_page, list_pages
- [Source code on GitHub](https://github.com/yannicschuller/flowplan)
- [Community on Discord](https://discord.gg/bCEdB6MPrR)
- [Website](https://flowplan.org)
- [Flowplan Marketplace](https://marketplace.flowplan.org): templates from the community