An open, extensible, wiki for your team built using React and Node.js.
Try out Outline using our hosted version at www.getoutline.com.

This is the source code that runs Outline and all the associated services. If you want to use Outline then you don't need to run this code, we offer a hosted version of the app at getoutline.com.

If you'd like to run your own copy of Outline or contribute to development then this is the place for you.

Installation

Outline requires the following dependencies:

• Node.js >= 12
• Yarn
• Postgres >=9.5
• Redis >= 4
• AWS S3 bucket or compatible API for file storage
• Slack or Google developer application for authentication

Production

For a manual self-hosted production installation these are the suggested steps:

1. Clone this repo and install dependencies with yarn install

2. Build the source code with yarn build

3. Using the .env.sample as a reference, set the required variables in your production environment. The following are required as a minimum:

   1. SECRET_KEY (follow instructions in the comments at the top of .env)
   2. SLACK_KEY (this is called "Client ID" in Slack admin)
   3. SLACK_SECRET (this is called "Client Secret" in Slack admin)
   4. DATABASE_URL (run your own local copy of Postgres, or use a cloud service)
   5. REDIS_URL (run your own local copy of Redis, or use a cloud service)
   6. URL (the public facing URL of your installation)
   7. AWS_ (all of the keys beginning with AWS)

4. Migrate database schema with yarn sequelize:migrate. Production assumes an SSL connection, if Postgres is on the same machine and is not SSL you can migrate with yarn sequelize:migrate --env=production-ssl-disabled.

5. Start the service with any daemon tools you prefer. Take PM2 for example, NODE_ENV=production pm2 start ./build/server/index.js --name outline

6. Visit http://you_server_ip:3000 and you should be able to see Outline page

   Port number can be changed using the PORT environment variable

7. (Optional) You can add an nginx reverse proxy to serve your instance of Outline for a clean URL without the port number, support SSL, etc.

Development

In development you can quickly get an environment running using Docker by following these steps:

1. Install these dependencies if you don't already have them
2. Docker for Desktop
3. Node.js (v12 LTS preferred)
4. Yarn
5. Clone this repo
6. Register a Slack app at https://api.slack.com/apps
7. Copy the file .env.sample to .env
8. Fill out the following fields:
   1. SECRET_KEY (follow instructions in the comments at the top of .env)
   2. SLACK_KEY (this is called "Client ID" in Slack admin)
   3. SLACK_SECRET (this is called "Client Secret" in Slack admin)
9. Configure your Slack app's Oauth & Permissions settings
   1. Add http://localhost:3000/auth/slack.callback as an Oauth redirect URL
   2. Ensure that the bot token scope contains at least users:read
10. Run make up. This will download dependencies, build and launch a development version of Outline

Upgrade

Docker

If you're running Outline with Docker you'll need to run migrations within the docker container after updating the image. The command will be something like:

docker run --rm outlinewiki/outline:latest yarn sequelize:migrate

Yarn

If you're running Outline by cloning this repository, run the following command to upgrade:

yarn run upgrade

Development

If you're interested in contributing or learning more about the Outline codebase please refer to the architecture document first for a high level overview of how the application is put together.

Debugging

Outline uses debug. To enable debugging output, the following categories are available:

DEBUG=sql,cache,presenters,events,logistics,emails,mailer

Tests

We aim to have sufficient test coverage for critical parts of the application and aren't aiming for 100% unit test coverage. All API endpoints and anything authentication related should be thoroughly tested.

To add new tests, write your tests with Jest and add a file with .test.js extension next to the tested code.

# To run all tests
make test

# To run backend tests in watch mode
make watch

Once the test database is created with make test you may individually run frontend and backend tests directly.

# To run backend tests
yarn test:server

# To run frontend tests
yarn test:app

Migrations

Sequelize is used to create and run migrations, for example:

yarn sequelize migration:generate --name my-migration
yarn sequelize db:migrate

Or to run migrations on test database:

yarn sequelize db:migrate --env test

Contributing

Outline is built and maintained by a small team – we'd love your help to fix bugs and add features!

Before submitting a pull request please let the core team know by creating or commenting in an issue on GitHub, and we'd also love to hear from you in the Discussions. This way we can ensure that an approach is agreed on before code is written. This will result in a much higher liklihood of your code being accepted.

If you’re looking for ways to get started, here's a list of ways to help us improve Outline:

• Translation into other languages
• Issues with good first issue label
• Performance improvements, both on server and frontend
• Developer happiness and documentation
• Bugs and other issues listed on GitHub

License

Outline is BSL 1.1 licensed.