Trinote — iOS Trilium Client

A native iOS client for self-hosted TriliumNext note-taking servers.

Features

• Connect with the same web session as Trilium (password + cookies + CSRF), not ETAPI
• Browse the full note tree with lazy loading and proper clone/branch semantics
• Read text notes (HTML), code notes, image notes, and file notes
• Search full-text across all notes via the server search API
• Edit note titles, content (HTML source or code), create/delete notes
• Attachments — upload from Photos/Files, download, share
• Office & EPUB previews — .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, ODF, RTF and EPUB open in-app (Trilium v0.105+; falls back to Quick Look on older servers)
• Offline cache — tree structure and recently opened notes cached locally
• Multiple servers — save and switch between server profiles
• Dark mode and numerous color options

Requirements

• iOS 18.0+ (the offline cache uses SwiftData indexes, which need iOS 18)
• Xcode 16.0+
• Swift 5.9+
• A self-hosted TriliumNext server (v0.95.x – v0.106.x supported; native /api routes are pinned in local_notes/trilium_native_api_v0.95.md, with later-release deltas noted at the bottom of that file)

Setup

1. Generate the Xcode project

This project uses XcodeGen to generate the .xcodeproj:

brew install xcodegen
cd Trinote
xcodegen generate

2. Open in Xcode

open Trinote.xcodeproj

3. Configure signing

• Open the project settings
• Select the Trinote target
• Under Signing & Capabilities, set your development team
• Adjust the bundle identifier if needed

4. Build & Run

Select an iOS 18.0+ simulator or device and press Cmd+R.

Version & build number

MARKETING_VERSION and CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION live in project.yml (XcodeGen’s source of truth). You can bump them either way:

1. In Xcode — Trinote target → General → Identity → Version / Build, then build or run (Cmd+R). That build ships the new values in the app (and share extension), and a pre-build script writes them back into project.yml so a later xcodegen generate will not revert them.
2. In project.yml — edit the two keys under settings.base, then run xcodegen generate before building.

To sync project.yml from the current Xcode project without building:

./Scripts/sync_project_yml_version.sh

If you edit project.yml without running xcodegen generate, the next build may overwrite your YAML changes with the values still in the .xcodeproj.

Connecting to a Server

Password sign-in

1. Enter your server URL (same origin you use in the browser)
2. Enter your Trilium password (same as the web UI)
3. Optional: Remember me — matches Trilium’s longer-lived session cookie
4. TOTP is supported for password sign-in

SSO sign-in (OpenID / OAuth)

If your Trilium server uses built-in OAuth/OpenID (Authelia, Authentik, Keycloak, PocketID, Google OIDC, etc.), see docs/sso-setup.md for the full user setup guide (one-time server handler + app sign-in flow).

Short version:

1. Add the trinote-sso-handoff custom request handler on your Trilium server (script in docs/trinote-sso-handoff.js).
2. In Trinote, enter your server URL and tap Sign in with SSO.
3. Complete sign-in in Safari, return to Trinote, tap Continue.

Optional: Cloudflare Access service-token credentials under Advanced if API calls still need them after handoff.

Protected notes still require your Trilium document password after sign-in — SSO only replaces server login.

Self-signed certificates

If your server uses a self-signed certificate, you'll need to install and trust the CA certificate on your iOS device first (Settings → General → VPN & Device Management). The app allows arbitrary HTTP loads via ATS to support local networks.

Architecture

Trinote/
├── App/                     # App entry, state, tab navigation
├── Core/
│   ├── API/                 # TriliumClient (session + `/api`), models, WebSocket
│   ├── Models/              # Domain models, SwiftData cache models
│   ├── Persistence/         # SwiftData container, cache manager
│   ├── Security/            # Keychain token storage
│   └── Utilities/           # Logger, extensions
├── Features/
│   ├── Auth/                # Login, server profile management
│   ├── Tree/                # Note tree browsing
│   ├── Search/              # Full-text search with recents
│   ├── NoteDetail/          # Note viewing, editing, renderers
│   ├── Attachments/         # Photo/file upload
│   └── Settings/            # Settings, recents list
└── Resources/               # Info.plist, Assets

Key Design Decisions

• Native /api + sync — session cookies, sync/check + sync/changed, entity-change cursor; WebSocket debounces incremental sync
• Notes ≠ Branches — notes and branches are separate entities; a note can appear in multiple tree locations (clones)
• Lazy tree loading — fetches children on demand to avoid loading the entire tree upfront
• Cache-first offline — falls back to cached data when the server is unreachable
• No embedded server — pure client that talks to your existing Trilium server

Testing

Run tests in Xcode (Cmd+U) or from the command line:

xcodebuild test -scheme Trinote -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16'

Tests cover:

• API client (mock URLProtocol, request/response validation)
• Keychain save/load/delete
• Domain model mapping (notes, branches, attributes, tree nodes)
• Clone semantics (multi-parent notes)
• Error classification (auth, network, server errors)

Known Limitations

• Protected notes are able to be read (when password is entered) but not generated on this client
• Search is server-side only — no offline full-text search. Can jump to text references

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If you want to discuss future work on Trinote (new features, bug fixes, style changes, feedback in general) you can join the discord.

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Buy me a coffee ☕️

License

This project is not affiliated with TriliumNext. It is a community-built iOS client.