Idea and technical concept
Technical concept
Section titled “Technical concept”With Looksyk I want to create a local platform to collect information.
The Rust backend parses the Markdown files on the disk and builds an in-memory database from them. When content is retrieved, the relevant page is first rendered into full Markdown, and any embedded queries are translated into Markdown. In a second step, the content is converted into displayable HTML using pulldown-cmark. As a result, Looksyk largely adheres to the Markdown standard. syntect is used for code syntax highlighting. Tauri is used for packaging the application for desktop use and as an Android app. The Docker version is built using actix-web.
Two different approaches using Git are available for synchronization: you can either use the bundled (compiled-in) Git (cgit) or configure the application to use the Git version installed on the user’s system.Since the data is stored as Markdown files on the disk, you can also use your own synchronization tool.
Even if the project is currently a pure web project, I would not deploy it publicly because the project in its current state has not paid much attention to security (for example Injection-Attacks or Path-Traversal-Attacks).
Currently, the backend is very fast, my Logseq graph (~900 pages and 900kb text) is scanned and indexed in milliseconds (~80ms on a 3-year-old Laptop). That’s why Looksyk does not have a database, reading new data into RAM is fast enough. Look at the Benchmarks.
The frontend still has some challenges, especially when it comes to the overall design and the mobile user experience, but I am working on it.
Tested browsers:
| Browser | Compatibility |
|---|---|
| Chromium / Chrome/ Vivaldi | works |
| Firefox | works on nightly (Jan 2025), contenteditable=plaintext-only required |
| WebView | works, default for windows, linux and android binary |
Tested operating systems
| OS | Compatibility |
|---|---|
| Arch Linux (AUR) | works, preferred (AUR package: looksyk-desktop) |
| Linux (any) | works, e.g. AppImage (download from Releases) |
| docker (linux, windows, mac) | works. If no environemnt variable for the key location is provided, only system-git support is available for sync |
| Android (at least arm64) | works, no system-git available, but git with PAT-Auth is compiled into the app |
| Windows | Portable windows build exists (download from Releases). Sync is tested and a version of git is already packaged into the portable-build. |
| MacOs | Not tested. Keyboard shortcuts are currently only designed for a Windows keyboard layout, but this can be changed via a pull request. There are also likely to be challenges in the build script. Otherwise, Looksyk is programmed to be platform-independent. |
Project work and future
Section titled “Project work and future”The project is a little hobby of mine, and I program a few lines sometimes when I feel like it and have the time.
I am happy about every contribution, but I cannot guarantee that I will implement every feature request.
If you have any changes or suggestions, please send me a pull request. For feature requests and bugs, you can submit an issue (or a pull request if you can).
Current status of the Android app (Tauri V2)
Section titled “Current status of the Android app (Tauri V2)”An Android app based on Tauri has been under development since August 2026. The app is stable, but some features aren’t yet perfectly adapted for mobile view. This applies not only to the Android version but also to the Docker version. I welcome your feedback.
Roadmap
Section titled “Roadmap”The simple and quick answer: There is currently no roadmap.
Looksyk currently includes all the features I urgently need. Of course, many smaller changes would be desirable, such as improving the mobile user experience, making the query language more flexible (e.g., through default parameters or by breaking the strict parameter order), improving the Kanban view, supporting additional file types in documents, enabling the editing of text-based assets, or moving Markdown rendering from the frontend to the backend.
When I have time, I will continue working on one or two of these topics. If you have any suggestions, ideas, or even pull requests, please let me know.