SiYuan is not coasting on old momentum. The repository has 43,005 GitHub stars, 24 releases in the last 90 days, and 9 release events in the last 30 days. That is a project still actively shaping the product, not just stamping out occasional bugfixes.
The positioning is unusually specific. The official site calls SiYuan a privacy-first personal knowledge management system that works offline, keeps data on the device, and supports end-to-end encrypted sync. Its core model is block editing, bidirectional links, outlines, a database layer, spaced repetition, AI access, and both mobile server and Docker server modes. This is not generic note-taking. It is a block-first knowledge system with self-hosting baked into the pitch.
The latest release notes back that up. v3.6.5 focused on small but real product details, including treating tag, bookmark, and asset renames as a data history Replace operation, improving mobile text appearance, keeping the editor toolbar visible on mobile, improving task list indexing, changing the default macOS redo shortcut, improving code block line rendering, and fixing input method compatibility. v3.6.4 showed the same pattern, with changes like Copy full document, backlink panel behavior, link pasting, block icon rendering, and Linux disk detection.
That cadence matters more than any single feature bullet. SiYuan is betting that people who care about local control also care about polish at the edges, especially on mobile, in editing flows, and in data history. The release notes read like the work of a team grinding on real usage friction, not a team trying to pad a roadmap.
Compared with other tools in the same broad productivity set, SiYuan is both larger and busier. Super Productivity has 18,869 stars and 8 release events in 30 days, while NoteDiscovery has 2,459 stars and 7 release events in 30 days. SiYuan sits at 43,005 stars and 9 release events in 30 days. The signal is not just popularity. It is sustained maintenance at scale.
ToolVitals does not see code quality, user satisfaction, revenue, or whether the sync model actually feels trustworthy in daily use. It also cannot tell you if the AI features are useful, if the mobile server mode is pleasant to run, or if your team will like the block workflow. It can tell you the project is active, clearly positioned, and still shipping.
If your team wants a self-hosted knowledge base and cares about offline use, encrypted sync, and block-level editing, SiYuan deserves a serious look. If you want a lightweight notes app, skip it. SiYuan is for people who want control first, and are willing to live with a system that keeps getting sharper around the edges.