AFFiNE - open-source Notion, Miro, Monday, Outline, Appflowy alternative

[andreasdueren]

I think I also see part of the problem:

It requires the cloud indexer to be running Indexer

I'll try to add manticore to the package.

[andreasdueren]

This is now including manticore: andreasdueren/affine-cloudron:0.25.23

[SansGuidon]

Thanks @andreasdueren.
I tried wiring AFFiNE’s openai provider to Mistral (baseUrl=https://api.mistral.ai/v1, model mistral-large-latest + scenarios override), but AFFiNE is calling the new OpenAI Responses API (/v1/responses), while Mistral only exposes the older /v1/chat/completions, so I get 404s ("no Route matched with those values").

This seems to be the same limitation described in GitHub issues #13617 and #13480, where the suggested fix is to set "oldApiStyle": true under copilot.providers.openai in config.json to force the old chat/completions style. I've tried that without success despite it's part of the code https://github.com/toeverything/AFFiNE/blob/62fe6982fbdbfa9d6fcbad78019e4d6cda62338a/packages/backend/server/src/plugins/copilot/providers/openai.ts#L55

I’m not sure whether the Cloudron AFFiNE package already includes any other workaround, so right now Mistral isn’t really usable as an OpenAI-compatible backend in this setup.

Nov 17 09:50:05 APICallError [AI_APICallError]: Not Found
Nov 17 09:50:05 at file:///run/affine/affine-build/node_modules/@ai-sdk/provider-utils/dist/index.mjs:890:14
Nov 17 09:50:05 at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
Nov 17 09:50:05 at async postToApi (file:///run/affine/affine-build/node_modules/@ai-sdk/provider-utils/dist/index.mjs:721:28)
Nov 17 09:50:05 at async OpenAIResponsesLanguageModel.doStream (file:///run/affine/affine-build/node_modules/@ai-sdk/openai/dist/index.mjs:3631:50)
Nov 17 09:50:05 at async fn (file:///run/affine/affine-build/node_modules/ai/dist/index.mjs:4987:27)
Nov 17 09:50:05 at async file:///run/affine/affine-build/node_modules/ai/dist/index.mjs:1544:22
Nov 17 09:50:05 at async _retryWithExponentialBackoff (file:///run/affine/affine-build/node_modules/ai/dist/index.mjs:1695:12)
Nov 17 09:50:05 at async streamStep (file:///run/affine/affine-build/node_modules/ai/dist/index.mjs:4943:15)
Nov 17 09:50:05 at async fn (file:///run/affine/affine-build/node_modules/ai/dist/index.mjs:5284:9)
Nov 17 09:50:05 at async file:///run/affine/affine-build/node_modules/ai/dist/index.mjs:1544:22 {
Nov 17 09:50:05 cause: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 url: 'https://api.mistral.ai/v1/responses',
Nov 17 09:50:05 requestBodyValues: {
Nov 17 09:50:05 model: 'mistral-large-latest',
Nov 17 09:50:05 input: [ [Object], [Object] ],
Nov 17 09:50:05 temperature: 0,
Nov 17 09:50:05 top_p: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 max_output_tokens: 4096,
Nov 17 09:50:05 max_tool_calls: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 metadata: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 parallel_tool_calls: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 previous_response_id: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 store: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 user: '<REDACTED>',
Nov 17 09:50:05 instructions: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 service_tier: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 include: [ 'web_search_call.action.sources' ],
Nov 17 09:50:05 prompt_cache_key: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 safety_identifier: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 top_logprobs: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 truncation: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 tools: [
Nov 17 09:50:05 [Object], [Object],
Nov 17 09:50:05 [Object], [Object],
Nov 17 09:50:05 [Object], [Object],
Nov 17 09:50:05 [Object], [Object]
Nov 17 09:50:05 ],
Nov 17 09:50:05 tool_choice: 'auto',
Nov 17 09:50:05 stream: true
Nov 17 09:50:05 },
Nov 17 09:50:05 statusCode: 404,
Nov 17 09:50:05 responseHeaders: {
Nov 17 09:50:05 'access-control-allow-origin': '*',
Nov 17 09:50:05 'alt-svc': 'h3=":443"; ma=86400',
Nov 17 09:50:05 'cf-cache-status': 'DYNAMIC',
Nov 17 09:50:05 'cf-ray': '99fdfa7caeef2c00-FRA',
Nov 17 09:50:05 connection: 'keep-alive',
Nov 17 09:50:05 'content-encoding': 'br',
Nov 17 09:50:05 'content-type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
Nov 17 09:50:05 date: 'Mon, 17 Nov 2025 08:50:04 GMT',
Nov 17 09:50:05 server: 'cloudflare',
Nov 17 09:50:05 'set-cookie': '_cfuvid=<REDACTED>-1763369404992-<REDACTED_IP>-604800000; path=/; domain=.mistral.ai; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=None',
Nov 17 09:50:05 'strict-transport-security': 'max-age=15552000; includeSubDomains; preload',
Nov 17 09:50:05 'transfer-encoding': 'chunked',
Nov 17 09:50:05 'x-content-type-options': 'nosniff',
Nov 17 09:50:05 'x-kong-response-latency': '1'
Nov 17 09:50:05 },
Nov 17 09:50:05 responseBody: '{\n' +
Nov 17 09:50:05 ' "message":"no Route matched with those values",\n' +
Nov 17 09:50:05 ' "request_id":"<REDACTED>"\n' +
Nov 17 09:50:05 '}',
Nov 17 09:50:05 isRetryable: false,
Nov 17 09:50:05 data: undefined,
Nov 17 09:50:05 [Symbol(vercel.ai.error)]: true,
Nov 17 09:50:05 [Symbol(vercel.ai.error.AI_APICallError)]: true
Nov 17 09:50:05 }

Also interesting read: https://sneekes.app/posts/getting_affine_ai_copilot_working_with_custom_models_and_ollama/

TLDR: Too bad for me

EDIT: after deleting the keys from table app_configs and forcing the oldApiStyle: true in openai provider config, I get a different stack trace but still not solving the issue , see below

Nov 17 10:06:30 [Nest] 72 - 11/17/2025, 9:06:30 AM ERROR [OpenAIProvider] <selfhosted:event:27148b39-55a5-4e71-91ec-ce77dd2bb451> Failed to fetch available models
Nov 17 10:06:30 ZodError: [
Nov 17 10:06:30 {
Nov 17 10:06:30 "code": "invalid_type",
Nov 17 10:06:30 "expected": "array",
Nov 17 10:06:30 "received": "undefined",
Nov 17 10:06:30 "path": [
Nov 17 10:06:30 "data"
Nov 17 10:06:30 ],
Nov 17 10:06:30 "message": "Required"
Nov 17 10:06:30 }
Nov 17 10:06:30 ]
Nov 17 10:06:30 at get error (file:///run/affine/affine-build/node_modules/zod/dist/esm/v3/types.js:51:31)
Nov 17 10:06:30 at ZodObject.parse (file:///run/affine/affine-build/node_modules/zod/dist/esm/v3/types.js:126:22)
Nov 17 10:06:30 at file:///run/affine/affine-build/dist/main.js:122774:66
Nov 17 10:06:30 at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
Nov 17 10:06:30 at async OpenAIProvider.refreshOnlineModels (file:///run/affine/affine-build/dist/main.js:122769:34)
Nov 17 10:06:30 <REDACTED_IP> - - [17/Nov/2025:09:06:30 +0000] "GET /api/auth/session HTTP/1.1" 200 193 "https://affine.zoemp.be/workspace/4Ob0-Wxj2fHaDhkgaW6gC/Y4cspZCWKz" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/<REDACTED_IP> Safari/537.36"
...

...
Nov 17 10:06:37 [Nest] 72 - 11/17/2025, 9:06:37 AM DEBUG [CopilotProviderFactory] <selfhosted:http:ef38c027-0882-4057-9f12-f7a552f391a6> Resolving copilot provider for output type: object
Nov 17 10:06:37 [Nest] 72 - 11/17/2025, 9:06:37 AM ERROR [Sse] <selfhosted:http:ef38c027-0882-4057-9f12-f7a552f391a6> no_copilot_provider_available ({"sessionId":"<REDACTED>","params":{"messageId":"79b66a60-8f15-43fe-ac11-6b90e2a7e300"},"throwInStream":false})
Nov 17 10:06:37 no_copilot_provider_available: No copilot provider available: mistral-large-latest
Nov 17 10:06:37 at CopilotController.chooseProvider (file:///run/affine/affine-build/dist/main.js:130026:19)
Nov 17 10:06:37 at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
Nov 17 10:06:37 at async CopilotController.prepareChatSession (file:///run/affine/affine-build/dist/main.js:130080:37)
Nov 17 10:06:37 at async CopilotController.chatStreamObject (file:///run/affine/affine-build/dist/main.js:130214:64)
Nov 17 10:06:37 at async CopilotController.<anonymous> (file:///run/affine/affine-build/dist/main.js:6374:20)

[andreasdueren]

@SansGuidon Hmm yes it doesn't seem to be very flexible about what kind of models you use.

[SansGuidon]

@andreasdueren said in AFFiNE - open-source Notion, Miro, Monday, Outline, Appflowy alternative:

@SansGuidon Hmm yes it doesn't seem to be very flexible about what kind of models you use.

I've reached out to the AFFINE's community on some issue to have an idea if i's difficult to solve I'll keep you posted!
Anyway, thank you ️

[andreasdueren]

In general I'm not sure how these settings work either. For example if I change Chat to claude, it still sticks with Gemini. And if I select Gemini Pro, it tells me I need a subscription.

[andreasdueren]

AFFiNE Copilot Findings

• Config lives in /app/data/config/config.json – The admin UI doesn’t honor scenario overrides reliably, so edit the file directly (File Manager works). Set copilot.scenarios.override_enabled: true, assign each scenario to a model you actually have access to, and restart the app. ENV overrides are gone; this file is the single source of truth.
• Gemini model gating – AFFiNE’s frontend marks “Gemini Pro/Flash” as locked unless upstream billing flags are set. Those flags aren’t exposed in the self-host build, so the UI always shows the lock even if you provide a valid API key. Workaround: keep providers.gemini populated, set the model name directly in config.json, and ignore the badge—the backend will still call that model.
• Error if Gemini models remain without keys – Jobs like copilot.session.generateTitle still reference gemini-2.5-flash by default. If you remove the Gemini key but leave that model in the scenarios, the logs fill with no_copilot_provider_available errors and document-context chats fail (“I don’t see a document”).
• UI limitations – Even after the config update, the provider dropdown often stays empty. That’s cosmetic: check actual usage via cloudron logs --app affine.tld.com | grep CopilotProvider. Responses are coming from whichever model you configured, regardless of what the UI shows.
• Net result – All Copilot behavior is driven by config.json; there’s no built-in way to “unlock” premium models in the UI because the hosted billing feature flags aren’t exposed. If you want to use Gemini Pro, set it manually in config.json (with a valid key) and ignore the warning.

[SansGuidon]

Thanks @andreasdueren
I'm trying
Yet we are not the only ones suffering from this product making things unnecessarily more complicated than it should : https://github.com/toeverything/AFFiNE/discussions/11722#discussioncomment-14674564

Even after trying your options I feel I'll just give up with AFFINE. This tool just feels like rushed to support specific scenarios and is difficult to adapt to my scenarios. The UI just does not fit my expectations. Compared to many tools I'm using, the quality is a bit inconsistent and UX is not helpful.
I had already attempted to use AFFINE in the past in a Cloudron competitor for self host and I gave up. My hope that it would be better in Cloudron has just vanished for now.

I might retry later, anyway for now I guess I'm better off vibe coding a simple markdown editor for myself with Mistral integration and sync to my Obsidian.

EDIT: @andreasdueren I've read about selfhosted=true parameter that need to be passed in order to enable third party API/AI models. https://torchtree.com/en/post/affine-selfhost-ai-configuration/ via https://github.com/toeverything/AFFiNE/discussions/11722#discussioncomment-14980258
Maybe worth trying as a last attempt...

[andreasdueren]

@SansGuidon said in AFFiNE - open-source Notion, Miro, Monday, Outline, Appflowy alternative:

Yet we are not the only ones suffering from this product making things unnecessarily more complicated

Yes, people are struggling. But this is still Alpha software (version 0.25.5 right now) so some instabilities are permissable. It does look pretty powerful but they are open about AI features on self-hosted not having feature parity yet.

@SansGuidon said in AFFiNE - open-source Notion, Miro, Monday, Outline, Appflowy alternative:

selfhosted=true parameter

This is already passed in the package

[andreasdueren]

Update to 0.25.7. Image at andreasdueren/affine-cloudron --tag 0.25.7-1