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

[lukas]

AFFiNE would be really cool to have it on Cloudron

[ulis]

Please Add to Cloudron!

[SansGuidon]

I'm about to test it on my vps-hosted Coolify which I run in addition to Cloudron. I'll check if that consumes a lot of resources or not. If that's a nice app, I might help to package it for Cloudron, if doable.

[SansGuidon]

Unfortunately the AI features are not available yet for the self hosted version. I also found the tool Interface quite confusing. Maybe I'll wait and package something else, but I'm likely not the ideal target for Affine.

[neki]

As a long-term Notion user, I have been testing it locally for a few days. It seems very promising; the import of simple pages from Notion is smooth and easy. It would be great to run it on Cloudron.

[stevespaw]

This looks good, I have launched a simple deployment via docker compose. Seems like a great Cloudron addition.
https://docs.affine.pro/self-host-affine/install/docker-compose-recommend

[rstockm]

I would love to see this on Cloudron.

[scooke]

I'm going to get on the seesaw, too! I have this running on my Runtipi installation. That VPS has 8GB ram, and is also running 5 other apps (Photoprism is one, Obsidian LiveSync is another), and the CPU usage rarely goes over 15% for all of them. Memory fluctuates from 25% to 30%.

What I really like about it is the Journal aspect. Yeah, I know, I could just make a new file with the date and all that, but this presents you with a nice little spot for a journal entry. Helps me, mentally, to write in a journal.

I also like the macos and Android clients. Speedy syncing. I'd prefer to see this rather than Twenty!!

[andreasdueren]

I packaged this to try it out. Works well but I'm not entirely sure what the exact target group for this application is. For documentation it seems confusing and overkill. Maybe personal notetaking could work. Image available at andreasdueren/affine-cloudron:0.25.3

[timconsidine]

@andreasdueren I added it to Custom App Installer ccai.appx.uk

Hope this is ok (I'll remove if you want)

[SansGuidon]

@andreasdueren I'm happy to try it on my instance thanks to you! Installed and deployed , I'll test

EDIT: in the end, I notice I don't understand how to make Affine work with my AI subscription (Mistral) and I'm also lost in Affine Admin View . Maybe it's just not mature enough for me at this stage

Your packaging looks great, at least it works like a charm for me (I just had to clone the repo so I have the CloudronManifest available for install).

Thanks!

[andreasdueren]

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

I don't understand how to make Affine work with my AI subscription (Mistral)

I haven't tested any of the AI features. But in theory you should be able to enter any openai compatible endpoint. I assume, Mistral does have one?

What are your issues with the admin view? It's pretty basic with few variables able to be set up, most things are set up with env and should be ready with the package as is.

[SansGuidon]

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

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

I don't understand how to make Affine work with my AI subscription (Mistral)

I haven't tested any of the AI features. But in theory you should be able to enter any openai compatible endpoint. I assume, Mistral does have one?

What are your issues with the admin view? It's pretty basic with few variables able to be set up, most things are set up with env and should be ready with the package as is.

What I'm confused about is the onboarding flow: we are directed to the Admin view in the accounts list (which are not verified but I don't see how to solve that).
I'm trying to configure AI but no way to confirm if my entered settings are valid? The save button is just an icon without text, on a corner of the page, not really a good UX.
Then how do we find the main app from the Admin view? The main icon at top left is not even a link. Maybe the Admin view is the poor part of the UX, but that's where we land first and it looks like an escape game.

I find it just not super user friendly, maybe we gets used to it but it looks like the Frontend part is worth improving.

EDIT: I tried to use Mistral but it fails on copilot provider not available, something like that
I found this blog post, which mentions that maybe we have to tweak the code of Affine to make things work. https://sneekes.app/posts/getting_affine_ai_copilot_working_with_custom_models_and_ollama/

I'll dig deeper in that later , kids require attention

[andreasdueren]

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

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

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

I don't understand how to make Affine work with my AI subscription (Mistral)

I haven't tested any of the AI features. But in theory you should be able to enter any openai compatible endpoint. I assume, Mistral does have one?

What are your issues with the admin view? It's pretty basic with few variables able to be set up, most things are set up with env and should be ready with the package as is.

What I'm confused about is the onboarding flow: we are directed to the Admin view in the accounts list (which are not verified but I don't see how to solve that).
I'm trying to configure AI but no way to confirm if my entered settings are valid? The save button is just an icon without text, on a corner of the page, not really a good UX.
Then how do we find the main app from the Admin view? The main icon at top left is not even a link. Maybe the Admin view is the poor part of the UX, but that's where we land first and it looks like an escape game.

I find it just not super user friendly, maybe we gets used to it but it looks like the Frontend part is worth improving.

EDIT: I tried to use Mistral but it fails on copilot provider not available, something like that
I found this blog post, which mentions that maybe we have to tweak the code of Affine to make things work. https://sneekes.app/posts/getting_affine_ai_copilot_working_with_custom_models_and_ollama/

I'll dig deeper in that later , kids require attention

Yeah onboarding was a bit odd. You land in the admin view and need to manually navigate to the base domain to see the app. After the admin was created you can log in with openID though and make that user an admin.

[andreasdueren]

@SansGuidon

I tried to use Mistral but it fails on copilot provider not available, something like that
I found this blog post, which mentions that maybe we have to tweak the code of Affine to make things work. https://sneekes.app/posts/getting_affine_ai_copilot_working_with_custom_models_and_ollama/

Weird. I can try to modify something for the package but this makes it sound like you need to select a provider on built which isn’t really optimal.

Edit: Just sent you a message for further testing.

[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 ️