Your self-hosted sticky notes

👋 Welcome to Kept

Kept is designed for people who love fast, low-friction note capture. Whether you need a quick checklist, a drawing, or a simple text note, Kept makes it effortless to jot things down and organize them visually with colors and labels.

If you're migrating from Google Keep, we've even included a simple import tool to bring all your existing notes over seamlessly.

✨ What you get with Kept

🚀 How to Install

The easiest and most reliable way to run Kept is using the published Docker image, ghcr.io/ericerkz/kept:latest. It keeps everything self-contained and takes just a few minutes.

git clone https://github.com/ericerkz/kept.git
cd kept
docker compose up -d

That's it! Open your browser and go to http://localhost:6767. You'll be greeted by a friendly setup wizard to create your admin account.

Deploy Kept on Railway

If you do not want to set up Docker or manage a server yourself, Railway can create a ready-to-use Kept instance for you with storage and HTTPS handled.

1. Click Deploy on Railway and sign in or create a Railway account.
2. Review the generated Kept service, volume, and environment settings.
3. Deploy the template and wait for Railway to finish building the service.
4. Open the public URL Railway provides.
5. Create your first Kept admin account from the setup screen.

Railway is one convenient way to deploy Kept quickly. Kept remains self-hostable on any platform that supports Docker.

git clone https://github.com/ericerkz/kept.git
cd kept
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d --build

Reverse proxy examples

For public HTTPS access, point your domain at Kept and proxy traffic to 127.0.0.1:6767. Online status and live collaboration use WebSockets at /api/realtime, so that rule must come before the catch-all app proxy.

If you still need to set up HTTPS certificates, DigitalOcean has clear walkthroughs for Apache with Let's Encrypt and Nginx with Let's Encrypt. This is not a referral; we just love their detailed knowledgebase.

Apache

# Required once:
# sudo a2enmod proxy proxy_http proxy_wstunnel rewrite ssl
# sudo systemctl reload apache2

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName kept.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://kept.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName kept.example.com
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On

    # WebSocket realtime: online status + live collaboration.
    ProxyPass /api/realtime ws://127.0.0.1:6767/api/realtime
    ProxyPassReverse /api/realtime ws://127.0.0.1:6767/api/realtime

    # Normal app/API traffic.
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:6767/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:6767/

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/kept.example.com/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/kept.example.com/privkey.pem
</VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name kept.example.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name kept.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/kept.example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/kept.example.com/privkey.pem;

    # WebSocket realtime: online status + live collaboration.
    location /api/realtime {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:6767/api/realtime;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }

    # Normal app/API traffic.
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:6767;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

Install on iOS and Android

Kept can be installed from the browser as a Progressive Web App. Once it is running from a real HTTPS address, reminder push notifications work on desktop browsers, Android, and iOS home-screen installs. Location-based reminders require the native iOS or Android app.

Before you install

• Put Kept behind a public https:// domain. Mobile push will not work from plain HTTP or a raw local network address. Need help with certificates? See the Apache or Nginx Let's Encrypt tutorials linked above in the Reverse proxy section.

iPhone or iPad

1. Open your Kept URL in Safari.
2. Tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
3. Open Kept from the new Home Screen icon, not from the Safari tab.
4. Sign in and allow notifications when Kept asks.

iOS only allows web push for installed home-screen web apps, so the Safari tab is just for installing.

Android

1. Open your Kept URL in Chrome or another browser with PWA support.
2. Use the browser menu and choose Install app or Add to Home screen.
3. Open Kept from the installed app icon and allow notifications when prompted.

If notifications do not arrive

• Check that the installed app is using your HTTPS domain.
• Confirm notifications are allowed in the browser or OS settings.
• Kept auto-generates VAPID keys for web push. If push still fails behind a reverse proxy, set VAPID_SUBJECT in docker-compose.yml to your public Kept URL, for example https://kept.example.com.
• On iOS, remove and reinstall the Home Screen app after changing domains or VAPID settings.

💾 Peace of mind with Backups

We know how important your notes are, so Kept makes protecting them simple.

• Automated Schedules: Set Kept to automatically back up your data daily, weekly, or monthly. You never have to think about it.
• One-Click Restore: If you ever need to set up a new server or recover your data, you can upload your backup file during setup to restore everything instantly.

Your data is safely stored in a single folder (./data), making it extremely easy to copy, move, or sync to your personal cloud storage.

Privacy Policy

Short version: Kept is self-hosted. Your notes, and all data, live on the server you choose.

• What Kept stores: Your notes, uploads, reminders, account details, and settings live in your Kept instance.
• Location data: If you use location-based reminders or saved places, Kept may access your device location and store the places, coordinates, reminder radius, and arrive/leave preference needed to make those reminders work. This data is used only for Kept reminder features and is stored on your Kept server.
• Who controls it: Whoever runs the server controls that data. If that is you, it is your stuff on your machine.
• Third-party services: Calendar syncing only happens if you turn it on and connect Google Calendar or CalDAV yourself.
• Moving your data: You can back it up, export it, delete it, or move it somewhere else.
• This docs site: This page has no accounts, forms, cookies, ads, or analytics scripts. Your web host may still keep normal server logs.

This is not fancy legal armor. It is the basic truth of the app: Kept is built so your notes stay under your control.