TriliumNext

Connect Crow to TriliumNext to search, create, and organize notes in your personal knowledge base through your AI assistant.

What You Get

• Search notes by content, title, or attributes
• Create and edit notes with rich text or markdown
• Browse the note tree structure
• Clip web pages into notes
• Access and create day notes (daily journal)
• Export notes in various formats

Setup

Crow supports two modes: self-hosting TriliumNext via Docker or connecting to an existing instance.

Option A: Docker (self-hosted)

Install TriliumNext as a Crow bundle:

"Crow, install the TriliumNext bundle"

Or install from the Extensions panel in the Crow's Nest.

TriliumNext will be available at http://your-server:8080 after installation. Complete the initial setup in the web UI to set your password.

Option B: Connect to existing TriliumNext

If you already run a TriliumNext server, connect Crow to it directly.

Step 1: Get your ETAPI token

1. Open your TriliumNext web interface
2. Go to Options (top-right menu) > ETAPI
3. Click Create new ETAPI token
4. Name it (e.g., "Crow")
5. Copy the generated token

Step 2: Add to Crow

Set the following in your .env file or via Crow's Nest > Settings > Integrations:

TRILIUM_URL=http://your-trilium-server:8080
TRILIUM_ETAPI_TOKEN=your-etapi-token-here

AI Tools

Once connected, interact with TriliumNext through your AI:

"Search my notes for 'project planning'"

"Create a note called 'Meeting Notes — March 21' under my Work folder"

"Show me today's day note"

"Clip this article into TriliumNext: https://example.com/article"

"Browse my note tree"

"Export my Research folder as HTML"

Workflows

Research capture

Combine TriliumNext with Crow's research tools:

"Save these research findings to a TriliumNext note and add the source to my Crow project"

Notes created this way are linked to your Crow research project for cross-referencing.

Knowledge organization

Use your AI to restructure notes:

"Move all my meeting notes from 2025 into an Archive folder"

"Create a table of contents note for my Cooking Recipes folder"

Daily journal

TriliumNext's day notes work well with Crow's session protocol:

"Add a summary of today's session to my day note"

Docker Compose Reference

If you prefer manual Docker setup:

services:
  trilium:
    image: triliumnext/notes:latest
    container_name: crow-trilium
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - trilium-data:/home/node/trilium-data
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  trilium-data:

Troubleshooting

"Connection refused" or timeout

Make sure the TRILIUM_URL is reachable from the machine running Crow. TriliumNext defaults to port 8080.

"401 Unauthorized"

The ETAPI token may have been deleted. Create a new one from Options > ETAPI in the TriliumNext web UI.

Notes not found in search

TriliumNext's search indexes may need to rebuild. Open the TriliumNext web UI and check Options > Advanced for re-indexing options.

Day notes not working

Day notes require a specific note structure in TriliumNext. Make sure you have a "Journal" note with the #calendarRoot attribute. TriliumNext creates this automatically during first-time setup.