Show HN: BookStack – An open source documentation platform

I've been working on BookStack since 2015, as my first proper open source project, after not being able to find an existing open source, well-designed, ready-to-use (Without extensions customization) offering that would be easy to use for a mixed skill-set workplace. BookStack is designed to be a "batteries included" kind of project and both the design & content structure of the platform are fairly opinionated compared to other more common wiki offerings available. It primarily provides a WYSIWYG editing experience with markdown also available although the two editor types are not yet easily interoperable. Some fan favourite features include diagrams.net (Formerly draw.io) integration, SAML/LDAP authentication support, Role based permissions and a REST API.

BookStack is built on PHP using Laravel with MySQL as the primary data store. The project has steadily grown since first posted on Reddit in Jan 2016, and the community has grown steadily with it. I've found the community & management aspect of the project more difficult and tiresome than expected yet also quite rewarding. I do my best to keep the project stable and moving forward although it is all still done in my free time. I have not commercialised any aspect of it yet, apart from GitHub sponsorships, as my general preference has been to keep money out of the project so far.

I've been hesitant to post on HN before since I did not feel the BookStack was "ready" enough but, based on my experience over the last 5 years, I don't think I'll ever think get to that point. I'm looking forward to seeing what the HN community thinks of the project.

Site: https://www.bookstackapp.com Demo: https://demo.bookstackapp.com GitHub: https://github.com/BookStackApp/BookStack