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Getting started

Scratchpad is a single binary. You can run a release binary or build from source.

Run a release

Download the binary for your platform from Releases, then:

chmod +x scratchpad-linux-amd64
./scratchpad-linux-amd64        # serves on http://localhost:8080

Build from source

Requires Go (see go.mod) and Node 22+.

git clone https://github.com/phoenix911/scratchpad
cd scratchpad
make all       # builds the SPA, embeds it, produces ./scratchpad
./scratchpad

Open http://localhost:8080.

First run

  • With no SCRATCHPAD_PASSWORD set, the app runs open — fine for localhost.
  • Create items with ⌘K (or Ctrl-K): snippet, drawing, mindmap, doc, board.
  • Everything is written to ./data/items/… as plain files, indexed in ./scratchpad.db (a rebuildable SQLite cache).

Configure

Copy the example env file and edit:

cp .env.example .env

Set at least SCRATCHPAD_PASSWORD if the app will be reachable beyond localhost. See configuration.md for every option, and git-sync.md to back your data up to a private git repo.

Develop

go run ./cmd/scratchpad     # backend on :8080
make dev                    # Vite dev server (proxies /api to :8080)