Wikibulou

A simple, FLOSS wiki software that doesn't make your brain hurt.

Markdown instead of wikitext. MariaDB for the database. Docker Compose so you can run it in minutes. Built for people who want a wiki, not a science project.

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Features

• Markdown editing — write pages in standard CommonMark Markdown with live preview
• User accounts — register, login, roles (admin / editor / viewer)
• Page history — every edit is saved; browse and view old revisions
• Full-text search — fast FULLTEXT search powered by MariaDB
• Public or private — toggle whether guests can read without logging in
• Material You design — clean, responsive UI using Google's Material Design 3 tokens; works on mobile and desktop
• Docker Compose ready — one command to run the whole stack
• FLOSS — Go + MariaDB + goldmark, all libre licences

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Quick Start (Docker, recommended)

Requirements: Docker and Docker Compose installed on your VPS or computer.

# 1. Clone or unzip the project
git clone https://github.com/your-username/wikibulou.git
cd wikibulou

# 2. Copy the example env file and set your passwords
cp .env.example .env
nano .env   # change DB_ROOT_PASSWORD and DB_PASS to something strong

# 3. Start everything
docker compose up -d

# 4. Open your browser
# http://localhost:8080
# You'll be taken to /setup to create the admin account on first run.

That's it. MariaDB and the wiki server start together. Your data is saved in a Docker volume (wikibulou_db_data) so it survives container restarts.

To stop:

docker compose down

To see logs:

docker compose logs -f app   # app logs
docker compose logs -f db    # database logs

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Running Without Docker (manual / development)

Requirements: Go 1.21+, MariaDB 10.6+ or 11.x running somewhere.

# 1. Create the database manually in MariaDB
mysql -u root -p -e "
  CREATE DATABASE wikibulou CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
  CREATE USER 'wikibulou'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
  GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wikibulou.* TO 'wikibulou'@'localhost';
  FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
"

# 2. Set environment variables
export DB_HOST=localhost
export DB_PORT=3306
export DB_NAME=wikibulou
export DB_USER=wikibulou
export DB_PASS=your_password
export PORT=8080

# 3. Download Go dependencies
go mod tidy

# 4. Run the server
go run ./cmd/server

The server creates all the database tables on first boot — you don't need to run SQL scripts manually.

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Project Structure

wikibulou/
├── cmd/
│   └── server/
│       └── main.go              ← entry point; sets up routes and starts server
├── internal/
│   ├── auth/
│   │   └── auth.go              ← user registration, login, sessions (bcrypt)
│   ├── db/
│   │   └── db.go                ← MariaDB connection, migration, settings
│   ├── handlers/
│   │   ├── handlers.go          ← all HTTP route handlers
│   │   ├── page_model.go        ← page CRUD and history database operations
│   │   ├── preview.go           ← live Markdown preview endpoint
│   │   └── templates.go         ← template loading and rendering
│   ├── markdown/
│   │   └── markdown.go          ← Markdown → HTML using goldmark
│   └── search/
│       └── search.go            ← full-text search using MariaDB FULLTEXT
├── templates/
│   ├── base.html                ← shared HTML layout (nav, footer)
│   ├── home.html                ← wiki home page (page list)
│   ├── view_page.html           ← view a wiki page
│   ├── edit_page.html           ← create or edit a page
│   ├── history.html             ← revision list for a page
│   ├── view_revision.html       ← view a historical revision
│   ├── search.html              ← search results page
│   ├── login.html               ← login form
│   ├── register.html            ← new account form
│   ├── setup.html               ← first-run admin setup
│   ├── settings.html            ← admin wiki settings
│   └── not_found.html           ← 404 / page doesn't exist yet
├── static/
│   ├── css/
│   │   └── style.css            ← Material You design system (pure CSS, no framework)
│   └── js/
│       └── app.js               ← lightweight JS helpers (no framework)
├── Dockerfile                   ← multi-stage Docker build
├── docker-compose.yml           ← MariaDB + app stack
├── .env.example                 ← sample environment variables
├── .gitignore
├── go.mod
├── go.sum
└── README.md

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URL Routes

Method	URL	Description
GET	/	Home — list all pages
GET	/setup	First-run admin setup (disappears after first user)
GET/POST	/login	Login form
GET/POST	/register	New account
GET	/logout	Log out
GET	/search?q=...	Search pages
GET/POST	/settings	Admin settings (admin only)
GET	/wiki/new	New page form
POST	/wiki/new	Create new page
GET	/wiki/{slug}	View a page
GET/POST	/wiki/{slug}/edit	Edit a page
POST	/wiki/{slug}/delete	Delete a page (admin only)
GET	/wiki/{slug}/history	Revision history
GET	/wiki/{slug}/revision/{id}	View old revision
POST	/preview	Live Markdown preview (used by editor)

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User Roles

Role	Can read	Can create/edit	Can delete	Can change settings
admin	✅	✅	✅	✅
editor	✅	✅	❌	❌
viewer	✅ (if wiki is public or logged in)	❌	❌	❌

The first user created (via /setup) is always admin. All self-registered users get the editor role.

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Wiki Visibility

In Settings (admin only), you can toggle the wiki between:

• Public — anyone can read pages without logging in. Only logged-in users can edit.
• Private — login required to view anything.

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Markdown Support

Wikibulou uses goldmark with these extensions enabled:

• Tables (| col | col |)
• Strikethrough (~~text~~)
• Task lists (- [x] done)
• Auto-linking of URLs
• Auto-generated heading IDs (for anchor links)

CommonMark reference →

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Deploying to a VPS (e.g. Contabo)

1. Install Docker and Docker Compose on your VPS:

   curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
   sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
   

2. Upload the project files to your VPS (e.g. via scp or Termius).

3. Configure .env with strong passwords.

4. Start with docker compose up -d.

5. (Optional) Put Nginx or Caddy in front of it on port 80/443 for HTTPS.

Example Nginx proxy config:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name wiki.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

For HTTPS, use Caddy — it handles TLS certificates automatically:

wiki.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

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Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
DB_HOST	db	MariaDB hostname
DB_PORT	3306	MariaDB port
DB_NAME	wikibulou	Database name
DB_USER	wikibulou	Database username
DB_PASS	wikibulou	Database password
DB_ROOT_PASSWORD	changeme_root	MariaDB root password (Docker only)
PORT	8080	Port for the Go HTTP server
APP_PORT	8080	Host port to map (Docker Compose only)

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Development Tips

• Templates and static files are volume-mounted in Docker Compose, so you can edit them and refresh the browser without rebuilding the image.
• To rebuild the Go binary after code changes: docker compose up --build -d
• The server auto-retries the DB connection on startup (10 attempts, 3s apart) so you don't need to worry about startup order.
• Keyboard shortcut in the editor: Ctrl+S / Cmd+S to save the page.

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Licence

Wikibulou is free and open-source software. Do what you want with it.

Dependencies:

• gorilla/mux — BSD 3-Clause
• gorilla/sessions — BSD 3-Clause
• go-sql-driver/mysql — MPL-2.0
• yuin/goldmark — MIT
• golang.org/x/crypto — BSD 3-Clause
• MariaDB — GPLv2
• Material Symbols — Apache 2.0
• Noto Fonts — OFL

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Built to be simple and useful. No bloat.