Dev: @v0idist@szmer.info
Hey fellow FOSS folks!
For past few weeks I’ve been working on a passion project called Openwrite — a minimalist, open-source blogging platform focused on privacy, simplicity, and full user control. It’s built with Flask and released under the AGPL license. Inspired by platforms like WriteFreely, but with a few twists.
What it offers right now:
Multiple blogs per user (or single-blog mode, ideal for self-hosting)
- SQLite & MySQL support
- Image uploads (local or BunnyCDN)
- Markdown editor with live preview
- Custom blog themes (like a 6 now but I upload new regularly)
- Custom CSS per blog
- Gemini support – yes, gemini://openwrite.io works!
- No tracking, hashed IPs only for basic stats
- Dashboard with view statistics (OS, browser, timelines – all for free)
- ActivityPub federation (Follow, Like)
- RSS feeds, optional search engine indexing, and “Discover” section
Oh — and it supports importing posts from XML(wordpress) or CSV.
What makes it different?
I’m trying to build something:
- FOSS-first (no paid plans, no analytics spyware, no nonsense)
- Purely optional in hosting: you can run your own instance or use mine
- Built for people like us — nerds, tinkerers, writers, privacy lovers
Current status
Still in 0.x versions (currently at 0.10.4), but stable and usable. I’d love early feedback, contributors, ideas, testers — anything really. First pull request will make me cry tears of joy.
GitHub: https://github.com/openwriteio/openwrite
Site: https://openwrite.io/
Gemini mirror: gemini://openwrite.io
Thanks for reading — feel free to ask questions, roast my CSS, or suggest features. Let’s keep the open web alive 💜
Looks interesting to me, as a (no-ads, no-tracking) Hugo blogger myself that has been considering trying Gemini too… at least if it means I would be able use it without having to configure Gemini by myself, as if I’m a privacy-aware user I’m also not really much of a geek ;)
May I ask why use the US Microsoft owned Github and not a more privacy respecting FLOSS alternative like, say, the German Codeberg?