Binary

SilverBullet is distributed as a single server binary available for the following platforms:

• macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) (platform name “darwin”)
• Linux (x86_64 and arm64) (note that this will run on Raspberry Pi as well, but requires a 64-bit Linux distribution)
• Windows (64-bit)
• FreeBSD (x86_64)

note Which file should I download? The releases page lists two families of zip files:

• silverbullet-server-<os>-<arch>.zip: this is what you want, the actual SilverBullet server.
• sb-<os>-<arch>.zip — the optional CLI tool (sb) for scripting against a running server.

Steps

We start by downloading the silverbullet-server-* zip for your platform from GitHub.

Unzip this archive somewhere convenient. You’ll get a single silverbullet executable.

Then, create a folder to hold your data (your server configuration and space files will live here):

mkdir sb-data

Run the server, pointing it at that folder:

./silverbullet sb-data

Since sb-data is empty, this opens a first-run setup wizard for accounts and your first space — see Space Manager. Point the server at a folder that already holds pages instead, and it’s served immediately as a classic single space.

The server listens on http://localhost:3000 by default. To pick a different port, use -p:

./silverbullet -p 3001 my-space

And to bind on an address other than 127.0.0.1 (e.g. to make it reachable on your LAN), use -L:

./silverbullet -L 0.0.0.0 my-space

To force classic single-space behavior add --single:

./silverbullet --single my-space

note Note If you want to access SilverBullet from another machine, you need TLS and you should enable Authentication first.

Now, open http://localhost:3000 in your browser and you’ll be guided through the initial Space Manager, once that’s all done, head to Getting Started to learn the basics.

Upgrading

You can upgrade your SilverBullet install based on the version you’d like to run.

To upgrade to the latest stable release:

./silverbullet upgrade

To upgrade to the latest edge release (which keeps in sync with the main development branch):

./silverbullet upgrade-edge

To upgrade your client, be sure to refresh your page twice somewhat slowly.

Version

To check which version of SilverBullet you’re running, run the ${widgets.commandButton(“Client: Version”)} command.