Getting Started
What Is docu.nexus
What Is docu.nexus
docu.nexus is a documentation and knowledge platform you host yourself. It runs as a Docker stack: Postgres, Redis, and the app. Your pages are rows in your database, your uploads are files on your disk, and there is no vendor account in the middle.
There is no hosted tier. There is no telemetry back to us. If your network is air-gapped, docu.nexus still works.
Who it is for
Teams that write things down and cannot, or would rather not, put that writing on someone else’s servers: engineering groups under export control, regulated shops, contractors, and anyone tired of paying per seat for a wiki.
Core concepts
Four things. Learn these and the rest of the interface explains itself.
| Concept | What it is |
|---|---|
| Nexus | The top-level container. Holds spaces, members, groups, labels, and templates. One instance can run several. “Nexus” is both singular and plural: one nexus, three nexus. |
| Space | A collection of content inside a nexus, with its own members, permissions, and visibility. Roughly a team, a project, or a product line. |
| Page | A document inside a space. Pages nest, so a page can be the parent of other pages. A page can also be a folder, which groups children without holding a document of its own. |
| Plugin | An optional module that adds a new document type or admin section. Shipped plugins include Kanban, Requirements, and Databases. Paid plugins are unlocked by a license key. |
The hierarchy is strict: a space belongs to exactly one nexus, a page belongs to exactly one space, and a page may have one parent page.
graph TD N[Nexus] --> S1[Space] N --> S2[Space] S1 --> P1[Page] S1 --> F1[Folder] F1 --> P2[Page] F1 --> P3[Page]
Compared to Confluence
If you have used Confluence, the map is short.
| Confluence | docu.nexus |
|---|---|
| Site | Nexus |
| Space | Space |
| Page | Page |
| Page tree | Page tree, plus folders |
| Apps from the Marketplace | Plugins, installed with the instance |
| Atlassian Cloud | Your server |
Familiar behaviour carries over: nested pages, page labels, a chat on every page and comments anchored to selected text, version history with restore, page permissions, search, templates, trash, favorites, and watches.
The differences that matter:
- You own the data. Postgres is yours. Back it up, query it, migrate it, delete it.
- Real-time editing is built in, not an upsell. Two people in the same page see each other’s cursors.
- Plugins are first-class document types. A Kanban board or a requirements collection is a page in a space, so it inherits permissions, sharing, search, and URLs for free.
- Licensing is offline. Paid plugins are unlocked with a signed key file. No phone-home check.