Build & Source

Everything below is for building the app from source. If you just want the idea, head back to the landing page.

Requirements

macOS

13 Ventura or later

Xcode Command Line Tools

any recent

CMake

≥ 3.22

Conan

≥ 2.0

Python

≥ 3.8

Commands

cd jrnl

# First configure (Conan downloads webview and generates the toolchain)
cmake -B cmake-build-release -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

# Second configure (needed once after Conan generates the toolchain)
cmake -B cmake-build-release -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

# Build
cmake --build cmake-build-release --target jrnl

Result: cmake-build-release/jrnl.app

FAQ

Where does the UI live?

In jrnl/src/frontend.html. It’s embedded into the binary at build time.

What’s the license?

The app source code is licensed under GPL-3.0. See jrnl/LICENSE.