Linknim: A Bookmark Server Written in Nim

Linknim: A self-hosted bookmark manager written in Nim that stores everything in plain CSV and INI files — compatible with the linkding API, readable without special tools.

The Bookmark Problem

Browser bookmarks are siloed. Your Firefox bookmarks don't follow you to Chromium. Your work browser doesn't know what you saved at home. Cloud-based bookmark managers solve the sync problem but introduce a dependency on a service that can change pricing, shut down, or decide to monetize your reading habits.

Self-hosted bookmark managers exist — linkding being the most polished — but they require a Python server, a database, Docker, and ongoing maintenance. The stack is heavier than the problem warrants.

Linknim solves the same problem with a Nim binary and two file types.

The Storage Model

Every bookmark is a row in a CSV file. Every configuration option is a key in an INI file. That's it.

# bookmarks.csv
id,url,title,description,tags,is_archived,created_at
1,https://example.com,Example Site,An example,web dev,0,2026-01-15
2,https://nim-lang.org,Nim Language,Systems programming language,nim programming,0,2026-01-20

# bookmarks.ini
[server]
host = 127.0.0.1
port = 8888
token = your-secret-token

[display]
theme = auto
page_size = 30

The implications of this storage model: - Backup: copy two files. - Version control: commit two files. - Read without the server: open in a text editor or spreadsheet. - Migrate: export from any CSV-capable tool. - Recover from a crash: the data was never in a format that required special tools to read.

linkding API Compatibility

Linknim implements the linkding REST API. This matters because browser extensions — the Firefox and Chrome linkding extensions — work with Linknim without modification. You configure the extension to point at http://127.0.0.1:8888 instead of your linkding instance, and it continues to work.

# Save a bookmark via API (same as linkding)
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8888/api/bookmarks/ \
  -H "Authorization: Token your-secret-token" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com", "title": "Example", "tag_names": ["web"]}'

The API compatibility means you don't need to change your workflow. If you're already using linkding, migration is: export from linkding, import into Linknim, point extensions at the new server.

Features

Web UI with search, tag tree, bundle saved searches, and bulk actions
TUI for a full terminal interface without a browser
CLI for scripting: linknim add, linknim list, linknim export --format json
RSS feed at /feed.xml for shared bookmarks
Bookmarklet for saving pages without a browser extension
Favicon fetching — cached locally in data/favicons/
Import Netscape bookmark HTML (the format every browser exports)
Dark/light/auto theme set in INI or toggled per session

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/lucianofedericopereira/linknim
cd linknim
nimble install illwill
nim c -d:release linknim.nim

# Initialize config with a random token
./linknim init

# Start the server
./linknim serve
# → http://127.0.0.1:8888

Or use the TUI without running a server:

./linknim tui

The Nim Choice

Nim compiles to C and produces a single statically-linked binary. The deployment story is: compile once, copy the binary. No runtime, no interpreter, no package manager.

For a tool you run on a personal server or a Raspberry Pi, this matters. The binary starts in milliseconds. It uses minimal memory. You don't need to maintain a Python virtualenv or track security updates to a web framework.

The implementation uses illwill for the TUI — a Nim library for full-screen terminal UIs — and Nim's standard HTTP library for the server. Everything else is the language itself.

License

LGPL-2.1