Stella

Self hosted

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Container image

Images are published to the GitHub Container Registry:

podman pull ghcr.io/contre95/stella:beta # newest release

Every version is listed in GitHub packages. There is deliberately no latest tag: pin a version, or track beta.

Configuration

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Stella reads config.yaml from the working directory, or from the path in STELLA_CONFIG_PATH. This is the full example config (config.example.yaml in the repo), with every setting at its default:

Users & login

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Stella runs in one of two modes, controlled by auth.enabled.

Single user

auth.enabled: false (the default). There is no login, and all data belongs to one built-in local account. The /mcp endpoint (when enabled) has no auth either, so put it behind a trusted network (Tailscale, localhost, VPN) if you expose it.

Cards

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Data model

Group: an optional folder for decks. A deck belongs to at most one group.
Deck: a named collection of facts (name up to 32 characters, description, optional cover image, optional group).
Tag: a free label; a deck can carry any number of them, independent of groups.
Fact: the content itself, a front and a back, plus an optional image and audio file per side. A fact belongs to one deck.
Card: one direction of quizzing derived from a fact. The forward card (front → back) always exists; the reverse card (back → front) is optional and needs a non-empty back.

Groups are one per deck (exclusive categories); tags are many per deck (cross-cutting labels).

Reviewing

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Stella schedules cards with a Go port of Mnemosyne’s SM2 algorithm. After each card you grade how well you remembered it, from 0 (blackout) to 5 (perfect recall), and the grade sets when you see the card next: well-remembered cards come back at ever longer intervals, forgotten ones come back soon.

Import & export

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Decks and groups can be exported and imported as archives. An export carries the content, the media, and each card’s scheduling state and review history, so an imported deck resumes where it left off.

MCP server

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Stella can expose a Model Context Protocol server, so an AI assistant can create decks and cards for you, tag and group them, and edit or move existing cards.

Device sync

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

stella-x4 is a standalone spaced-repetition firmware for the Xteink X4 e-ink reader. It runs the same SM2 review loop offline, from the SD card, and syncs with a Stella server over WiFi.

License

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0200

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

Privacy Policy

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0200