Getting Started with TiddlyWiki in 2026 (featuring encryption and TiddlyDesktop)⁠🎯
Updated  by  nm  2026-June-3

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Why I’m trying TiddlyWiki


TiddlyWiki cat logo For a long time, I’ve been looking for good information-management tools. Inspired by a comment on this Infinite Ink article, the 2026-⁠April-⁠20 release of TiddlyWiki v5.4.0, and TiddlyWiki’s built-in encryption, I’m trying TiddlyWiki (TW).1 I’m optimistic it will become my default private note-taking and productivity tool.


About this article

I’ve had a hard time grokking TW and I’m writing this article to help me remember how to set it up. I hope it’s helpful to you too! To learn about TW, see…


note


Terminology

TW
Abbreviation for TiddlyWiki.
TiddlyWiki Edition (sometimes known as a Template)
Collection of plugins, components, and sample content to get you up and running with TW. An example of a TW edition is empty.html, which we use below. See tiddlywiki.com/#Editions or tiddlywiki.com/static/Editions.html.
TiddlyDesktop Main window
Window for managing TiddlyDesktop wikis. It includes a list of registered wikis and their paths. The title of this window can be changed from “Main” by clicking the button labeled Settings at the top of this window.
Tiddler
Fundamental unit of information in TW. See tiddlywiki.com/#Tiddlers or tiddlywiki.com/static/Tiddlers.html.
NW
On some operating systems, nw is the name of the TiddlyDesktop app. For example, on Windows, TiddlyDesktop is launched with nw.exe. NW.js is an application runtime that was formerly known as node-webkit. For details, see nwjs.io.

Download and replicate empty.html

Empty.html is a vanilla TW edition with no additional plugins or configuration beyond the core code.

  1. Use a web browser to go to tiddlywiki.com/#Empty%20Edition.
  2. In the second bullet, select the green Download button.
  3. Save empty.html to your Downloads folder.
  4. Make two copies of empty.html named:
    • my-wiki.html (this is where you will work)
    • empty-original.html (do not edit this)
  5. Open empty.html in a text editor (e.g., Notepad, Vim, or Visual Studio Code) and note that line 173 looks like this:
    <!--~~ Ordinary tiddlers ~~-->
  6. Close empty.html without saving it. If you mess it up, you have empty-original.html as a backup, thanks to Step 4.

Download TiddlyDesktop

  1. In a web browser, go to github.com/TiddlyWiki/TiddlyDesktop/releases.
  2. In the top release (v0.0.22 at the moment) in the Assets section, click the appropriate release for your system. On my Windows devices, I click tiddlydesktop-win64-v0.0.22.zip.
  3. Go to your Downloads folder and unzip the .zip file you downloaded in the Step 8.

Launch TiddlyDesktop

  1. In the uzipped folder that was created in Step 9, launch TiddlyDesktop. On my Windows devices, I do this by double clicking nw.exe. (Note that nw means node-webkit.)
note

Be patient because it can take a while for TiddlyDesktop to launch!


Open my-wiki.html

  1. In the TiddlyDesktop Main window, click the button named Add wiki file.
  2. In the file-manager prompt, find and select my-wiki.html (created in Step 4).
  3. This launches a new window titled My TiddlyWiki – a non-linear personal web notebook

Create and save a tiddler

  1. The sidebar of this window contains tools for managing this wiki.
  2. To create a new tiddler, click + in the sidebar.
  3. This creates a draft tiddler titled New Tiddler.
  4. In the text box that says Type the text for this tiddler, type Hello World!.
  5. Notice that in the sidebar there is a red bullseye🎯. This means the wiki is “dirty” and has unsaved changes.
  6. To save your changes, click the red bullseye. A little window pops up and displays Saved wiki.
  7. When you are done drafting this tiddler, click the checkmark above the tiddler. Notice that when you hover over this checkmark, it displays Confirm changes to this tiddler.
  8. To edit this tiddler again, click the pencil above the tiddler.

Be sure your my-wiki.html changes are saved

important

Because saving in TW can be weird, it’s important that you check that the procedure above actually saved your TW changes.



  1. Close all TiddlyDesktop windows that are open.
  2. Optionally restart your device.
  3. Launch TiddlyDesktop (nw.exe on Windows).
  4. In the TiddlyDesktop Main window, you should see your wiki listed.
  5. To open it, click the open button.
  6. In the sidebar, click the Recent tab and make sure all the changes you made were saved.

Encrypt my-wiki.html

A big part of why I’m interested in TW is that it has built-in encryption.

tip

To generate a strong password, see the passphrase generators on Infinite Ink’s Generating Passphrases Like “correct horse battery staple” 🎠⁠🔋.


  1. In the sidebar, select the Tools tab.
  2. Each tool that is checked is listed in the sidebar’s toolbar.2
  3. Check the set password checkbox. This will display an open lock in the sidebar toolbar.2🔓
  4. Click the set password button and in the pop-up window, set a password. Do not forget your password!
  5. Notice that the set password button now says clear password and the lock in the sidebar toolbar2 is now locked.🔒
  6. Click the 🎯save changes button, which is below the password button in the list of tools.
  7. Open my-wiki.html in a text editor (e.g., Notepad, Vim, or Visual Studio Code) and note that the line we looked at in Step 5 has a new line below it:
    <!--~~ Ordinary tiddlers ~~-->
<!--~~ Encrypted tiddlers ~~-->
    This is a way to check that my-wiki.html is in fact encrypted.🔒
  8. Close this wiki’s window by clicking the X in the upper right of the window.
  9. Use the TiddlyDesktop Main window to reopen my-wiki.html. Make sure you are prompted for a password and that you remember your password.

TiddlyWiki discussion groups



Endnotes


  1. Throughout this article I use TW as an abbreviation for TiddlyWiki. ↩︎

  2. The sidebar toolbar is also known as the page toolbar. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎