This page is part of a static HTML representation of the TiddlyWiki at https://tiddlywiki.com/

Installing TiddlyWiki on Node.js

12th July 2026 at 4:27pm
  1. Install Node.js
    • Linux:
      Debian/Ubuntu:
      apt install nodejs
      May need to be followed up by:
      apt install npm
      Arch Linux
      yay -S tiddlywiki
      (installs node and tiddlywiki)
    • Mac
      brew install node
    • Android
    • Other
  2. Open a command line terminal and type:
    npm install -g tiddlywiki
    If it fails with an error you may need to re-run the command as an administrator:
    sudo npm install -g tiddlywiki (Mac/Linux)
  3. Ensure TiddlyWiki is installed by typing:
    tiddlywiki --version
    • In response, you should see TiddlyWiki report its current version (eg "5.4.1". You may also see other debugging information reported.)
  4. Try it out:
    1. tiddlywiki mynewwiki --init server to create a folder for a new wiki that includes server-related components
    2. tiddlywiki mynewwiki --listen to start TiddlyWiki
    3. Visit http://127.0.0.1:8080/ in your browser
    4. Try editing and creating tiddlers
  5. Optionally, make an offline copy:
    • click the save changes button in the sidebar, OR
    • tiddlywiki mynewwiki --build index

The -g flag causes TiddlyWiki to be installed globally. Without it, TiddlyWiki will only be available in the directory where you installed it.

Warning
If you are using Debian or Debian-based Linux and you are receiving a node: command not found error though node.js package is installed, you may need to create a symbolic link between nodejs and node. Consult your distro's manual and whereis to correctly create a link. See github issue 1434.

Example Debian v8.0: sudo ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node


Tip
You can also install prior versions like this:
npm install -g tiddlywiki@5.1.13
Note: this will overwrite the installed version rather than installing it alongside.

Installing multiple Node.js verions alongside

There are multiple options:

Local install

mkdir -p /home/user/opt/tiddlywiki-5.1.13 && cd "$_" # works in Bash
npm install tiddlywiki@5.1.13

This installs the given version in the current directory, at the expense of taking some extra disk space. The binary is in node_modules/.bin/tiddlywiki (relative to the current directory). For convenience, it is possible to create a symlink (in Linux) containing explicit version number in the name, like this:

ln -s /home/user/opt/tiddlywiki-5.1.13/node_modules/.bin/tiddlywiki /home/user/bin/tiddlywiki-5.1.13

Having ~/bin in PATH environment variable (usually at the beginning of it), makes it possible to start this version of TiddlyWiki as simple as tiddlywiki-5.1.13.

Use npx

To run another version without overwriting the currently installed version, use npx:

npx tiddlywiki@5.3.8 --version

Warning
This comes with a security risk, since it downloads and executes a package from the internet. See https://talk.tiddlywiki.org/t/tiddlywiki-docs-gettingstarted-node-js/15423/4

Run directly from the source code repository

  1. clone https://github.com/TiddlyWiki/TiddlyWiki5/ locally
  2. checkout any version (using git checkout or git switch for modern versions of Git)
  3. set up a link or a shell script for it