Frequently Asked Questions

No catch, but there are trade-offs:

• You're responsible for deployment, security, and maintenance
• There's no vendor support — just community help via GitHub
• You need technical capacity (or a partner who has it)

If you want a fully managed solution where someone else handles everything, KoNote isn't that. If you're comfortable with self-hosting and want full control over your data, KoNote is a good fit.

Yes. The MIT Licence explicitly allows modification. You can change the code, add features, or adapt it however you need. You can even redistribute your modified version.

If you make improvements that would benefit others, we'd welcome contributions back to the main project — but that's optional.

Community support: You can ask questions and report issues on GitHub. There are no guaranteed response times — it depends on who's available and whether someone knows the answer.

Professional support: If you need guaranteed help, we offer professional services including setup assistance and training.

New versions are released on GitHub. You're responsible for monitoring releases and applying updates to your deployment. The deployment guide includes instructions for updating.

Updates are not automatic — you control when to update. This means you can test updates before applying them, but it also means you need to actively keep your installation current.

The MIT Licence means the code is yours forever. If active development stops, you can:

• Continue using your current version indefinitely
• Fork the project and maintain it yourself
• Find someone else to maintain a fork

You're not locked into a vendor relationship that could disappear.

KoNote has been tested with up to approximately 2,000 active participants.

The main limitation is encrypted search: because PII is encrypted, participant search loads accessible participants into memory and filters in Python. This works well at smaller scales but may slow down with larger participant bases.

If you have significantly more participants, we recommend performance testing before committing to KoNote.

There are no built-in migration tools. Data migration requires:

• Exporting data from your current system
• Mapping fields to KoNote's data model
• Writing a script to import the data

This is technically possible but requires development work specific to your source system. If you need help with this, mention it when contacting us about professional services.

The KoNote web interface requires an internet connection for full functionality. A service worker provides a graceful offline fallback — if connectivity drops, you will see a friendly message and the app resumes automatically when you are back online.

For field work in locations without internet, KoNote integrates with ODK Central for offline-capable mobile data collection. Staff collect data on Android devices and sync it to KoNote when connectivity is available. PII protection tiers control what identifiers are sent to field devices, and a device loss protocol protects data if a device is lost or stolen.

KoNote doesn't have a public API, so direct integration isn't straightforward.

Options include:

• CSV export/import for batch data transfer
• Custom development to add API endpoints (Django makes this possible)
• Direct database access (with caution and understanding of the schema)

KoNote includes a full survey system for collecting structured feedback. Admins create surveys with six question types, conditional logic, and optional section scoring. Surveys can be delivered three ways:

• Participant portal: Assigned surveys appear on the participant's dashboard. Responses auto-save as they go.
• Shareable public links: Anyone can complete a survey via a URL — no login required. Useful for community feedback or pre-intake screening.
• Staff data entry: Staff enter responses on behalf of a participant during a session.

Surveys can be assigned manually or automatically using trigger rules based on events, program enrolment, time intervals, or participant characteristics. You can import existing instruments (like PHQ-9 or SPDAT) from CSV files.

The participant portal is an optional self-service website where participants can:

• View their outcome plans and progress charts
• Complete assigned surveys
• Write private journal entries
• Send messages to their assigned worker
• Request corrections to their records
• Access shared resources and program materials

Staff invite participants via a secure link with an optional verbal code for identity verification. Participants create their own credentials and go through a consent flow before accessing the portal. The portal supports multi-factor authentication (TOTP app or email codes) and staff can revoke access or reset MFA at any time.

The portal is disabled by default. Enable it in the Features settings when your agency is ready to offer it.

KoNote provides two levels of data export:

• Individual participant export: From a participant's profile, staff can export their data in PDF, CSV, or JSON format. Downloads use secure, time-limited links that expire after 24 hours. Large exports trigger admin notification and a brief delay for oversight.
• Agency-wide offboarding export: A management command exports all agency data in AES-256-GCM encrypted format with a Diceware passphrase. This is designed for agency offboarding or data migration — not routine reporting.

All exports are fully audited. Admins can revoke download links, and permissions are re-checked at download time to prevent stale access.

Demo mode provides pre-configured training accounts with realistic sample data so staff can explore KoNote without affecting real participant records. Key safeguards include:

• Demo records are excluded from all reports, exports, and dashboards
• Demo admin accounts are restricted to view-only for agency settings
• A persistent training-mode banner appears on every page
• Demo login buttons are visually separated from the real login form under a "Training Accounts" label
• Demo login events are audited separately from production activity

Demo data can be regenerated at any time to reset the training environment.

Participant data is sensitive. Many nonprofits need full control over where that data lives — for regulatory compliance, funder requirements, or organisational policy.

A self-hosted model means:

• You choose where data is stored (Canadian servers if needed)
• You're not dependent on a vendor's business continuity
• You can inspect exactly what the software does
• No risk of a vendor raising prices or changing terms

KoNote is designed for outcome tracking in social services, not clinical documentation. It lacks:

• Standardised clinical assessment tools
• Treatment planning features
• Prescription or medication tracking
• Healthcare-specific compliance features (HIPAA, etc.)

If you need a clinical EMR/EHR, KoNote isn't the right tool. If you need to track participant outcomes alongside clinical work, KoNote could complement (not replace) your clinical system.

Yes. KoNote supports multi-agency hosting, where multiple organisations share a single server while maintaining strict data separation. Each agency gets its own separate data store and encryption key, with independent configuration for terminology, features, and programs.

This is designed for umbrella organisations, consortia, or regional networks that want to reduce hosting costs without compromising data privacy. Each agency's data remains fully isolated from other agencies on the same server. Typical per-agency costs drop from $35–100/month (standalone) to $4–10/month (shared).

KoNote has full English and French bilingual support, following canada.ca conventions. Users can switch languages with a single click, and all terminology, labels, and system text appear in the selected language.

Agencies can customise all terminology in both languages to match their preferred wording. Full internationalisation to other languages beyond English and French would require development work.

KoNote includes optional AI-assisted features that help staff with goal writing, documentation, and analysis:

• AI-assisted goal building — natural language goal writing with research-grounded validation
• Suggesting metrics based on outcome target descriptions
• Improving goal statement wording
• Helping structure progress notes
• Suggestion themes — grouping qualitative feedback into patterns
• Generating funder narrative summaries from aggregate data
• Outcome insights — AI-generated program summaries

AI features use a two-tier toggle: tools-only mode (no participant data, enabled by default) and de-identified analysis mode (participant data with identifiers removed, disabled by default). No participant identifying information is ever sent to the AI service. Both tiers can be disabled entirely if your organisation prefers not to use AI.