# Small independent org roam instances

**URL:** <https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/small-independent-org-roam-instances/2267>\
**Category:** Meta\
**Created:** [December 10, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/small-independent-org-roam-instances/2267 "2021-12-10T17:32:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![thecashewtrader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71c47a/32.png) [@thecashewtrader](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/thecashewtrader)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/small-independent-org-roam-instances/2267/1 "2021-12-10T17:32:40Z")

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New `org-roam` user here, I was wondering if there’s a way to have small, independent org roam ‘instances’. I mainly intend to use them to:

- Seperate public and personal notes, as I have notes that must not be shared publicly

- Potentially have small project focused roam ‘instances’ as documentation

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2021, 10:54am UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/small-independent-org-roam-instances/2267/2 "2021-12-11T10:54:43Z")

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You can create multiple database instances/files.  
See this section of the manual: [18.1 How do I have more than one Org-roam directory?](https://www.orgroam.com/manual.html#How-do-I-have-more-than-one-Org_002droam-directory_003f)

**edit** : PR has been merged. The official manual has correct examples.

A couple of comments for your usage:

1. You can also use the “exclusion” to avoid exporting your private files (for this, you should probably look at your export engine – I don’t publish my notes. I hope others can jump in to comment; there are many people who use Hugo, etc.

2. If you were to use `dir-locals.el`, be careful with your subdirectory. Apologies if this is stating the obvious for you – you would like to avoid the situation where your public directory contains your private directory as a subdirectory – the public instance would not exclude the private instance automatically

3. “Remember to run `org-roam-db-sync` from a file within that directory” as the manual instructs – `dir-locals.el` changes the setting automatically, but this does **not** trigger DB creation/update automatically. I’d avoid creating many small instances for this reason; you’d need to somehow remember to do this for every instance…