Diary is a single-macro app with no global and no space configuration: once it is installed, there is nothing for an administrator to switch on. This page covers what there is to know — where the data lives, which permissions apply, and what the app asks for.
Installation
Diary is a Forge app, installed from the Atlassian Marketplace by a site administrator and managed by Atlassian from there — see Installing Diary.
There is no per-space enable step and no controlled-rollout switch. Once the app is installed, any user who can edit a page can put a Diary macro on it. If you need to limit where diaries appear, limit who may edit those pages.
📷 Screenshot: admin-manage-apps.png — the Manage apps screen with Diary installed, showing its version and that it is a Forge app. Reassures administrators that there is nothing further to configure. Optional.
Where diary entries are stored
Entries are stored inside the macro body, in the page itself, as a four-column table — Date, Time, From, Content. Diary keeps no separate database, no app storage, and no content properties.
This mirrors the Data Center app and is a deliberate choice. Every consequence is in your favour:
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Search — entries are indexed along with the page, so Confluence search finds them.
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Permissions — entries inherit the page's restrictions exactly, with no app-side authorization logic to review.
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Versioning — every change is a page version, so page history is a complete audit trail and a delete is always recoverable.
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Backup and export — whatever already covers your pages covers every diary entry. There is no separate store to back up.
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Data residency — the entries are Confluence page content, so they live wherever your Confluence content lives.
One thing to expect: because each entry is written as a page version, a busy diary produces a lot of versions on its page. That is normal, and the Data Center app behaves the same way.
Permissions
Diary uses Confluence's standard permission model, with no permission system of its own to learn.
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Viewing a diary needs permission to view the page.
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Adding, editing, or deleting an entry needs permission to edit the page.
Every write is made as the signed-in user, so Confluence itself enforces the permission — the app cannot change a page the user could not have changed, and the resulting page version records that user as its author.
To control who may write in a particular diary, use Confluence page restrictions on its page, exactly as you would anywhere else. See Permissions and Who Can Write.
What the app requests
Forge apps declare their permissions up front, and Confluence shows the list before you confirm the install.
|
Permission |
Why Diary needs it |
|---|---|
|
Read pages |
To read the entries out of the page |
|
Write pages |
To add, edit, and delete entries from view mode |
|
Read user profiles |
To show an entry author's name and avatar |
|
Check content permissions |
To hide the editor from users who may not edit the page |
|
Read content summaries |
To list page templates in the configuration panel |
Diary sends nothing to any third party and calls no service outside your Confluence site.
Languages
Diary is available in English and German, following each user's own Confluence language setting. Version comments are written in the language of whoever made the change, so a German-speaking author's entry produces a German version comment.
📷 Screenshot: admin-german-diary.png — the same diary seen by a user whose Confluence language is German, so the translated buttons, prompt, and welcome message are visible. Optional, but useful evidence for German-speaking customers.
One gap is worth knowing about: the toolbar of the entry editor belongs to Atlassian's editor component, not to Diary, and is shown in English regardless of language. See Known Issues and Differences from Data Center.
Licensing
Diary is licensed through the Atlassian Marketplace, and licensing is handled entirely by Atlassian. There is no licence key to enter and nothing to maintain inside the app.
Migrating from Data Center
If you are moving a Confluence instance that uses Diary for Data Center, read Migrating from Confluence Data Center to Cloud before you migrate. Diaries do not arrive as working Cloud diaries, and there are things worth doing beforehand.