plainnoteio/app

Plainnote is a note taking app for Mac computers built around plain markdown text files instead of a hidden database. Every note you write is stored as an ordinary .md file inside a folder on your own computer, which means there is no account to sign up for, no proprietary format locking your notes in, and you can open or edit those same files with any other text editor if you want to. The app focuses on a clean writing experience. While editing, the exact line your cursor is on shows its raw markdown formatting, while every other line renders normally, and you can switch fully between an editing view and a plain reading view with a keyboard shortcut. You can link notes together by typing double square brackets to trigger an autocomplete, and the app keeps track of backlinks, showing you every other note that links back to the one you have open. Typing a hashtag anywhere turns it into a clickable tag you can browse from the sidebar. Other features include a split view for looking at two notes side by side, each with its own separate history of what you viewed before, search across your entire collection of notes or within a single note, drag and drop organization with folders and pinned notes, a safe trash for deleted notes, and the ability to export any note as a PDF or a standalone HTML page. Because the app watches your notes folder on disk, edits made from another app or text editor show up immediately inside Plainnote too. The project is built with Electron, a framework for building desktop apps using web technology, and is aimed specifically at Apple Silicon Macs. It reads all your notes into memory when it starts and recalculates search, tags, and backlinks on the fly rather than relying on a stored index or database. Plainnote is released under the AGPL-3.0 license.