Plainnote

Plain markdown notes, no clutter.

A clean, local-first note-taking app for macOS. Your notes are plain .md files in a folder you own - no database, no lock-in, no accounts.

Features

• Live editing - the line you're on is raw markdown, everything else stays rendered; Cmd+E toggles Edit/Read
• Wikilinks - type [[ and autocomplete a link to any note; backlinks show every note that points back
• Tags - #tag anywhere becomes a clickable pill, browsable from the sidebar
• Split view - two notes side by side, each pane with its own back/forward history (Cmd+[ / Cmd+])
• Search - across the whole vault (Cmd+Shift+F) or within a note, with highlights (Cmd+F)
• Organize - folders, drag and drop, pinned notes, trash-safe delete
• Export - any note to PDF or a standalone HTML page
• Your files - plain .md in ~/Documents/Plainnote; edit them with any other tool and the app picks up the changes live
• The details - dark mode, optional line numbers, note-level undo, import by drop, stats

Install & develop

npm install          # first time; if Electron's binary is missing: node node_modules/electron/install.js
npm start            # run from source
npm run dist         # build a signed-style DMG/ZIP into dist/ for local testing

Architecture

File	Role
main.js	Electron main process - file I/O, vault watcher, dialogs, PDF export
preload.js	Context-isolated bridge exposing a minimal window.api
renderer.js	The entire UI - panes, live editor, sidebar, search, menus
styles.css	Hand-written CSS, themed via custom properties
assets/	App icon sources and rendered PNGs
scripts/	Dev-only utilities (icon rendering, screenshots, layout tests)

Notes are read into memory on launch and re-read when the vault changes on disk. Backlinks, tags, and search are computed in memory - no index files, no database.

License

AGPL-3.0