MinkNote

Private macOS notes built on plain Markdown files

Mac

Writing

Notes

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@demianturner that makes sense, and honestly relying on iCloud's existing conflict handling instead of building your own merge logic is probably the safer call for v1, rolling your own three-way merge for markdown is a rabbit hole. the renamed-copy fallback (Note 2.md) is at least visible and recoverable, which is better than silently picking a winner. good luck figuring out the merge layer if you get to it.

"Plain Markdown files you own" is the part that sells me — I've been burned by note apps where exporting later is a nightmare. Plain files mean it's future-proof, greppable, and plays nicely with git and other tools, which most "local-first" apps only half-commit to.

Since the notes are just files on disk, how do you handle sync across machines — iCloud/Dropbox folder, or is there something built in?

the no-database plus fast-search combo is the detail I keep circling back to. what's actually powering search under the hood - some kind of lightweight index cached alongside the markdown files, or a live re-scan of the raw files each time? and if it's a cache, does it rebuild cleanly after someone's been editing notes directly in Finder while the app was closed?

plain files as the actual source of truth is the right call, I've been burned before by note apps that quietly lock your data into a proprietary index. quick question on sync - if you edit the same note on two Macs while offline and then both come back online, how does MinkNote handle the conflict? does it merge, keep both versions, or just take whichever saved last?

The plain Markdown choice matters more than the feature list. A lot of tools say “your data is yours” but still make leaving painful. Reveal in Finder makes that promise concrete. How are you thinking about sync without losing the local-first feel?

Plain .md files as the storage layer is quietly the killer feature — it means scripts and agents can read/write my notes without an export step or an API. Which raises my question: how does MinkNote behave when something ELSE edits a file while it's open — file-watching with live reload, last-writer-wins, or a conflict prompt? That edge case decides whether the 'plain files' promise survives real workflows. Local-first + no lock-in is exactly what I want from a notes app.

Great idea!

Does MinkNote have any kind of built-in automatic backup system? Most people are used to working in the cloud and don't have the habit of backing up their files. A disk failure or simply switching devices could cause them to lose their notes. Have you planned for this?

Love that the frontmatter stays visible and the plain files remain fully readable outside the app, treating long-term ownership as a feature rather than an afterthought.

The no account, no database line is the part that lands for me. I built something else where the pitch to the other side was also no account to create, and the thing that surprised me is who it actually converts. Almost nobody exercised the escape hatch and walked off with their files. But knowing the hatch was there is what made them commit in the first place. It read as a trust signal more than a feature people used day to day.

Curious whether you are seeing the same, or if your Markdown crowd genuinely round trips out to Obsidian and back the way the other folks here are asking. Those feel like two different kinds of user and I could never tell which one I was actually building for.

Storing images as sibling files in a subfolder instead of cramming them into base64 looks interesting! Most 'plain Markdown' apps fail that one in my experience. Question: the prose is portable but the structure usually isn't right? Tags, journal membership, note ordering all have to live somewhere. If that's in the .md frontmatter I carry it with me when I leave, if it's in a sidecar index then Reveal in Finder shows loose files with none of the organisation. Which way did you go? Does a tag survive a round trip out to Obsidian and back?

Quick thank you to everyone who's checked out MinkNote, upvoted or left comments, it means a lot to me. The comments have already clarified a few priorities, especially around external edits and making the "journal" naming more clear.

the "no database" promise is what caught my eye, but tags and fast search are usually where apps quietly cheat on that. when you tag a note, does that tag actually get written into the markdown file itself (like YAML frontmatter), so it survives if you open the file in a totally different editor, or does MinkNote keep tags in its own separate index that only it understands?

Moving notes between folders and having the attached image assets automatically move alongside them is a massive quality-of-life detail that most plain-text Markdown editors mess up. Congrats for launch👏 Usually, you end up with orphaned media files scattered everywhere. qq Does MinkNote use relative pathing inside the Markdown syntax so those links stay intact if opened in another text editor like Nova or VS Code?

Congrats on the launch! Coming from TextMate, I really appreciate the minimalist, local-first approach.

Quick question: Are there already built-in keyboard shortcuts for quick navigation?

Excited to test it this weekend!

Really like the plain-Markdown + no-database direction here. The part that stands out is not just portability, but keeping the app native enough that files and folders still feel like a feature instead of a compromise. One thing I'd be curious about as a heavy-note user: do you expose a lightweight conflict or duplicate-file recovery flow for people who also touch the same notes in Finder, iCloud Drive, or another editor? That edge case matters a lot in local-first tools.

Congrats! Your pitch hit me. I already keep notes and projects in plain Markdown-folders.

Can you point MinkNote at an existing folder with Markdown-files you've already got? Or will the app own it's own folder structure? And can it handle that my files are edited externally (another editor, script) while it's open? Meaning, will it pick up the edits?

Hey Demian,

Congratulations on releasing this app.
This is just what I needed. I don't like cluttered, fancy notes apps.
I tried a few notes apps and I always returned to my TextMate editor with tabs - simple and effective.

Now I am actually using MinkNote. It's simple, no clutter. I have all the text editing tools and options that I need.
I was a bit confused at the beginig with how to create a different folder. Perhaps, for me, "Journal" might not be the best wording - it doesn't give me instant feedback that this is actually a folder.

I have a free trial, so I am going to port some of my notes from TextMate and here and see how it goes.

Congratulations on the launch, and great product. The "no lock-in" pitch is a bit undercut by the app itself being closed source, that's the part people actually worry about long term, not just the file format. Open sourcing even just the editor/sync layer would make the durability claim a lot more credible!