Novi Notes is a local-first Mac note app with built-in AI via MCP. Just install, open Claude, and ask — Claude reads and writes your notes directly. No plugins, no API keys, no config. Features: AI-native via MCP, 100% local and offline, daily notes, manuals, post-its & calendar, one-time purchase with no subscription. Built by an indie dev in Seoul.
Hey everyone! 👋 I'm Hojong, the solo developer behind Novi Note.
Why another note app?
I'm a backend developer working across TypeScript, Kotlin, and Swift every day — jumping between different IDEs and projects constantly. When I started using Claude Desktop and Claude Code in my workflow, something unexpected happened: markdown files started piling up everywhere. Skills, agent configs, project notes, CLAUDE.md files — scattered across dozens of project directories. Version controlling them was a nightmare, and every time I set up a new project, I had to dig through old folders to find and reconfigure everything.
I needed one place to keep it all together. Meeting notes, code snippets, daily logs, reference manuals — not spread across 15 different repos.
So I tried everything. Notion, Obsidian, Evernote, Bear, SimpleNote, even Coggle for mind maps. They're all genuinely great tools. But either they required a subscription for the features I needed, or they couldn't quite match the workflow I had in mind.
So I thought: why not just build the note app I actually want?
And here's the funny part — after spending months building Novi Note, I finally understood why those other apps couldn't do what I wanted. Turns out, building a note app that fits your exact workflow is... really, really hard. 😅
What makes Novi Note different:
🤖 AI Native via MCP — Connect Claude to your notes with minimal setup. I worked hard to make the MCP configuration as painless as possible. Your AI can read, create, and organize your notes directly.
💰 One-time purchase — No subscriptions. Ever. That's a promise, not a marketing line.
🔒 Local-first — Your data stays on your Mac. No cloud dependency. Full offline support.
📋 Built for work — Daily notes, manuals, documents, post-its, calendar — the structure a working professional actually needs without Notion-level complexity.
I built this for people like me — developers who live in the terminal and IDE all day, use Claude as a daily companion, and just want a clean, private place to keep everything organized without fighting their tools.
Would love to hear your thoughts. What's your current note-taking setup? I'm genuinely curious!
Local-first AND one-time purchase? Take my money honestly. I've been bouncing between Obsidian and Apple Notes for months and neither fully clicks. The MCP integration with Claude is what got my attention though , being able to just talk to my notes without some janky plugin setup sounds great. Downloading now.
Zero config setup is underrated — most note apps make you spend an hour tweaking before you can actually use them. How does it handle search across large note collections?
Hey everyone! 👋 I'm Hojong, the solo developer behind Novi Note.
Why another note app?
I'm a backend developer working across TypeScript, Kotlin, and Swift every day — jumping between different IDEs and projects constantly. When I started using Claude Desktop and Claude Code in my workflow, something unexpected happened: markdown files started piling up everywhere. Skills, agent configs, project notes, CLAUDE.md files — scattered across dozens of project directories. Version controlling them was a nightmare, and every time I set up a new project, I had to dig through old folders to find and reconfigure everything.
I needed one place to keep it all together. Meeting notes, code snippets, daily logs, reference manuals — not spread across 15 different repos.
So I tried everything. Notion, Obsidian, Evernote, Bear, SimpleNote, even Coggle for mind maps. They're all genuinely great tools. But either they required a subscription for the features I needed, or they couldn't quite match the workflow I had in mind.
So I thought: why not just build the note app I actually want?
And here's the funny part — after spending months building Novi Note, I finally understood why those other apps couldn't do what I wanted. Turns out, building a note app that fits your exact workflow is... really, really hard. 😅
What makes Novi Note different:
🤖 AI Native via MCP — Connect Claude to your notes with minimal setup. I worked hard to make the MCP configuration as painless as possible. Your AI can read, create, and organize your notes directly.
💰 One-time purchase — No subscriptions. Ever. That's a promise, not a marketing line.
🔒 Local-first — Your data stays on your Mac. No cloud dependency. Full offline support.
📋 Built for work — Daily notes, manuals, documents, post-its, calendar — the structure a working professional actually needs without Notion-level complexity.
I built this for people like me — developers who live in the terminal and IDE all day, use Claude as a daily companion, and just want a clean, private place to keep everything organized without fighting their tools.
Would love to hear your thoughts. What's your current note-taking setup? I'm genuinely curious!