Notes

A minimalist native text editor for Windows.

Tauri 2 · Rust · React 19 · CodeMirror 6

What it is

A single window that edits both kinds of text you actually keep: the notes that live in the app, and the files that live on your disk. It opens any text file — nothing is filtered by extension — and it stays out of the way while you write.

No Electron. No telemetry. No network access at all: the app ships a content security policy that permits none.

Features

Editing

• Opens any text file, with encoding and line endings detected on the way in
• Syntax highlighting for 25 languages, dropped past 1.5 MB so large files stay fast
• Files over 2 MB stream in, so the window keeps painting while they load
• Find in file, wrap toggle, adjustable font size

Markdown

• Syntax appears only on what you are editing. Move the caret into **bold** and the asterisks come back; move away and it renders. The rest of the line is untouched.
• A split preview on Alt+P for the full document, sanitised before rendering

Notes

• Checklists, bulleted and numbered lists, convertible to and from prose
• Swipe a row sideways to pin it or send it to the trash
• Trash keeps what you delete until you empty it
• Everything persists locally between sessions

Safety

• Prompts before closing a tab or quitting with unsaved edits
• Rendered Markdown is sanitised, so a hostile file cannot reach the app
• The backend only writes to files you opened or saved this session

Install

Download Notes_x.y.z_x64-setup.exe from Releases and run it. It installs for the current user, so Windows never asks for admin rights, and it adds a Start menu entry and an uninstaller like any other app.

The installer is not code-signed — a certificate costs more than this project does — so SmartScreen shows a warning the first time. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Everything after that is a normal install.

Shortcuts

Ctrl+N	New note	Ctrl+F	Find in file
Ctrl+Shift+N	New checklist	Ctrl+B	Toggle the notes panel
Ctrl+O	Open file	Alt+P	Split Markdown preview
Ctrl+S	Save	Ctrl+±	Font size
Ctrl+Shift+S	Save as	Ctrl+0	Reset font size
Ctrl+W	Close	Ctrl+D	Move note to trash

Development

Needs Windows, Node.js 18+ and Rust.

npm install
npm run app

npm run app	Run the desktop app
npm run dev	Browser-only dev server, no native shell
npm run check	Type check, lint and tests — the gate for every commit
npm run dist	Build the Windows installer

src/lib/ holds the pure logic — encoding detection, list parsing, crypto, Markdown preview — with no React and no DOM writes, and a test beside every module. Everything else builds on top of it.

Status

v0.4 is a rebuild. Working today: opening and editing any text file, saving, search, live Markdown, checklists, pinning, trash and persistence.

Not yet carried over from v0.3: per-note password locking.

History

Built with Cursor through v0.3, then rebuilt from scratch for v0.4 with Claude Code. The earlier tree is preserved on the cursor branch, and its releases still work.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

_{Built by da0t-exe}