9 ms·

Show HN: Tolaria – Open-source macOS app to manage Markdown knowledge bases

318 points by lucaronin 5mo ago

Hey there! I am Luca, I write https://refactoring.fm/ https://refactoring.fm/ and I built Tolaria for myself to manage my own knowledge base (10K notes, 300+ articles written in over 6 years of newslettering) and work well with AI. Tolaria is offline-first, file-based, has first-class support for git, and has strong opinions about how you should organize notes (types, relationships, etc). Let me know your thoughts!

contingencies 5mo ago
has strong opinions about how you should organize notes Err, no. I'll stick to git and subdirectories, thanks.
subdomain 5mo ago
I run a newsletter too, so this is cool to see! Not sure if I need it yet (my "knowledge base" is still pretty small), but I'll definitely keep it in mind for the future.
jryio 5mo ago
Just another disposable piece of software maintained by a single person that does 80% of what other apps do but worse. Max lifespan 2 years
- SpyCoder77 5mo ago
  Some people...
- qsort 5mo ago
  But if they ever choose to decommission it, they have the chance to do the funniest thing: https://scryfall.com/card/plst/INV-156/obliterate https://scryfall.com/card/plst/INV-156/obliterate
- rglover 5mo ago
  Please cut this out. You really don't want to live in a world where individuals are discouraged from trying to build things that are good. If you want something to stick around: you have to use and pay for it.
- GreenTimeTrkr 5mo ago
  [dead]
- lbreakjai 5mo ago
  You're right. We should absolutely only rely on "Ask sales for price" closed-source software from megacorps, that get worse on every release, and get sunset anyway when the funding runs out.
- morelikeborelax 5mo ago
  I hAvE a FeW qUaLmS wItH tHiS aPp https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- BirAdam 5mo ago
  You do realize that would have once described GCC and Linux, right?
  - tredre3 5mo ago
    Of Linux, yes. Of GCC, no. From the very beginning there was multiple authors and the project was a mishmash of several other projects.
- ikdiendoehdj 5mo ago
  Of all the things to judge this on, you chose the most ridiculous one. Why shouldn’t a project like this exist just because there are “bigger” alternatives out there? If youre gonna shut this one down, at the very least do it for the right reasons such as the fact that this is a webwrapper—absolutely disgusting, either go native or don’t bother shoving your webpage into a browser-container and calling it what it is not (an app).
- johntopia 5mo ago
  unacceptable comment. hacker news is misunderstood as a toxic community because of fellas like you. have some dignity.
antonkochubey 5mo ago
Doesn’t Obsidian already do pretty much the same?
- kid64 5mo ago
  Yes, but the claim is presumably that this one is good.
- hoppyhoppy2 5mo ago
  >open-source
  - jimmcslim 5mo ago
    And I was going to say Mac native as well, but uses Tauri. I’d love some app with the polish of Bear Notes but that just edited raw Markdown files. Ideally Obsidian with the Notebook Navigator plugin (strongly inspired by Bear Notes perhaps?) and (checks list) this very specific list of plugins that I need and should be good for everyone else thanks.
    - astrocat 5mo ago
      > I’d love some app with the polish of Bear Notes but that just edited raw Markdown files. Typora? (https://typora.io/ https://typora.io/)
    - Barbing 5mo ago
      > I’d love some app with the polish of Bear Notes but that just edited raw Markdown files. HelixNotes? ( https://codeberg.org/ArkHost/HelixNotes https://codeberg.org/ArkHost/HelixNotes )
      - a96 5mo ago
        I had my hopes up, but looks like it has nothing to do with actual Helix.
    - nicoritschel 5mo ago
r0bbie 5mo ago
Super nice! I've ended up settling on Logseq for note-taking for a while now, but never loved the UI. This is clean and love the git-backed approach. Would love to see a dark mode too!
Pym 5mo ago
Wow thanks! Better than the one I was planning to build for myself. Love the UI. Love the fact that the app was made with Tauri. Nice work, will share!
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
redaantar 5mo ago
That’s awesome! I’m a huge fan of projects like that. I recently launched ckourse.com (open-source) to help manage downloaded courses. Combining tolaria and Ckourse will give a smooth learning experience. Thanks for the tool.
- QuantumNomad_ 5mo ago
  On a tangential note, do you have any recommendations for course platforms that offer paid courses with videos being 100% without DRM? I was severely disappointed late last year when I revisited one platform where I had previously dropped quite a bit of money in the past to buy access to many courses and I now wanted to finally download them for offline watching only to find that in each and every course I had bought access to on the platform it is only the first couple of videos that are without DRM and then all of the remaining videos in each of the courses use Widevine DRM. I even investigated a bit whether Widewine DRM is possible to decrypt but it seems to be very difficult, requiring knowledge and access to things that I doubt I would be able to figure out. I would rather in the future spend money on courses that are not DRM protected in the first place, than to give any more money to any learning platforms where they use DRM on the videos. Topics of interest include: - Advanced software development - Distributed systems - PostgreSQL database internals - ZFS file system internals - Debugging - Reverse engineering - 3d modelling in Blender and rendering - Vulkan graphics programming - Game development with Godot - Piano playing techniques - Electronic music production with Ableton Live - Mixing and mastering tracks with Ableton Live + any third party VSTs necessary - Drawing and painting digitally - DJing, turntablism and scratching on digital DJ controllers
  - redaantar 5mo ago
    Sadly, most of the big names (Udemy, Coursera, ...) are using encrypted streaming with DRM, but there are Khan Academy, Harvard, MIT,... courses that you can download and use locally. But most people are downloading the courses from torrents illegally (I don't advise doing this).
bovermyer 5mo ago
I'm glad you've built something that works for you! Keep at it. Experiment, don't just leave it the same way it is now.
- lucaronin 5mo ago
  you bet it!
kskzjsjdjw 5mo ago
A freaking web app? Boo. Boooooooooo. Thanks but no thanks.
- droidjj 5mo ago
  At least it's Tauri!
  - ikdiendoehdj 5mo ago
    Personally, I don’t really care which flavour of webwrapper this is. If it ain’t native, I ain’t bothering. Web pages belong in the browser, not in a browser-container pretending to be something it is not—an actual app.
    - redaantar 5mo ago
      Why it matters since it does the job !
- nicoritschel 5mo ago
  Check out mdnb.app if you want similar but truly native for macOS
SpyCoder77 5mo ago
As I was scrolling down the page I was like "what if I wanted to use a notion-style editor instead of markdown" and my requests were instantly met
stock_toaster 5mo ago
I've been using octarine[1] recently (after having used obsidian for quite a while), but I'm definitely going to try this out. [1]: https://octarine.app https://octarine.app
amd92 5mo ago
[dead]
aldielshala 5mo ago
Curious how it handles 10K+ notes performance-wise, does it index everything or lazy-load?
smadam9 5mo ago
You beat me to it by a day! But well done Luca. The tool looks excellent and I'm trying it out now. I'm building Sig <https://github.com/adamjramirez/sig-releases https://github.com/adamjramirez/sig-releases> and the architecture overlap is obvious: macOS, plain markdown, git-versioned, designed as context for AI agents. The difference is where in the workflow we start. Tolaria seems to excel at organizing knowledge that already exists. Sig is trying to solve what happens before that - how to get the knowledge out of your head and into files in the first place. Most of what actually determines the quality of your AI output was never written down: the decision made in the last five minutes of a meeting, the verbal commitment with no follow-up, your actual read on what a conversation meant (not the surface version). Sig's capture is two layers: 1) factual record first, 2) your personal interpretation on top. Both stored as markdown on your machine. When you're ready to share to a team knowledge base/open brain, it's an explicit decision to do so and opt-in — private by default, team-readable only when you choose.
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]
- ericol 5mo ago
  if "git versioned" means the .md files themselves, I'm sold. I am actually processing files using a git based workflow in order to tell claude what to look at. I'll definitely give this a spin.
  - smadam9 5mo ago
    Yes, the .md's are in their own repo, locally. The entire UI is a layer on top of that repo. The UI has some underlying mechanisms that abstract the git operations away from the user, but that doesn't stop a power user from jumping in the shell and accessing the repo directly. The "magic" starts when Sig contributes to another, remote repo - a central knowledge base that all teammates' local Sig can pull from, and contribute toward.
- ItsClo688 5mo ago
  [flagged]
npv789 5mo ago
notion killer
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
moralestapia 5mo ago
Hey Luca this is great, trying it now. The UI is gorgeous, congratulations!
- lucaronin 5mo ago
  thank you so much!
nullsanity 5mo ago
[dead]
EverMemory 5mo ago
[dead]
dhruv3006 5mo ago
I love how you have used markdown here ! We kind of have used the exact philosophy in https://voiden.md/ https://voiden.md/ - offline-first, file based and support for git. This is exactly the format agents will use pretty well. We have done this for APIs. We are open source too. Take a look here : https://github.com/VoidenHQ/voiden https://github.com/VoidenHQ/voiden
ItsClo688 5mo ago
not gonna lie - wow the 10k notes over 6 years thing is what got me! most knowledge base tools fall apart at that scale because the organizing system becomes the job. wondering do you ever just let something be unstructured, or does everything have to be tagged in?
- gnabgib 5mo ago
  I thought the thing that got you was "tolaria feels like a library"? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47884835 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47884835
  - ItsClo688 5mo ago
    fair, i do sound like one sometimes. new here, still finding my voice, guess i haven't earned the benefit of the doubt yet from the og crowd like you
msephton 5mo ago
I would be all over this if it was a native macOS app
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]
- ikdiendoehdj 5mo ago
  Precisely. It would be awesome if it were an ACTUAL application. I don’t care if it’s Tauri, Electron or whatever’s the new flavour of the same old lazy ass webwrapper technology. A web app is not an actual application. Besides, I already have a browser, I don’t need another one just to open a single page so it can pretend to be an app while adhering to absolutely ZERO platform behaviour patterns. Either go it native, or don’t even bother. If it can be run in a webwrapper, it can be run my ACTUAL a browser. FUCK WEB APPS.
- lucaronin 5mo ago
  I started Tolaria in Swift but met very real limitations especially in the Markdown editor part. It's very hard to build something that is Notion like in that department with Swift. But give it a try because Tauri is very fast
  - msephton 5mo ago
    I just built a markdown-style editor for iOS that is highly performant with files of 5000 lines. Every keystroke is restyled in under 8ms: no debouncing, no delayed rendering. 20 rapid keystrokes are processed in 150ms with full restyling after each one. Tag and boolean searches complete in under 20ms. Visible-range rendering is 25x faster than full-document styling. 120Hz screen refresh supported. App file size is 722 KB. If I can do it on iOS then it's must be 10x easier on macOS. https://www.gingerbeardman.com/apps/papertrail/ https://www.gingerbeardman.com/apps/papertrail/
  - sdevonoes 5mo ago
    At least for me it’s not about speed, but the npm ecosystem: I try to avoid running npm deps in my home computer (if any, I run them in VMs, but a KB should run in the host I believe)
dewey 5mo ago
I often fall back to Apple Notes (I know not really a knowledge base, or markdown) because it syncs between my devices and it's usable on the phone. Is this something you have a need for yourself, or how are you looking at your notes on mobile?
- _false 5mo ago
  I solve it by using Apple Notes for quick capture and then copy pasting from my mac to obsidian daily/specific notes, that I want to keep. I also just keep long running notes for tracking things workouts and meals with headers for dates. Works better than things like obsidian mobile and copy pasting is a natural filter.
  - Barbing 5mo ago
    Good tips! >I also just keep long running notes for tracking things workouts and meals with headers for dates. This I'd say fine on the phone but frustrating heading to the Mac and start wishing for at least a spreadsheet.
    - _false 5mo ago
      > start wishing for at least a spreadsheet What exactly makes you wish that? I used to use google sheets for workouts but realised: 1. plain text notes are more ergonomic on the phone 2. dumping them into Claude produces more useful analysis than I could hope to extract for the same amount of effort.
  - alwillis 5mo ago
    Apple Notes can export to markdown now.
ajbd 5mo ago
The “types as lenses, not schemas” principle and the focus on structure + relationships really stand out. How do systems like this handle temporal stuff over time? (things that change over time, decisions that get revisited, outcomes that didn’t exist when the note was created?) Do those live as relationships between notes, or is there a different pattern for it?
wkcheng 5mo ago
Nice work! This looks really cool. I downloaded and am trying it out, but I'm running into a pretty annoying sorting bug that's preventing me from using it for real. I copied over files from my Obsidian vault (preserving file times), and the first time it loaded, everything seemed to work fine. After doing the first git commit, however, Tolaria cannot seem to sort properly by last modified anymore (I'm getting notes from 2023 or 2025 up at the top). The file system tree still has the correct modified and created times.
- lucaronin 5mo ago
  that's weird will look into it! thanks for reporting
  - wkcheng 5mo ago
    This was my workflow (this is repro-able 100%): 1. Take an obsidian vault (just a few folders and subfolders of markdown files) 2. Copy the entire folder (keep all of the dates with cp -a) to a new folder 3. Install Tolaria, point it to the new folder you created. 4. Open it up. This creates a git repository. 5. Click on the bottom UI to "Restore Tolaria AI Guidance." After this point, the sorting doesn't work and will continue failing. Everything says that it was created or modified recently. Edit: I think I found the cause. When you initialize a git repository, the file modified times stay the same, but sorting by modified appears to sort by the commit date, which is now all the same for every file (since it was committed in one go)
CTSuwan 5mo ago
[dead]
johntopia 5mo ago
great job luca! looking forward to reviewing this :) i'm a heavy obsidian user but i really like your "inbox" concept.
hk1337 5mo ago
First thing curious about is opening this up on a docs/ folder in one of my projects and see how it is with that.
Manik_agg 5mo ago
Hey luca, heavy obsidian user here and went through your website and github. Def will try it out. Connecting codex with Tolaria to manage your knowledgebase is something i'm looking forward to try.
dhr_uvi 5mo ago
Really interesting project. I like that this seems focused on organizing relationships between ideas instead of just being another notes editor. A lot of tools handle documents well, but fewer help build an actual knowledge system.
enola-mag 5mo ago
I tried this on my Mac. Excellent concept, and the 10k notes is promising. Is there anything similar to this for Windows?
- lucaronin 5mo ago
  releasing it over the next couple of days
julia-kafarska 5mo ago
I've been wanting something like that for a while. Love it, thanks.
sixhobbits 5mo ago
I tried it and it looks really nice but like most of these it has too many small editing thorns for me to use. Two I noticed right away - ctrl-a works to go to start of line but for some reason ctrl-e doesn't work to go to end - ``` doesn't start a code block, you have to use 'insert code block' Good job on paste image from clipboard though which is another feature that I think is completely essential for something like this and weirdly missing in many of them.
- lucaronin 5mo ago
``` should definitely start a code block! I do it all the time, and also just tried it now. Can you try again or tell me what you see? Simply nothing happening?
- sixhobbits 5mo ago
  ah I see it needs a space. I tried ```[ENTER] and ```python[ENTER] and I also assumed there was no code highlighting but I see after I add a code block I can select the language through the UI ```[SPACE] works, but immediately places the cursor below the block where I'm more used to the cursor moving into the block after creation
valentinkov 5mo ago
Great app! One thing I'd love to see is a mobile version — I find myself searching my notes on my phone more often than on desktop.
- valentinkov 5mo ago
  I could help you build IOS potentially.
AnthonyR 5mo ago
Super impressive for a solo project! How does this compare to capacities.io ?
YousefED 5mo ago
Exciting stuff Luca. Cool to see you're using BlockNote as the editor (project I'm working on). Let us know if you have any feedback for us / features you'd love to see!
jimmypk 5mo ago
[flagged]
- lucaronin 5mo ago
  I actually largely solved this with OpenClaw — i send stuff via telegram and it creates good notes in Tolaria, already linked to what exists and what's relevant I send web links of tools that I want to store of resources, voice notes to be turned into written notes, etc but I will still build a mobile version for sure!
- eddyg 5mo ago
  Bebop⁽¹⁾ is my preferred method. I can open it directly and capture an idea or note with one tap, or use its share sheet to capture links. It can be configured to append to an Obsidian “Daily Note” in an iCloud vault, which works great. No third-party services FTW. ⁽¹⁾ https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bebop-quick-notes/id6477824795 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bebop-quick-notes/id6477824795
- momentmaker 5mo ago
  I built something recently for myself which is based on the any device philosophy using a Telegram bot approach and like the creator of this app uses a private Github repo as the source of truth. I use it for just collecting anything I find interesting around the web. https://github.com/momentmaker/to https://github.com/momentmaker/to
NamlchakKhandro 5mo ago
obsidian already exists. and works on linux.
datagreed 5mo ago
Why not obsidian?
- sdevonoes 5mo ago
  One thing about obsidian is that it’s not open source. So if one day they change something and you don’t like it, you will be forced to use a different KB. That means to change your flows, the ux, etc. That’s a big downside from my pov (it’s good that obsidian allows you to take your files with you, but for me that’s not enough)
zby 5mo ago
Everybody is building their own llm-wiki systems these days. I have my own and compiled a big list of other agent memory systems in it: https://zby.github.io/commonplace/agent-memory-systems/ https://zby.github.io/commonplace/agent-memory-systems/ I'll add yours promptly. And just today I also vibed a wish list (based on all the material I gathered) for such systems: https://zby.github.io/commonplace/notes/designing-agent-memory-systems/ https://zby.github.io/commonplace/notes/designing-agent-memo... I wish we could collaborate.
- a96 5mo ago
  I wish I'd found some for neovim on that list.
- theIntangible 5mo ago
  Here's another one for your list https://github.com/Signet-AI/signetai https://github.com/Signet-AI/signetai I am not affiliated, just testing it out.
  - zby 5mo ago
    Added: https://zby.github.io/commonplace/agent-memory-systems/reviews/signetai/ https://zby.github.io/commonplace/agent-memory-systems/revie... By the way - here is the prompt for these reviews: https://github.com/zby/commonplace/blob/main/kb/agent-memory-systems/types/agent-memory-system-review.md https://github.com/zby/commonplace/blob/main/kb/agent-memory...
- evertvdbruel 5mo ago
  Hey zby, if you're collecting these, Hjarni (hjarni.com) would fit your source-only tier alongside Fintool and Supermemory. Hosted SaaS with MCP built in, hierarchical LLM instructions (global/team/container/note), and a shared-note protocol for Claude/ChatGPT multi-agent workflows. Happy to write up a page in whatever shape you want. The wishlist doc you linked is good, would be up for collaborating on that.
  - zby 5mo ago
james-bcn 5mo ago
I love this! It is like you have taken all the things I want from Obsidian (plus plug-ins) and made them into a single, well designed app. Great! Feedback: * This is so good you should find a way to keep it open source but also profit from it so you can develop it full-time. You could just have an official app version - I would pay for that. * Feature creep. I am a big fan of Bear App for it's wonderful simple design, although I stopped using it because it doesn't work on markdown files directly. What I've seen is that equivalent apps/services (including Obsidian, Notion, Craft) are continuously adding new features. You've already got all the core features I think - try to avoid feature creep, and keep it focused on just doing the core things really well, like Bear App does.
- lucaronin 5mo ago
  big fan of Bear! It was a big influence for Tolaria — that's why you like it! thank you for the great feedback mate
  - jwr 5mo ago
    Why did you build something different? What was the motivation compared to Bear? I'm a heavy Bear user, recently migrating most stuff to Drafts. My problems with Bear is that it's getting slow and I don't have easy direct access to my text data. But it does have apps for all devices and drag&drop images are really useful for lab/electronics work…
    - james-bcn 5mo ago
      For me the main issue with Bear is that it does not work with a directory of Markdown files, but locks them away in a database. If you worked directly on markdown files it would be nearly perfect. They did make a standalone markdown editor called Panda, but didn't pursue it for some reason.
  - ianberdin 5mo ago
    Yeah, so sad it is dead. I mean it works, but no more high progress. So it is a legacy. But it worked so fast and smooth :( At the same time Craft is too focused to replace Google Docs with swipes. Feels weird. So have to use Notion from phone and VSCode with Claude code on computer. I miss normal implementation of Claude code on my phone :( I really wish to have always computer and access to it maybe. Official Claude code iOS app works weird.
kenforthewin 5mo ago
Nice work, couple bits of feedback * The editor doesn't seem to support code fence literals (as in I can't type ``` to get a code block) * At very large markdown file sizes the performance is not great. I'm building an obsidian-style markdown editor (for my own AI knowledge base product!) over at https://github.com/kenforthewin/atomic-editor https://github.com/kenforthewin/atomic-editor
- brasetvik 5mo ago
  Atomic looks quite interesting, and the "wiki synthesis" is particularly interesting: I've been working on a suite of skills and a tiny MCP (also SQLite + SQLite-vec based) where the focus is on making it easy to produce "atoms" from quick brain dumps. The chunking problem is "bypassed" by declaring each section a chunk, and having the LLMs rewrite drafts to sections that chunk well. That means lots of redundancy, and no "As explained above". The intended reader isn't a human, but rather agents that generate human-friendlier prose, for different target audiences. By assuming the reader is an "expert", the idea is that it's much cheaper to mass-produce reviewed "atoms". Itching to try that workflow with Atomic or Tolaria.
phyzix5761 5mo ago
Very nice. Reminds me Emacs org-mode. Does it do literate programming?
tzahifadida 5mo ago
What about Microsoft OneNote... I did not get why we need yet another app... OneNote syncs to the cloud so I can keep my mobile and pc synced... and backed. I can paste multimedia stuff... My use case is keeping notes, screenshots sometimes, whatever in the same format sometimes... Wouldn't you feel limited by the markdown. What is the use case?
figassis 5mo ago
Thank you for this. Honestly, please earn something. You should at least make it optional to buy/donate. I wanted to, couldn't.
Igor_Wiwi 5mo ago
For pure viewing rather than another editor, I’ve made a https://mdview.io https://mdview.io - useful for opening Markdown files with clean rendering, tables, and Mermaid support and then share it with your colleges or save for later
conartist6 5mo ago
It seemed like a nice thing at first glance, but I was quite put off to see "AI-first but not AI-only". Why would I want to join a club where I, as a human, would be a second-class citizen?
- xandrius 5mo ago
  Because ideally you would interface with all the stuff in your KB via an LLM (ideally local). The files are artifacts about knowledge and you can have super powers via an LLM. That's why, else you just use a note-taking app.
spockz 5mo ago
This sounds a lot like logseq that I encountered yesterday but I haven’t had a time to use them both: https://logseq.com/ https://logseq.com/
vldszn 5mo ago
looks very good! love this
niek_pas 5mo ago
A lot of people are posting their similar projects in this thread. Is there anyone making a markdown knowledge management app that feels truly Mac-native, i.e. written in AppKit or SwiftUI rather than as a web page with an Electron/Tauri/whatever wrapper? (No offense intended to OP, this looks like a cool project; I'm just looking for something else.)
- nicoritschel 5mo ago
  Yes, check out mdnb.app
  - niek_pas 5mo ago
    I will, thanks!
- microflash 5mo ago
  I’ve used FS Notes [1] in the past. [1]: https://fsnot.es https://fsnot.es
microflash 5mo ago
In a similar vein, we also have Scratch [1] [1]: https://github.com/erictli/scratch https://github.com/erictli/scratch
RivoLink 5mo ago
Also a Markdown previewer, but in the terminal. https://github.com/RivoLink/leaf https://github.com/RivoLink/leaf
foundart 5mo ago
Great docs in the source repo. https://github.com/refactoringhq/tolaria/tree/main/docs https://github.com/refactoringhq/tolaria/tree/main/docs
ianberdin 5mo ago
Can anyone explain how is it different to VSCode. I just don’t get it. I open VSCode, I have files tree, mardown preview and Claude code to edit. I tried obsidian, Notion. Still don’t get it.
duncangh 5mo ago
I have a question about markdown on MacBook Pro. You know the preview feature - I think it’s called quick quicklook - how can I get that to work for markdown? I’ve associated .md files to always open with my IDE, but they still don’t render with the preview which is a mild annoyance. In my IDE i do use an extension to render the Md so that could be why and I could understand why recursive invocation may not be exposed at or available to the preview extension level. But any suggestions?
- pegasus 5mo ago
  Look for a quicklook markdown plugin. Google found this: https://github.com/sbarex/QLMarkdown https://github.com/sbarex/QLMarkdown
- aagd 5mo ago
  I use https://github.com/sbarex/QLMarkdown https://github.com/sbarex/QLMarkdown and find it useful.
- RivoLink 5mo ago
  use leaf, quick install and standalone binary : https://github.com/RivoLink/leaf https://github.com/RivoLink/leaf
- FailMore 5mo ago
  I built https://sdocs.dev https://sdocs.dev which solves this pain point. You can “sdoc file.md” to instantly open it. It was discussed on Hacker News here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777633 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777633
vulture916 5mo ago
Looks fantastic, but I've run into three bugs in about 5 minutes, including a blank, frozen app.
KBh 5mo ago
I love this. Markdown first just makes more sense for knowledge bases. Love the clean ui. I came to same conclusion and built https://github.com/LostWarrior/knowledge-base https://github.com/LostWarrior/knowledge-base (cli).
Drakexor 5mo ago
Are you a Magic: the Gathering fan? https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Tolaria https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Tolaria (Might want to check that hasbro hasn't copyrighted that)
repoinsider 5mo ago
Interesting to see this gaining traction so fast. The git-first approach for AI context is a smart differentiator from Obsidian, it lets you see exactly what the AI changed vs what you wrote.
FailMore 5mo ago
This is a beautiful project. Well done. This problem has risen to the top of many people’s minds at this moment (including mine!). My Show HN for a similar cli + web based solution (https://sdocs.dev https://sdocs.dev) was on the /show page a few days ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777633 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777633). SDocs is cli -> instantly rendered on web Despite being in the browser, the content of SDocs rendered Markdown files remain local to you. SDoc urls contain your markdown document's content in compressed base64 in the url fragment (the bit after the `#`): https://sdocs.dev/#md=GzcFAMT...(this is the contents of your document)... The url fragment is never sent to the server (see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/URI/Reference/F https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/URI/Reference/F...: "The fragment is not sent to the server when the URI is requested; it is processed by the client"). The sdocs.dev webapp is purely a client side decoding and rendering engine for the content stored in the url fragment. This also means you can share your .md files privately by sharing the url.
speakspokespok 5mo ago
FYI your website mentions Mac and Linux compatibility but the website only shows a download link for Mac. I found the linux options on your gh account and will try it out.
bitvvip 5mo ago
[dead]
crakhamster01 5mo ago
The app looks very slick! Just read through the docs and a couple of the Looms. This might be a dumb question, but what are people using these MD knowledge bases for? What has this unlocked for you, that you weren't doing before? I kind of understand the wiki use case in large code bases, with lots of changes happening, but on a personal level it's not as clear to me. Is it just another place to store ideas? Is the hope that AI resurfaces or connects relevant bits later? This seems like a way to optimize your personal life, but I'm not sure what the end goal is.
rcdwealth 5mo ago
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fermatf 5mo ago
Beautiful project! I am using Obsidian for some time but not very happy with it lately. I am still looking for a way how to integrate AI to help me with my knowledge base. Your project could be a fit. Will save it and watch how it evolves.
patrickhener 5mo ago
I really love this tool. This looks helpful for my CTF notes. I will definitely try it out. Thanks for showing.

318 points by lucaronin 5mo ago

contingencies 5mo ago

has strong opinions about how you should organize notes Err, no. I'll stick to git and subdirectories, thanks.

subdomain 5mo ago

I run a newsletter too, so this is cool to see! Not sure if I need it yet (my "knowledge base" is still pretty small), but I'll definitely keep it in mind for the future.

jryio 5mo ago

Just another disposable piece of software maintained by a single person that does 80% of what other apps do but worse. Max lifespan 2 years

SpyCoder77 5mo ago
Some people...
qsort 5mo ago
But if they ever choose to decommission it, they have the chance to do the funniest thing: https://scryfall.com/card/plst/INV-156/obliterate https://scryfall.com/card/plst/INV-156/obliterate
rglover 5mo ago
Please cut this out. You really don't want to live in a world where individuals are discouraged from trying to build things that are good. If you want something to stick around: you have to use and pay for it.
GreenTimeTrkr 5mo ago
[dead]
lbreakjai 5mo ago
You're right. We should absolutely only rely on "Ask sales for price" closed-source software from megacorps, that get worse on every release, and get sunset anyway when the funding runs out.
morelikeborelax 5mo ago
I hAvE a FeW qUaLmS wItH tHiS aPp https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
BirAdam 5mo ago
You do realize that would have once described GCC and Linux, right?
- tredre3 5mo ago
  Of Linux, yes. Of GCC, no. From the very beginning there was multiple authors and the project was a mishmash of several other projects.
ikdiendoehdj 5mo ago
Of all the things to judge this on, you chose the most ridiculous one. Why shouldn’t a project like this exist just because there are “bigger” alternatives out there? If youre gonna shut this one down, at the very least do it for the right reasons such as the fact that this is a webwrapper—absolutely disgusting, either go native or don’t bother shoving your webpage into a browser-container and calling it what it is not (an app).
johntopia 5mo ago
unacceptable comment. hacker news is misunderstood as a toxic community because of fellas like you. have some dignity.

antonkochubey 5mo ago

Doesn’t Obsidian already do pretty much the same?

kid64 5mo ago
Yes, but the claim is presumably that this one is good.
hoppyhoppy2 5mo ago
>open-source
- jimmcslim 5mo ago
  And I was going to say Mac native as well, but uses Tauri. I’d love some app with the polish of Bear Notes but that just edited raw Markdown files. Ideally Obsidian with the Notebook Navigator plugin (strongly inspired by Bear Notes perhaps?) and (checks list) this very specific list of plugins that I need and should be good for everyone else thanks.
  - astrocat 5mo ago
    > I’d love some app with the polish of Bear Notes but that just edited raw Markdown files. Typora? (https://typora.io/ https://typora.io/)
  - Barbing 5mo ago
    > I’d love some app with the polish of Bear Notes but that just edited raw Markdown files. HelixNotes? ( https://codeberg.org/ArkHost/HelixNotes https://codeberg.org/ArkHost/HelixNotes )
    - a96 5mo ago
      I had my hopes up, but looks like it has nothing to do with actual Helix.
  - nicoritschel 5mo ago

r0bbie 5mo ago

Super nice! I've ended up settling on Logseq for note-taking for a while now, but never loved the UI. This is clean and love the git-backed approach. Would love to see a dark mode too!

Pym 5mo ago

Wow thanks! Better than the one I was planning to build for myself. Love the UI. Love the fact that the app was made with Tauri. Nice work, will share!

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

redaantar 5mo ago

That’s awesome! I’m a huge fan of projects like that. I recently launched ckourse.com (open-source) to help manage downloaded courses. Combining tolaria and Ckourse will give a smooth learning experience. Thanks for the tool.

QuantumNomad_ 5mo ago
On a tangential note, do you have any recommendations for course platforms that offer paid courses with videos being 100% without DRM? I was severely disappointed late last year when I revisited one platform where I had previously dropped quite a bit of money in the past to buy access to many courses and I now wanted to finally download them for offline watching only to find that in each and every course I had bought access to on the platform it is only the first couple of videos that are without DRM and then all of the remaining videos in each of the courses use Widevine DRM. I even investigated a bit whether Widewine DRM is possible to decrypt but it seems to be very difficult, requiring knowledge and access to things that I doubt I would be able to figure out. I would rather in the future spend money on courses that are not DRM protected in the first place, than to give any more money to any learning platforms where they use DRM on the videos. Topics of interest include: - Advanced software development - Distributed systems - PostgreSQL database internals - ZFS file system internals - Debugging - Reverse engineering - 3d modelling in Blender and rendering - Vulkan graphics programming - Game development with Godot - Piano playing techniques - Electronic music production with Ableton Live - Mixing and mastering tracks with Ableton Live + any third party VSTs necessary - Drawing and painting digitally - DJing, turntablism and scratching on digital DJ controllers
- redaantar 5mo ago
  Sadly, most of the big names (Udemy, Coursera, ...) are using encrypted streaming with DRM, but there are Khan Academy, Harvard, MIT,... courses that you can download and use locally. But most people are downloading the courses from torrents illegally (I don't advise doing this).

bovermyer 5mo ago

I'm glad you've built something that works for you! Keep at it. Experiment, don't just leave it the same way it is now.

lucaronin 5mo ago
you bet it!

kskzjsjdjw 5mo ago

A freaking web app? Boo. Boooooooooo. Thanks but no thanks.

droidjj 5mo ago
At least it's Tauri!
- ikdiendoehdj 5mo ago
  Personally, I don’t really care which flavour of webwrapper this is. If it ain’t native, I ain’t bothering. Web pages belong in the browser, not in a browser-container pretending to be something it is not—an actual app.
  - redaantar 5mo ago
    Why it matters since it does the job !
nicoritschel 5mo ago
Check out mdnb.app if you want similar but truly native for macOS

SpyCoder77 5mo ago

As I was scrolling down the page I was like "what if I wanted to use a notion-style editor instead of markdown" and my requests were instantly met

stock_toaster 5mo ago

I've been using octarine[1] recently (after having used obsidian for quite a while), but I'm definitely going to try this out. [1]: https://octarine.app https://octarine.app

amd92 5mo ago

[dead]

aldielshala 5mo ago

Curious how it handles 10K+ notes performance-wise, does it index everything or lazy-load?

smadam9 5mo ago

You beat me to it by a day! But well done Luca. The tool looks excellent and I'm trying it out now. I'm building Sig <https://github.com/adamjramirez/sig-releases https://github.com/adamjramirez/sig-releases> and the architecture overlap is obvious: macOS, plain markdown, git-versioned, designed as context for AI agents. The difference is where in the workflow we start. Tolaria seems to excel at organizing knowledge that already exists. Sig is trying to solve what happens before that - how to get the knowledge out of your head and into files in the first place. Most of what actually determines the quality of your AI output was never written down: the decision made in the last five minutes of a meeting, the verbal commitment with no follow-up, your actual read on what a conversation meant (not the surface version). Sig's capture is two layers: 1) factual record first, 2) your personal interpretation on top. Both stored as markdown on your machine. When you're ready to share to a team knowledge base/open brain, it's an explicit decision to do so and opt-in — private by default, team-readable only when you choose.

deleted 5mo ago
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ericol 5mo ago
if "git versioned" means the .md files themselves, I'm sold. I am actually processing files using a git based workflow in order to tell claude what to look at. I'll definitely give this a spin.
- smadam9 5mo ago
  Yes, the .md's are in their own repo, locally. The entire UI is a layer on top of that repo. The UI has some underlying mechanisms that abstract the git operations away from the user, but that doesn't stop a power user from jumping in the shell and accessing the repo directly. The "magic" starts when Sig contributes to another, remote repo - a central knowledge base that all teammates' local Sig can pull from, and contribute toward.
ItsClo688 5mo ago
[flagged]

npv789 5mo ago

notion killer

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

moralestapia 5mo ago

Hey Luca this is great, trying it now. The UI is gorgeous, congratulations!

lucaronin 5mo ago
thank you so much!

nullsanity 5mo ago

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EverMemory 5mo ago

[dead]

dhruv3006 5mo ago

I love how you have used markdown here ! We kind of have used the exact philosophy in https://voiden.md/ https://voiden.md/ - offline-first, file based and support for git. This is exactly the format agents will use pretty well. We have done this for APIs. We are open source too. Take a look here : https://github.com/VoidenHQ/voiden https://github.com/VoidenHQ/voiden

ItsClo688 5mo ago

not gonna lie - wow the 10k notes over 6 years thing is what got me! most knowledge base tools fall apart at that scale because the organizing system becomes the job. wondering do you ever just let something be unstructured, or does everything have to be tagged in?

gnabgib 5mo ago
I thought the thing that got you was "tolaria feels like a library"? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47884835 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47884835
- ItsClo688 5mo ago
  fair, i do sound like one sometimes. new here, still finding my voice, guess i haven't earned the benefit of the doubt yet from the og crowd like you

msephton 5mo ago

I would be all over this if it was a native macOS app

deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
ikdiendoehdj 5mo ago
Precisely. It would be awesome if it were an ACTUAL application. I don’t care if it’s Tauri, Electron or whatever’s the new flavour of the same old lazy ass webwrapper technology. A web app is not an actual application. Besides, I already have a browser, I don’t need another one just to open a single page so it can pretend to be an app while adhering to absolutely ZERO platform behaviour patterns. Either go it native, or don’t even bother. If it can be run in a webwrapper, it can be run my ACTUAL a browser. FUCK WEB APPS.
lucaronin 5mo ago
I started Tolaria in Swift but met very real limitations especially in the Markdown editor part. It's very hard to build something that is Notion like in that department with Swift. But give it a try because Tauri is very fast
- msephton 5mo ago
  I just built a markdown-style editor for iOS that is highly performant with files of 5000 lines. Every keystroke is restyled in under 8ms: no debouncing, no delayed rendering. 20 rapid keystrokes are processed in 150ms with full restyling after each one. Tag and boolean searches complete in under 20ms. Visible-range rendering is 25x faster than full-document styling. 120Hz screen refresh supported. App file size is 722 KB. If I can do it on iOS then it's must be 10x easier on macOS. https://www.gingerbeardman.com/apps/papertrail/ https://www.gingerbeardman.com/apps/papertrail/
- sdevonoes 5mo ago
  At least for me it’s not about speed, but the npm ecosystem: I try to avoid running npm deps in my home computer (if any, I run them in VMs, but a KB should run in the host I believe)

dewey 5mo ago

I often fall back to Apple Notes (I know not really a knowledge base, or markdown) because it syncs between my devices and it's usable on the phone. Is this something you have a need for yourself, or how are you looking at your notes on mobile?

_false 5mo ago
I solve it by using Apple Notes for quick capture and then copy pasting from my mac to obsidian daily/specific notes, that I want to keep. I also just keep long running notes for tracking things workouts and meals with headers for dates. Works better than things like obsidian mobile and copy pasting is a natural filter.
- Barbing 5mo ago
  Good tips! >I also just keep long running notes for tracking things workouts and meals with headers for dates. This I'd say fine on the phone but frustrating heading to the Mac and start wishing for at least a spreadsheet.
  - _false 5mo ago
    > start wishing for at least a spreadsheet What exactly makes you wish that? I used to use google sheets for workouts but realised: 1. plain text notes are more ergonomic on the phone 2. dumping them into Claude produces more useful analysis than I could hope to extract for the same amount of effort.
- alwillis 5mo ago
  Apple Notes can export to markdown now.

ajbd 5mo ago

The “types as lenses, not schemas” principle and the focus on structure + relationships really stand out. How do systems like this handle temporal stuff over time? (things that change over time, decisions that get revisited, outcomes that didn’t exist when the note was created?) Do those live as relationships between notes, or is there a different pattern for it?

wkcheng 5mo ago

Nice work! This looks really cool. I downloaded and am trying it out, but I'm running into a pretty annoying sorting bug that's preventing me from using it for real. I copied over files from my Obsidian vault (preserving file times), and the first time it loaded, everything seemed to work fine. After doing the first git commit, however, Tolaria cannot seem to sort properly by last modified anymore (I'm getting notes from 2023 or 2025 up at the top). The file system tree still has the correct modified and created times.

lucaronin 5mo ago
that's weird will look into it! thanks for reporting
- wkcheng 5mo ago
  This was my workflow (this is repro-able 100%): 1. Take an obsidian vault (just a few folders and subfolders of markdown files) 2. Copy the entire folder (keep all of the dates with cp -a) to a new folder 3. Install Tolaria, point it to the new folder you created. 4. Open it up. This creates a git repository. 5. Click on the bottom UI to "Restore Tolaria AI Guidance." After this point, the sorting doesn't work and will continue failing. Everything says that it was created or modified recently. Edit: I think I found the cause. When you initialize a git repository, the file modified times stay the same, but sorting by modified appears to sort by the commit date, which is now all the same for every file (since it was committed in one go)

CTSuwan 5mo ago

[dead]

johntopia 5mo ago

great job luca! looking forward to reviewing this :) i'm a heavy obsidian user but i really like your "inbox" concept.

hk1337 5mo ago

First thing curious about is opening this up on a docs/ folder in one of my projects and see how it is with that.

Manik_agg 5mo ago

Hey luca, heavy obsidian user here and went through your website and github. Def will try it out. Connecting codex with Tolaria to manage your knowledgebase is something i'm looking forward to try.

dhr_uvi 5mo ago

Really interesting project. I like that this seems focused on organizing relationships between ideas instead of just being another notes editor. A lot of tools handle documents well, but fewer help build an actual knowledge system.

enola-mag 5mo ago

I tried this on my Mac. Excellent concept, and the 10k notes is promising. Is there anything similar to this for Windows?

lucaronin 5mo ago
releasing it over the next couple of days

julia-kafarska 5mo ago

I've been wanting something like that for a while. Love it, thanks.

sixhobbits 5mo ago

I tried it and it looks really nice but like most of these it has too many small editing thorns for me to use. Two I noticed right away - ctrl-a works to go to start of line but for some reason ctrl-e doesn't work to go to end - ``` doesn't start a code block, you have to use 'insert code block' Good job on paste image from clipboard though which is another feature that I think is completely essential for something like this and weirdly missing in many of them.

lucaronin 5mo ago
``` should definitely start a code block! I do it all the time, and also just tried it now. Can you try again or tell me what you see? Simply nothing happening?
- sixhobbits 5mo ago
  ah I see it needs a space. I tried ```[ENTER] and ```python[ENTER] and I also assumed there was no code highlighting but I see after I add a code block I can select the language through the UI ```[SPACE] works, but immediately places the cursor below the block where I'm more used to the cursor moving into the block after creation

valentinkov 5mo ago

Great app! One thing I'd love to see is a mobile version — I find myself searching my notes on my phone more often than on desktop.

valentinkov 5mo ago
I could help you build IOS potentially.

AnthonyR 5mo ago

Super impressive for a solo project! How does this compare to capacities.io ?

YousefED 5mo ago

Exciting stuff Luca. Cool to see you're using BlockNote as the editor (project I'm working on). Let us know if you have any feedback for us / features you'd love to see!

jimmypk 5mo ago

[flagged]

lucaronin 5mo ago
I actually largely solved this with OpenClaw — i send stuff via telegram and it creates good notes in Tolaria, already linked to what exists and what's relevant I send web links of tools that I want to store of resources, voice notes to be turned into written notes, etc but I will still build a mobile version for sure!
eddyg 5mo ago
Bebop⁽¹⁾ is my preferred method. I can open it directly and capture an idea or note with one tap, or use its share sheet to capture links. It can be configured to append to an Obsidian “Daily Note” in an iCloud vault, which works great. No third-party services FTW. ⁽¹⁾ https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bebop-quick-notes/id6477824795 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bebop-quick-notes/id6477824795
momentmaker 5mo ago
I built something recently for myself which is based on the any device philosophy using a Telegram bot approach and like the creator of this app uses a private Github repo as the source of truth. I use it for just collecting anything I find interesting around the web. https://github.com/momentmaker/to https://github.com/momentmaker/to

NamlchakKhandro 5mo ago

obsidian already exists. and works on linux.

datagreed 5mo ago

Why not obsidian?

sdevonoes 5mo ago
One thing about obsidian is that it’s not open source. So if one day they change something and you don’t like it, you will be forced to use a different KB. That means to change your flows, the ux, etc. That’s a big downside from my pov (it’s good that obsidian allows you to take your files with you, but for me that’s not enough)

zby 5mo ago

Everybody is building their own llm-wiki systems these days. I have my own and compiled a big list of other agent memory systems in it: https://zby.github.io/commonplace/agent-memory-systems/ https://zby.github.io/commonplace/agent-memory-systems/ I'll add yours promptly. And just today I also vibed a wish list (based on all the material I gathered) for such systems: https://zby.github.io/commonplace/notes/designing-agent-memory-systems/ https://zby.github.io/commonplace/notes/designing-agent-memo... I wish we could collaborate.

a96 5mo ago
I wish I'd found some for neovim on that list.
theIntangible 5mo ago
Here's another one for your list https://github.com/Signet-AI/signetai https://github.com/Signet-AI/signetai I am not affiliated, just testing it out.
- zby 5mo ago
  Added: https://zby.github.io/commonplace/agent-memory-systems/reviews/signetai/ https://zby.github.io/commonplace/agent-memory-systems/revie... By the way - here is the prompt for these reviews: https://github.com/zby/commonplace/blob/main/kb/agent-memory-systems/types/agent-memory-system-review.md https://github.com/zby/commonplace/blob/main/kb/agent-memory...
evertvdbruel 5mo ago
Hey zby, if you're collecting these, Hjarni (hjarni.com) would fit your source-only tier alongside Fintool and Supermemory. Hosted SaaS with MCP built in, hierarchical LLM instructions (global/team/container/note), and a shared-note protocol for Claude/ChatGPT multi-agent workflows. Happy to write up a page in whatever shape you want. The wishlist doc you linked is good, would be up for collaborating on that.
- zby 5mo ago

james-bcn 5mo ago

I love this! It is like you have taken all the things I want from Obsidian (plus plug-ins) and made them into a single, well designed app. Great! Feedback: * This is so good you should find a way to keep it open source but also profit from it so you can develop it full-time. You could just have an official app version - I would pay for that. * Feature creep. I am a big fan of Bear App for it's wonderful simple design, although I stopped using it because it doesn't work on markdown files directly. What I've seen is that equivalent apps/services (including Obsidian, Notion, Craft) are continuously adding new features. You've already got all the core features I think - try to avoid feature creep, and keep it focused on just doing the core things really well, like Bear App does.

lucaronin 5mo ago
big fan of Bear! It was a big influence for Tolaria — that's why you like it! thank you for the great feedback mate
- jwr 5mo ago
  Why did you build something different? What was the motivation compared to Bear? I'm a heavy Bear user, recently migrating most stuff to Drafts. My problems with Bear is that it's getting slow and I don't have easy direct access to my text data. But it does have apps for all devices and drag&drop images are really useful for lab/electronics work…
  - james-bcn 5mo ago
    For me the main issue with Bear is that it does not work with a directory of Markdown files, but locks them away in a database. If you worked directly on markdown files it would be nearly perfect. They did make a standalone markdown editor called Panda, but didn't pursue it for some reason.
- ianberdin 5mo ago
  Yeah, so sad it is dead. I mean it works, but no more high progress. So it is a legacy. But it worked so fast and smooth :( At the same time Craft is too focused to replace Google Docs with swipes. Feels weird. So have to use Notion from phone and VSCode with Claude code on computer. I miss normal implementation of Claude code on my phone :( I really wish to have always computer and access to it maybe. Official Claude code iOS app works weird.

kenforthewin 5mo ago

Nice work, couple bits of feedback * The editor doesn't seem to support code fence literals (as in I can't type ``` to get a code block) * At very large markdown file sizes the performance is not great. I'm building an obsidian-style markdown editor (for my own AI knowledge base product!) over at https://github.com/kenforthewin/atomic-editor https://github.com/kenforthewin/atomic-editor

brasetvik 5mo ago
Atomic looks quite interesting, and the "wiki synthesis" is particularly interesting: I've been working on a suite of skills and a tiny MCP (also SQLite + SQLite-vec based) where the focus is on making it easy to produce "atoms" from quick brain dumps. The chunking problem is "bypassed" by declaring each section a chunk, and having the LLMs rewrite drafts to sections that chunk well. That means lots of redundancy, and no "As explained above". The intended reader isn't a human, but rather agents that generate human-friendlier prose, for different target audiences. By assuming the reader is an "expert", the idea is that it's much cheaper to mass-produce reviewed "atoms". Itching to try that workflow with Atomic or Tolaria.

phyzix5761 5mo ago

Very nice. Reminds me Emacs org-mode. Does it do literate programming?

tzahifadida 5mo ago

What about Microsoft OneNote... I did not get why we need yet another app... OneNote syncs to the cloud so I can keep my mobile and pc synced... and backed. I can paste multimedia stuff... My use case is keeping notes, screenshots sometimes, whatever in the same format sometimes... Wouldn't you feel limited by the markdown. What is the use case?

figassis 5mo ago

Thank you for this. Honestly, please earn something. You should at least make it optional to buy/donate. I wanted to, couldn't.

Igor_Wiwi 5mo ago

For pure viewing rather than another editor, I’ve made a https://mdview.io https://mdview.io - useful for opening Markdown files with clean rendering, tables, and Mermaid support and then share it with your colleges or save for later

conartist6 5mo ago

It seemed like a nice thing at first glance, but I was quite put off to see "AI-first but not AI-only". Why would I want to join a club where I, as a human, would be a second-class citizen?

xandrius 5mo ago
Because ideally you would interface with all the stuff in your KB via an LLM (ideally local). The files are artifacts about knowledge and you can have super powers via an LLM. That's why, else you just use a note-taking app.

spockz 5mo ago

This sounds a lot like logseq that I encountered yesterday but I haven’t had a time to use them both: https://logseq.com/ https://logseq.com/

vldszn 5mo ago

looks very good! love this

niek_pas 5mo ago

A lot of people are posting their similar projects in this thread. Is there anyone making a markdown knowledge management app that feels truly Mac-native, i.e. written in AppKit or SwiftUI rather than as a web page with an Electron/Tauri/whatever wrapper? (No offense intended to OP, this looks like a cool project; I'm just looking for something else.)

nicoritschel 5mo ago
Yes, check out mdnb.app
- niek_pas 5mo ago
  I will, thanks!
microflash 5mo ago
I’ve used FS Notes [1] in the past. [1]: https://fsnot.es https://fsnot.es

microflash 5mo ago

In a similar vein, we also have Scratch [1] [1]: https://github.com/erictli/scratch https://github.com/erictli/scratch

RivoLink 5mo ago

Also a Markdown previewer, but in the terminal. https://github.com/RivoLink/leaf https://github.com/RivoLink/leaf

foundart 5mo ago

Great docs in the source repo. https://github.com/refactoringhq/tolaria/tree/main/docs https://github.com/refactoringhq/tolaria/tree/main/docs

ianberdin 5mo ago

Can anyone explain how is it different to VSCode. I just don’t get it. I open VSCode, I have files tree, mardown preview and Claude code to edit. I tried obsidian, Notion. Still don’t get it.

duncangh 5mo ago

I have a question about markdown on MacBook Pro. You know the preview feature - I think it’s called quick quicklook - how can I get that to work for markdown? I’ve associated .md files to always open with my IDE, but they still don’t render with the preview which is a mild annoyance. In my IDE i do use an extension to render the Md so that could be why and I could understand why recursive invocation may not be exposed at or available to the preview extension level. But any suggestions?

pegasus 5mo ago
Look for a quicklook markdown plugin. Google found this: https://github.com/sbarex/QLMarkdown https://github.com/sbarex/QLMarkdown
aagd 5mo ago
I use https://github.com/sbarex/QLMarkdown https://github.com/sbarex/QLMarkdown and find it useful.
RivoLink 5mo ago
use leaf, quick install and standalone binary : https://github.com/RivoLink/leaf https://github.com/RivoLink/leaf
FailMore 5mo ago
I built https://sdocs.dev https://sdocs.dev which solves this pain point. You can “sdoc file.md” to instantly open it. It was discussed on Hacker News here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777633 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777633

vulture916 5mo ago

Looks fantastic, but I've run into three bugs in about 5 minutes, including a blank, frozen app.

KBh 5mo ago

I love this. Markdown first just makes more sense for knowledge bases. Love the clean ui. I came to same conclusion and built https://github.com/LostWarrior/knowledge-base https://github.com/LostWarrior/knowledge-base (cli).

Drakexor 5mo ago

Are you a Magic: the Gathering fan? https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Tolaria https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Tolaria (Might want to check that hasbro hasn't copyrighted that)

repoinsider 5mo ago

Interesting to see this gaining traction so fast. The git-first approach for AI context is a smart differentiator from Obsidian, it lets you see exactly what the AI changed vs what you wrote.

FailMore 5mo ago

This is a beautiful project. Well done. This problem has risen to the top of many people’s minds at this moment (including mine!). My Show HN for a similar cli + web based solution (https://sdocs.dev https://sdocs.dev) was on the /show page a few days ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777633 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777633). SDocs is cli -> instantly rendered on web Despite being in the browser, the content of SDocs rendered Markdown files remain local to you. SDoc urls contain your markdown document's content in compressed base64 in the url fragment (the bit after the `#`): https://sdocs.dev/#md=GzcFAMT...(this is the contents of your document)... The url fragment is never sent to the server (see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/URI/Reference/F https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/URI/Reference/F...: "The fragment is not sent to the server when the URI is requested; it is processed by the client"). The sdocs.dev webapp is purely a client side decoding and rendering engine for the content stored in the url fragment. This also means you can share your .md files privately by sharing the url.

speakspokespok 5mo ago

FYI your website mentions Mac and Linux compatibility but the website only shows a download link for Mac. I found the linux options on your gh account and will try it out.

bitvvip 5mo ago

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crakhamster01 5mo ago

The app looks very slick! Just read through the docs and a couple of the Looms. This might be a dumb question, but what are people using these MD knowledge bases for? What has this unlocked for you, that you weren't doing before? I kind of understand the wiki use case in large code bases, with lots of changes happening, but on a personal level it's not as clear to me. Is it just another place to store ideas? Is the hope that AI resurfaces or connects relevant bits later? This seems like a way to optimize your personal life, but I'm not sure what the end goal is.

rcdwealth 5mo ago

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fermatf 5mo ago

Beautiful project! I am using Obsidian for some time but not very happy with it lately. I am still looking for a way how to integrate AI to help me with my knowledge base. Your project could be a fit. Will save it and watch how it evolves.

patrickhener 5mo ago

I really love this tool. This looks helpful for my CTF notes. I will definitely try it out. Thanks for showing.