6 ms·
Hubble: Open-source notetaking app for you and your agents
- crimsoneer 3mo agoSorry, but wtf is this and why is it on the front-page?? "Agent ready"? Eg, it uses markdown like... everything else? There is literally no information here.
- eluru 3mo agobut how is it different from my notion?
- jitl 3mo agolocal files on disk. we should make notion Just Work with real markdown files on disk like this too.
- flippyhead 3mo agoI feel like there's not enough content on the landing page to help me understand why I need yet another notetaking app. The burden of proof is high given how many of these there are.
- braiamp 3mo agoAt least it is self describing, unlike some other projects that are like "An alternative to faomz with deliric integration"
- thewhitetulip 3mo agoAlso why is it a nodejs app? With the explosion of LLM and the insane increase in productivity shouldn't it be a Rust app?
- filcuk 3mo agoBetween being criticised for too much LLLM and not enough, the developers can't win can they?
- thewhitetulip 3mo agoWell they can win! Since everyone is so pro LLM don't write apps in Nodejs LOL Pre LLM nodejs was convenient option to deploy to all platforms at once. Post LLM that's no longer a limitation! Just prompt more to create apps in native language! Anyways RAM is getting costlier by the day due to LLMs themselves That is unless devs don't use LLMs at all. Then they should simply state in the GitHub repo that we don't use AI! I wouldn't use AI for hobby projects tbh. It's my personal preference
- dewey 3mo ago> Just prompt more to create apps in native language! If you have ever done that you know that that's as true as "write once, run everywhere". There will always be tweaks and iterations, even if it saves you a lot of time.
- thewhitetulip 3mo agoI was being sarcastic but okay. Because every other day we hear how excellent LLM is that we don't need to write code anymore
- dewey 3mo agoSorry, misunderstood that.
- mianos 3mo agoThere is still a place for 'but rust’, in between too much and too little LLM usage.
- hendrikmans 3mo agoWhat would make Rust better for this type of app compared to Node?
- thewhitetulip 3mo agoPray tell me why a desktop app is running on a browser in the age of LLMs? Electron was written to make dev times faster But since LLMs are basically super engineers can't the app be written in native language rather than running on v8? Maybe not rust. But then zed people did develop a cross platform library for apps didn't they?!
- mhluongo 3mo agoTauri is a good balance. Rust "backend" plus a native web view, so less JS and a lighter binary.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- iLoveOncall 3mo ago[flagged]
- thewhitetulip 3mo agoI didn't know you can't post emojis! I also exploded laughing reading your comment I expect people to not understand sarcasm on Reddit. I suppose I shouldn't expect it on HN as well
- iLoveOncall 3mo agoThe thing is that maybe your comment is sarcasm, but half of HN commenters would make the same comment 100% seriously.
- thewhitetulip 3mo agoOh wait. Is it? I am just tired of JavaScript being used for desktop apps! Can't someone create a framework using LLM that doesn't use JS? But the zed team did create a cross platform library did not they?
- throwthrowuknow 3mo agoWhy even limit the app to Rust? Cross compilation is for humans. Just have the LLM make multiple versions of the codebase using whatever language and SDK is best integrated into each OS.
- thewhitetulip 3mo agoAbsolutely! LLM is basically magic at this point (or so we hear)
- danielmeskin 3mo agoWhy limit to language and SDK? Have the LLM write machine code.
- thewhitetulip 3mo agoAbsolutely. LLMs are Magic! Go ahead
- throwthrowuknow 3mo agoCorrect
- zaphirplane 3mo agoIt can be the language they prefer. Why would someone spend money to create software in some language for the sake of having an LLM generate it
- thewhitetulip 3mo agoThe counter argument is that since LLM resembles magic why use inefficient nodejs that is basically an app running inside chrone Why not use native binaries? Is efficiency not important in 2026?
- zaphirplane 3mo agorepeating the statement doesn’t make a counter point
- thewhitetulip 3mo agoIt does when your comment didn't address a single point of the original comment!
- mianos 3mo agoWith the explosion in token usage, why not write it in z80 assembly and run it in a z80 emulator written in webasm?
- thewhitetulip 3mo agoWhy not?
- bholmesdev 3mo agoGood feedback, I'd like to add more sections to the homepage to describe the components / motivations more clearly. The scope has increased to more agent collaboration features this past month too. Here's the reasons I shared elsewhere here: - I wanted something closer to Apple Notes or Notion for simpler editing. Hyperlinks are popups instead of in-line strings. Formatting is WYSIWYG, without *_ characters in-line. There's a / menu to discover formatting options. etc. - I wanted an app that could display HTML pages alongside Markdown. And more interestingly, I wanted to give those HTML pages access to Markdown files in the folder, using Markdown as a mini-database to build apps on top of. This is likely possible with Obsidian plugins (everything is) but I wanted something first-class. The hubble.md homepage tries to communicate this, but I could likely do a better job :) - More recently, I've wanted markdown -> agent handoff to be better. We've added an embedded terminal to chat with agents alongside notes directly, and we've just added a first-party commenting system similar to commenting in a Google doc (agent accessible with in-file metadata). All of these features have been community-led. I'm very grateful for our repeat contributors.
- firasd 3mo agoLooks interesting. The dual interface from the start (React UI for humans and just editing .md for the agents with skills) is an interesting idea and probably how a lot of new software projects will work going forward I feel like tables are generally underrated while the AI ecosystem is focused on .md files but I guess markdown has tables so they’re included to some extent
- ernsheong 3mo agoAll my agents need are plain .md files in my project directories.
- 0gs 3mo agoit's interesting -- i think most (non-technical) people don't really have a muscle memory go-to markdown editor. i certainly didn't. i hated obsidian at first! funny how learning to like markdown makes obsidian like 1000x better haha
- dewey 3mo agoThe value proposition of Markdown is that you don't need a special editor, you can open it with any text editor that comes with your OS and it's human readable already.
- bholmesdev 3mo agoThat's all Hubble is! You can treat it like a text editor for your existing .md files
- Brajeshwar 3mo agoWill check this out too. Now, I'm having fun with tldraw.[1] With their new tldraw offline, I can continue to work in Claude Code (and others) and I can either output or interact/input from tldraw. This is more of a free-form, infinite canvas. I treat it like Excalidraw + Draw.io + Freeform Notetaker. For text, most agents/LLM/assistants are pretty happy and smart using the same Markdown files to anywhere I have allowed them to interact. 1. https://www.tldraw.com/ https://www.tldraw.com/
- bholmesdev 3mo agoTIL agents can interact with tldraw documents. Thanks for sharing
- chaidhat 3mo agoso, Obsidian?
- swedishagentic 3mo agoThere's even a community plugin MCP that makes this easier. Afaik the hot reload is the only thing that "beats" this but I haven't had issues with Agents interacting with obsidian through the MCP - I'm not sure how much more useful it is to talk with an agent through a note taking app vs through its CLI.
- chaidhat 3mo agoObsidian does hot reloading too. Usually, I have vscode/Claude Cowork up on one side and on the other is Obsidian. I made a plugin[1] that converts emails to `.md` so they can also be in Obsidian folder -- so Claude can query those emails the same way it does my notes. Works beautifully. [1] https://github.com/chaidhat/inbox-to-md https://github.com/chaidhat/inbox-to-md
- egeozcan 3mo agoI also have one I developed according to my use: https://github.com/egeozcan/mahpastes https://github.com/egeozcan/mahpastes It has a rest api and a cli tool, and also the possibility to make headless deployments, and it can sync clips without a sync server. It can serve folders/tags and optionally expose a read or read/write api for JSON files on the same level. It supports lua plugins, and I have a fal.ai plugin to generate/edit images already in the repo (some other examples there). It has a lot of features so maybe it's better if I just link to the docs: https://egeozcan.github.io/mahpastes/ https://egeozcan.github.io/mahpastes/
- Sha1rholder 3mo agoANOTHER.md
- Ycros 3mo agomidwit meme, but both ends are just "a pile of .md files in a synced directory somewhere"
- Catloafdev 3mo agoHow is this different from Obsidian? Why would someone switch? The page is a bit lacking on detail.
- lhd1 3mo agocan we have a moratorium on notetaking apps?
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- jocelyner 3mo ago[flagged]
- shreddude 3mo agoI’ve been waiting for an app like this to be developed! .md files can be opened from Finder! The tree file view is just like I’m used to with Obsidian! Frontmatter support! There’s even an editor toolbar. Almost everything on my wishlist for a Markdown editor, except for Mermaid rendering. Since this project uses such good agentic engineering practices, I was able to use Claude Code to add support for Mermaid diagram rendering and produce my very own local build on Mac, all in about 30 minutes. Thank you! Hubble+cmux gets me close to the agentic IDE I’m working towards.
- darkwater 3mo agoYou seems pretty enthusiastic about this very new and not very well known software...
- mirekrusin 3mo agoIt's 680 commits old.
- darkwater 3mo agoWhich in this brave new agentic world could be what, 2 days? :)
- sixtyj 3mo agoBen Holmes is active at X, you can check him out @BHolmesDev, he works for Warp.dev, they do multi-harness IDE named Oz.
- e12e 3mo agoSeems odd that you wouldn't comment on the existing issue, or open a PR? https://github.com/bholmesdev/hubble.md/issues/176 https://github.com/bholmesdev/hubble.md/issues/176
- nerptastic 3mo agoIf you don't mind me asking, what are "good agentic engineering practices"? To my knowledge, we are still exploring many techniques of using agents within a codebase, and have not widely agreed on "best practice". Do you mean "good code" and "good documentation"?
- gverrilla 3mo agoI have always found markdown cumbersome. Will try this later. Seems like the main thing is having agent input right there, which is handy.
- madhu_ghalame 3mo ago[dead]
- FailMore 3mo agoI think that is a really nice implementation. A few questions: Can you easily share lists or pages or is it all local? (Is there a cloud element to it) What are the most useful examples you’ve personally found when it comes to using the HYML component? I built https://smalldocs.org https://smalldocs.org for my agent’s Markdown needs. I extended it so it can render complex formats: Mermaid diagrams, charts, in-document slides and even in-document spreadsheets. It gives your agent a good selection of formats to express itself as it helps you understand whatever topic you’re looking into. Here is a sample document: https://smalldocs.org/blogs/what-is-a-smalldoc https://smalldocs.org/blogs/what-is-a-smalldoc I publish anonymous analytics here: https://smalldocs.org/analytics https://smalldocs.org/analytics
- yencabulator 3mo agoPlease stop spamming your project. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48838274 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48838274
- xn--yt9h 3mo agoGenuinely curious, maybe I'm missing something. What makes this more "agent-ready" than Obsidian .md files on disk or even something like .org files? I can let my agent edit those files all the same + there's better integrations and knowledge readily available on these. I can tell my agent to edit the Obsidian Markdown just like that, but I can also tell it to create a full-on notebook with backlinks and DataView queries. I can tell my agent to create logically complex .org notes with code blocks and references. To me, Hubble just seems like a Markdown editor, based on the premise that agents are able to edit local files.
- chaidhat 3mo agoUsually, I have vscode/Claude Cowork up on one side and on the other is Obsidian. I made a plugin[1] that converts emails to `.md` so they can also be in Obsidian folder -- so Claude can query those emails the same way it does my notes. Works beautifully. [1] https://github.com/chaidhat/inbox-to-md https://github.com/chaidhat/inbox-to-md
- bholmesdev 3mo agoFair comment. Hubble and Obsidian both use Markdown on-disk, so they're equally agent-friendly. There's a few reasons I built it instead of continuing to use Obsidian (which I've used for years): - I wanted something closer to Apple Notes or Notion for simpler editing. Hyperlinks are popups instead of in-line strings. Formatting is WYSIWYG, without *_ characters in-line. There's a / menu to discover formatting options. etc. - I wanted an app that could display HTML pages alongside Markdown. And more interestingly, I wanted to give those HTML pages access to Markdown files in the folder, using Markdown as a mini-database to build apps on top of. This is likely possible with Obsidian plugins (everything is) but I wanted something first-class. The hubble.md homepage tries to communicate this, but I could likely do a better job :) - More recently, I've wanted markdown -> agent handoff to be better. We've added an embedded terminal to chat with agents alongside notes directly, and we've just added a first-party commenting system similar to commenting in a Google doc (agent accessible with in-file metadata). All of these features have been community-led. I'm very grateful for our repeat contributors. If any of that sounds interesting, give it a try! Otherwise, feel free to give feedback on the app itself or the homepage on GitHub. All of that is open-source: https://github.com/bholmesdev/hubble.md https://github.com/bholmesdev/hubble.md
- myshapeprotocol 3mo ago[flagged]
- zesptra 3mo ago[flagged]
- dewey 3mo agoI'm trying to understand why this can't just be a folder on your disk. Agents know how to use "ls" and "cat" so I guess I'm missing something.
- phron3sis 3mo ago[dead]
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- rpunkfu 3mo agoYou’re not, thing that makes it agent friendly is copy path button
- bholmesdev 3mo agoIt's just a folder on your filesystem, no fancy cloud setup. Similar to Obsidian.
- TokenLat 3mo ago[flagged]
- iLoveOncall 3mo agoI'll be more blunt than other commenters: this is useless. Obsidian and plenty of other note taking apps already do the same and more. Add to that the fact that it's likely entirely vibe-coded, there's really 0 value proposition here.
- gandhiandy69 3mo agoCool, I needed a lightweight markdown editor. I like Obsidian but it's not really a notebook. What's missing is a ToC view for your .md as a sidebar which Obsidian has.
- bholmesdev 3mo ago[dead]
- monegator 3mo agoThe current sepia color scheme you see on all vibecoded websites is so, so tiring. And before you ask, the next "trend" will be as much tiring.
- Nekorosu 3mo agoObsidian exists. It is more feature rich and mature.
- embedding-shape 3mo agoYou could at least read the tagline or something, before leaving low-effort comments. Im a big fan of Obsidian, use it every day, but if Im looking for something "backed by Markdown and HTML" then obviously its not even an alternative...
- smallerize 3mo agoWhat is your Obsidian backed by?
- jkwang 3mo agoThe shared markdown files between human and agent notes is a nice touch — no proprietary format lock-in, and agents can just read the files directly. Does it handle conflicts when both the user and an agent edit the same note at the same time?
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- harmonious 3mo agoBot
- mianos 3mo agoThere are also a lot of mcp agents for Joplin: https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/ai-agents-and-joplin/46168 https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/ai-agents-and-joplin/46168 Dare I say, another, more popular, note taking app for you and your agents. I really like it as I run a webdav service and can read/write and sync notes between multiple Mac desktops and Android. Encrypted while I am at it. Markdown native.
- fariszr 3mo agoBut does joblin support anything more than markdown? I'm thinking of using it as a like a store for agent plans, so I can easily edit stuff. Can an agent add rendered HTML, meramaid etc in joblin?
- pickleglitch 3mo agoOh look, a new note taking app. Must be Wednesday.
- akaralar 3mo agoas a lightweight markdown reader on macOS, I much prefer the native mdv* app than running a nodejs app. * https://github.com/tqbf/mdv https://github.com/tqbf/mdv
- 4b11b4 3mo agoUhh yeah I don't let agents edit files that I'm writing - that's how you get psychosis. I enforce this via snapshots before and after tool calls
- effnorwood 3mo agointernet reinvents vi lock files from first principles
- bholmesdev 3mo agoThanks for sharing this handfuloflight! This is Ben, creator of Hubble. I've been replying to comments throughout this post (appreciate the thorough feedback). If you have any questions for me, fire away.