NoteMD
NoteMD app icon

Free & open source · Native on macOS 26

Markdown notes,
versioned automatically.

NoteMD is a native Mac app for plain Markdown files. Keep as many vaults as you like, get a git history of every edit for free, turn notes into reusable prompt templates, record voice notes, and send Markdown files in from Finder or the Share menu.

Download for Mac View on GitHub

Latest release · macOS 26 on Apple silicon · MIT licensed

The NoteMD window: colored folders and tags in the sidebar, the note list, and a roadmap note shown as Markdown source next to its rendered preview with a task list, an alert and a table.

In action

NoteMD in 47 seconds.

Plain Markdown files, automatic git history, voice notes, and how a template turns into a prompt. Music and sound effects are generated in code, like the rest of the video.

Why

A simpler place for notes, prompts and plain text.

NoteMD started as a personal itch. Here is the short version, written the way it would be in the app.

Why I built NoteMD

I wanted a simpler note-taking app: plain Markdown files, several separate vaults, and every change versioned with git without having to think about it.

I also kept rewriting the same AI prompts, so I added templates: put parameters in a note, fill in a form, copy the result. Voice notes and video reviews came next, because some thoughts are faster to say or show than to type.

  • Plain Markdown files, no lock-in
  • Multiple vaults, one window each
  • Automatic git history
  • Reusable prompt templates
  • Voice notes and video reviews
  • Notes from Finder and the Share menu

Javi, author of NoteMD

Features

Everything is a file. Every edit is kept.

Every edit, safely in git

Each vault is a git repository. NoteMD saves as you type and commits a few seconds after you stop, and again when you close the window, quit, or press ⌘S.

Version History shows what changed in each version, compares any of them with the current text, and restores one as a new commit. Deleted notes can come back too.

Version History sheet listing a note's versions by date, with a diff of the lines added in the selected version.

Reusable prompts, as forms

Add params to a note's front matter and write {{placeholders}}, with {{#if}}, {{#elseif}}, {{#unless}} and {{#each}} blocks. Conditions can compare values, like {{#if language == Swift}} or {{#if max >= 10}}. AI agents can write them too, with the create-reusable-prompt skill.

Use Template opens a form with ten field types (text, long text, number, toggle, choice, multiple choice, file, folder, date and list) and gives you the result to copy or save as a note. Made for the AI prompts you keep rewriting.

Template form for a code review prompt with text, choice, multiple choice, list and toggle fields, and the rendered prompt next to it.

Voice notes, transcribed on your Mac

Record straight into a note. The clip is saved in the vault's files/assets/ folder and plays right in the preview.

Transcribe it with on-device speech recognition: the text is added under the clip as a quote, and the audio never leaves your Mac.

A note with an embedded audio player for a voice note and its transcript quoted below.

Video reviews and attachments

Drag or paste images, screen recordings and other files into a note. NoteMD copies them into files/assets/ or links them where they are, and audio and video play inline in the preview.

Keep time-stamped feedback next to the recording for quick design and code reviews. Attachments are stored with Git LFS, so history stays light.

The Assets view shows where every file is used, finds unused files and broken links, and renames or bins files while keeping every note's links right.

A review note with an embedded video player and time-stamped feedback bullets below it.

Hidden folders and secret notes

Hide a folder and it stays out of sight, with its notes, tags and search results, until you unlock NoteMD with Touch ID or your password. Like the hidden album in Photos: the files themselves aren't encrypted.

Make a note secret and it's encrypted on disk in the open age format, so its copies, backups and git remote never hold its text. Secret notes are decrypted one at a time when you open them, and a recovery key opens them on another Mac or with age -d.

NoteMD locks again after a few idle minutes (you choose, five at most), and right away with Lock Now, screen lock, sleep or quit.

NoteMD unlocked: a hidden Journal folder marked with a crossed-out eye, and a secret note with a lock icon open in the editor and preview.

Details

And the small things that add up.

  • Your files, your folders

    Any folder can be a vault, with your notes in its files/ folder. Open several at once, each in its own window. Incognito notes are never versioned and disappear when you close the window.

  • Folders, tags, search

    Give folders a color and an icon, tag notes in front matter, and search with tag:name or #name filters.

  • GitHub Flavored Markdown

    Tables, task lists, footnotes, alerts and autolinks, rendered by cmark-gfm, GitHub's own engine. Tick a task off right in the preview.

  • Editor, Split, Preview

    Write, read, or both side by side. Switch with ⌘1, ⌘2 and ⌘3, and find and replace with ⌘F and ⌥⌘F.

  • Notes from anywhere

    Send text, links and files from other apps through the Share menu, the Services menu, drag and drop, or paste. Markdown files from Finder are copied or moved into the vault you pick.

  • Native and portable

    SwiftUI and AppKit, light and dark, with a glass or solid sidebar. No database, no proprietary format: just a folder and a git repository.

Get it

Download NoteMD.

A disk image for macOS 26 on Apple silicon, signed and notarized by Apple. Updates arrive inside the app, and every release lists SHA-256 checksums. NoteMD uses your git, and git-lfs for attachments.

Download NoteMD

Or build it yourself with Xcode 26: make install builds the app and copies it to /Applications. 

git clone https://github.com/itsjavi/notemd.git
cd notemd
make install