A fast, local-first note-taking app that respects your plain text.

Help Center • Developer Docs • Discord • Availability • Why Noether? • Features • Developer Quickstart

1. Availability

Official pre-compiled desktop binaries and one-click installers will be available once version 1.0.0 reaches stable release status:

• Windows: .msi Windows Installer and .exe standalone packages (x64, ARM64)
• macOS: .dmg package (Universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel)
• Linux: .AppImage portable package and .deb Debian/Ubuntu package (x86_64, ARM64)
• Android (Mobile): Planned following the desktop 1.0.0 milestone. (Desktop foundation comes first; iOS is not planned in the near term due to filesystem sandbox constraints).

Until pre-built binaries are published, you can compile and run Noether locally from source (see Developer Quickstart).

2. Why Noether?

I wanted a note-taking app that feels like a native desktop utility: fast, lightweight, and completely local. No forced cloud accounts, no proprietary database locks, and no heavy Electron bundles eating memory in the background.

• Plain Markdown on disk: Notes live as ordinary .md files in your folders. Your data is yours forever, easy to back up, version with Git, or sync with Syncthing or Dropbox without proprietary database lock-in.
• Fast local search & backlinks: An embedded SQLite index running in Rust handles full-text search, tags, and backlink lookups across thousands of notes instantly.
• Instant native desktop feel: Built to feel like a classic desktop utility. Menus, tabs, and toggles snap open immediately without decorative fade-ins or animation delays.
• Lightweight desktop footprint: Built on Tauri v2 with native Rust, keeping memory usage lean (typically under 150MB).
• Crash-resilient atomic saves: Saves write to temporary files first before executing atomic OS rename operations. If power cuts out mid-save, your notes are never left half-written.
• Built-in MCP server: Includes an out-of-the-box Model Context Protocol server so AI assistants like Claude Desktop or Cursor can search and read your notes locally.
• 100% Free & Open Source: Transparent codebase, zero telemetry, zero paywalled tiers, and no cloud dependencies (GPLv3).

3. Key Capabilities

• Live Preview Editor: Clean markdown editing with inline MathLive formula chips, syntax highlighting, and table formatting.
• 2D Knowledge Graph: Interactive force-directed graph visualizing connections and backlinks across your notes.
• Infinite 2D Spatial Canvas: Visual whiteboard supporting note cards, text blocks, group containers, and connector lines stored directly in .noether/canvas.
• Embedded FSRS Spaced Repetition: Modern flashcard scheduling (ts-fsrs) generated directly from Markdown notes using basic (::), bi-directional (;;), and cloze ({...}) syntax.
• Centralized Tasks & Daily Journal: Aggregates all - [ ] and - [x] checklist items across your entire vault into an actionable kanban board, paired with one-click daily scratchpad notes.
• Modular Extension SDK: Build custom extensions with dynamic React portal slots, declarative SQLite tables with automatic migrations, and auto-generated MCP tools.

4. Developer Quickstart

Prerequisites

• Node.js: v18.0.0 or higher
• npm or pnpm
• Rust Toolchain: cargo >= 1.75 (required for compiling native desktop binaries)

Getting Started

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yvliet/noether.git
cd noether

# 2. Install dependencies
npm install

# 3. Launch native desktop application (Rust + Tauri)
npm run app

Production Builds

# Build frontend web assets
npm run build

# Build native desktop installers (.msi / .dmg / .AppImage)
npm run tauri:build

5. Documentation & Help

Documentation is available across two portals:

• Noether Help: User guides, Markdown formatting, vault management, and core extensions.
• Noether Docs: Architecture blueprints, Extension SDK, and API reference.

Local guides are also available directly in the docs/ folder:

• User Guide: Daily note-taking, flashcards, visual canvas, and vault organization.
• Architecture Specification: System design, storage pipeline, and editor performance.
• Extension Developer Guide: Building custom extensions using React portal slots and the Noether SDK.
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) Setup: Connecting Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other AI assistants to your notes.
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Complete reference table of all hotkeys and commands.
• Contributing Guidelines: Development setup and guidelines.

6. License

Noether is free and open-source software licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPLv3).