Everything in one markdown workspace
A fast markdown editor, sync across every device, and AI that understands your notes. All on top of plain files that stay yours.
Your files Free
Files that stay yours
All content is built on top of plain markdown in ordinary folders. Nothing you write is trapped in Notate.
Plain Markdown on disk
Every note is a standard .md file in a real folder. No database and no proprietary container.
Open your existing files
Point Notate at a folder of markdown files you already have and it just works. Your notes stay plain and editable anywhere.
Edit outside Notate
Change a note in another editor and Notate picks it up. It watches your folders and stays in step with whatever is on disk.
Attachments in your folder
Images you paste are saved into a folder you name, alongside your notes, and linked with ordinary relative markdown.
Offline-first
Everything works with no connection. A full local copy means your notes are always fast and always available.
Multi-root workspaces
Group folders from anywhere on your drive into named workspaces. The structure in the app is the structure on disk.
Spec – Offline Maps.md
Spec – Elevation Profiles.md
Writing Free
A markdown editor with a live-rendering preview
See structure as you type without leaving the text, or switch to raw markdown whenever you would rather see the source.
Live preview
Headings, lists, tables, and checkboxes render inline as you type, right in the editor.
Four view modes
Switch between Editor, Split, Live, and Preview. Write in raw markdown or a rendered view, whichever suits the moment.
Syntax highlighting
Fenced code blocks are highlighted for dozens of languages, with a one-click copy button on every block.
Interactive tables
Edit tables in a rendered grid, click to jump into a cell, and columns auto-format their spacing as you go.
Wiki-links and backlinks
Connect notes with [[wiki-links]]. Notate tracks the graph so you can follow links and see what points back.
The Links map
See every wiki-link at once as a graph, colored by folder. Focus one note to see only what it touches, or surface the ones that nothing links to. On every plan.
Table of contents
A live outline of every heading, so long notes stay navigable. Frontmatter is a toggle away when you need it.
Diagrams and charts
Write a fenced Mermaid block and it renders in the preview: flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and charts.
Themes and accents
Dark or light, with eleven accent presets or a custom color of your own. Editor width, line numbers, and font size are yours to set.
Let hikers download a region and navigate with
no signal, even miles from the nearest
bar of service. Tiles are cached with the
vector-tile
pipeline so a saved region stays useful offline.
Decided in Sprint Planning – 2026-08-04; architecture in Architecture.
| Need | Detail |
|---|---|
| Download a region | Pick on map, size shown before save |
| Storage cap | Warn near the device limit |
Organizing Free
Find anything, keep everything
Folders for the notes with an obvious home, search and tags for the ones without, and version history and trash for when you need to revert.
Folders and workspaces
Named, multi-root workspaces that map to real folders on disk. Organize the way you already think about files.
Full-text search
Search across every note instantly, filter folders and note lists in place, and jump straight to what you need.
Tags
Tag notes and browse by tag from the sidebar. Tags live in frontmatter, so they travel with the file.
Favorites
Pin the notes you return to most and reach them in one click from a dedicated favorites tab.
Version history
Notate keeps past versions of your notes, so you can look back and restore an earlier draft when you need it.
Trash and restore
Deleted notes and folders go to Trash first, recoverable across devices, and are swept on a retention schedule.
Let hikers download a region and navigate with no signal, even miles from…
Offline maps are on track. Elevation profiles start this week…
Offline maps polish and beta prep.
Sync Sync plan
Every note, on every device
Offline-first sync that reconciles when you reconnect, across desktop, mobile, and the web app.
Desktop, mobile, and web
The same notes and folders everywhere, including a first-party web app you can use from any browser.
Works offline
Keep writing with no connection. Changes queue locally and reconcile the moment you are back.
Images and attachments
Images sync alongside your notes with 50 GB of cloud storage, and stay next to the files they belong to.
Rich link previews
Paste a URL and get a preview card with title, description, and image, stored with your note.
Synced version history
Earlier drafts follow you between devices, not just the machine you wrote them on.
Secure cloud backup
Your notes exist in more than one place, so a lost laptop is an inconvenience rather than a disaster.
Let hikers download a region and navigate with no signal, even miles from the nearest bar of service.
- Pick a region on the map
- Show download size before saving
- Warn near the device storage limit
Let hikers download a region and navigate with no signal, even miles from the nearest bar of service.
Offline maps on track. Elevation profiles start this week. Trail conditions moved up after the interviews.
Ten miles, patchy signal above the treeline. The download flow held up; storage warning never fired.
Privacy Sync plan
Synced, and still only yours
Optional end-to-end encryption, decided per account and reversible.
End-to-end encryption
Notes are encrypted on your device before they sync. The server stores ciphertext it cannot read.
Local files stay plain
Encryption applies to what syncs, not to the markdown on your own drive, so your files stay portable.
Two-factor and sessions
Add TOTP two-factor authentication, and see and revoke the devices signed in to your account.
Security
Encrypt your notes so only your devices can read them.
Save your recovery phrase
These 24 words let you recover your cloud notes if you forget your password. Store them somewhere safe. Your local files on this device will always stay readable.
Connect Sync plan
Plug your notes into the tools you use
Reach your notes from an AI client or the terminal, with fine grained permissions you control.
Any MCP client
Claude, ChatGPT, or an agent you wrote yourself can search, read, and organize your notes over the Model Context Protocol.
Nothing to install
The server is hosted. Give your client a URL and a token and it is connected, with nothing to run or keep updated on your machine.
The full tool set
A connected client gets the same tools the in-app assistant uses: search, read, write, move, tag, summarize, and manage folders and workspaces.
Permissions you set
Destructive actions are off until you enable them, one at a time. Anything left off is never offered to the client.
Scoped, revocable tokens
Give each integration its own token, narrower than your account if you want, and revoke any one on its own.
Command-line client
Capture, search, and script against your notes from the shell. Reads stdin, prints markdown or JSON.
- Decided: pick a region on the map, show its size before saving, and refresh tiles automatically once back online.
- Still open: whether the storage cap is per region or one global budget.
AI AI plan
AI that has actually read your notes
Grounded answers with sources, plus transcription that turns conversations into filed markdown.
Chat with your notes
Ask in plain language and get answers from your own workspace, with the notes it drew from linked.
Semantic search
Find notes by meaning rather than wording, so a question about leadership surfaces the one filed under management style.
Suggested links
Notes that belong together, surfaced under the one you are writing, with an explanation of the connection on request.
Writing tools
Completions, rewrites, and summaries inline in the editor, on the passage you have selected.
Meetings and lectures
Record system audio and your microphone together on desktop, or from your pocket on mobile, transcribed live.
Auto-tagging and summaries
Let Notate suggest tags and write a summary from a note's content.
AI image descriptions
Images get described automatically, so they are searchable and usable as context in a conversation.
From your Product and Meetings notes:
- Decided: pick a region on the map, show its size before saving, and refresh tiles automatically once back online. Spec – Offline Maps1
- Still open: whether the storage cap is per region or one global budget. Sprint Planning – 2026-08-042
- Next: field test the offline flow this weekend, building on Field Notes – Cascades Loop3.
Note Map AI plan
The shape of a whole workspace
A topographic map built from what your notes say rather than what links them, with named peaks and the content gaps between them.
Named themes
Notes on the same subject form peaks, and peaks are representations of themes across your content.
Content gaps
Valleys between peaks mark areas between subjects you have written about, and an opportunity to fill content gaps.
Flat and Raised
Visualize notes using the 2D contour map or switch to the raised 3D terrain. Both are built from the same data.
Common questions
What is Notate?
A markdown editor and note-taking app built on plain markdown files. Your notes live in ordinary folders on your device, in standard syntax any other markdown editor can open. Sync and AI are optional layers that live on top of your existing notes.
Do I need an account to use Notate?
No. Notate opens in Guest mode on desktop and mobile, with no sign-in and nothing uploaded. You only need an account if you want to sync across devices or use AI.
Are my notes really just files I own?
Yes. Notate reads and writes ordinary .md files in folders you choose. You can open, edit, back up, or move them with any other tool, and nothing about them depends on Notate being installed.
Start with a folder of markdown files.
Free to download, no account required. Add sync and AI when you want them.