dendron

Dendron is an open-source note-taking and knowledge management tool built as an extension for VS Code, the popular code editor. It stores all notes as plain text Markdown files on your own computer, with no cloud dependency required. As of the time of writing, the README states that active development has ceased and the project is in maintenance mode only.

The core problem Dendron was designed to solve is that most note-taking tools become difficult to use once you have thousands of notes. Searching becomes slow, organization breaks down, and finding anything requires scrolling through pages of results. Dendron addresses this by organizing notes in a hierarchy (similar to file paths, like project.meetings.2024-01) and providing a fast lookup interface that works the same way whether you have ten notes or ten thousand.

Notes are organized using optional schemas, which let you define consistent structures and templates for different kinds of notes. For example, you could set up a schema for meeting notes that automatically fills in a standard format. You can also embed sections of one note inside another, create diagrams using Mermaid syntax, and write math using KaTeX.

Because notes are plain text files, you can manage them with git for version history, edit them in any text editor, and use standard file tools. Dendron supports multiple vaults, which are separate git-backed folders that can be mixed together. This lets you keep personal notes and work notes in different repositories while browsing them together inside VS Code.

The tool includes a graph view for visualizing connections between notes, backlinks for navigating to notes that reference the current one, and a refactoring tool that renames or reorganizes notes without breaking internal links. Notes can also be published as a static website. Use cases listed in the README include personal knowledge management, documentation, meeting notes, task tracking, and blogging. The full README is longer than what was shown.