takenote

TakeNote is a notes application that runs in a web browser and is designed for developers who prefer writing in plain text and Markdown rather than rich formatted editors. You write notes in an interface that resembles a code editor, with syntax highlighting, multi-cursor editing, and keyboard shortcuts for common actions. A side panel shows a rendered preview of your Markdown so you can see formatted output without switching views.

Notes are organized into categories and can be dragged between them or moved to favorites or trash. You can link notes to each other using a special syntax based on each note's unique ID. Search works across all notes or within a single category. A Prettier formatting option lets you auto-format the Markdown in any note.

There is no server-side database in the public demo version. Notes are stored in your browser's local storage, so they stay on your device and are not sent anywhere. You can export all your notes as a zip of Markdown files at any time. The app has no analytics or tracking.

A self-hosted version with GitHub integration also exists in the codebase, though the author states it is not actively deployed or supported. In that version, notes back up automatically to a private GitHub repository in your account instead of browser storage. Setting it up requires creating a GitHub OAuth application and running a Node/Express server alongside the frontend.

The README notes the project is available as open source for learning and self-hosting but the author does not provide support. Built with TypeScript, React, Redux, and Codemirror, among other libraries.