{"name":"ZenNotes: Keyboard-First Markdown Notes with Vim, Diagrams, and MCP Integration","description":"ZenNotes is a versatile, keyboard-first Markdown notes app designed for speed and flexibility. It stores notes as plain Markdown files, offering Vim-friendly editing, diagram support, and integration with MCP tools. Available as a desktop app (Electron) and a self-hosted web app, ZenNotes provides a powerful solution for organizing your thoughts.","github":"https://github.com/ZenNotes/zennotes","url":"https://osrepos.com/repo/zennotes-zennotes","source":"osrepos.com","sourceDescription":"This repository profile is provided by osrepos.com, an open source repository discovery platform.","repositoryProfile":"https://osrepos.com/repo/zennotes-zennotes","generatedFor":"open source discovery and AI-assisted research","markdown":"https://osrepos.com/repo/zennotes-zennotes.md","json":"https://osrepos.com/repo/zennotes-zennotes.json","topics":["electron","local-first","markdown","mcp","notes","vim","TypeScript","productivity"],"keywords":["electron","local-first","markdown","mcp","notes","vim","TypeScript","productivity"],"stars":null,"summary":"ZenNotes is a versatile, keyboard-first Markdown notes app designed for speed and flexibility. It stores notes as plain Markdown files, offering Vim-friendly editing, diagram support, and integration with MCP tools. Available as a desktop app (Electron) and a self-hosted web app, ZenNotes provides a powerful solution for organizing your thoughts.","content":"## Introduction\n\nZenNotes is a powerful, keyboard-first Markdown notes application designed for efficiency and flexibility. It allows users to manage their notes as ordinary Markdown files directly on disk, providing a local-first approach without relying on hidden databases. Built with a shared product core, ZenNotes offers multiple runtimes, including a robust desktop app powered by Electron and a self-hosted web app backed by a Go server.\n\nThis versatile tool integrates Vim-friendly editing, split and preview workflows, task management, tags, archiving, search capabilities, daily notes, and even CSV databases. It also supports rendering various diagrams and offers integration with MCP (Multi-Client Protocol) tools, making it a comprehensive solution for personal knowledge management.\n\n## Why Use ZenNotes and Key Benefits\n\nZenNotes stands out with its commitment to core principles that enhance productivity and data ownership:\n\n* **Plain Files First:** Your notes are standard `.md` files, ensuring complete ownership and easy portability. ZenNotes does not store content in a proprietary database.\n* **Keyboard-First Design:** Optimized for speed, it features a first-class Vim mode, leader-key flows, a command palette, pane and tab motion, and local ex commands, allowing for rapid navigation and editing.\n* **Integrated Workflow:** Seamlessly switch between edit, preview, and split modes. It supports pinned reference panes and detached note windows on desktop, ensuring you never lose context.\n* **Rich Content Support:** Render math with KaTeX, and create diagrams using Mermaid, TikZ, JSXGraph, and function-plot directly within your Markdown notes.\n* **Comprehensive Management:** Keep tasks, tags, search, archive, trash, and quick capture functionalities within the same vault.\n* **MCP Integration:** Expose your vault to MCP-capable tools through a first-party server, enabling advanced integrations and workflows.\n* **Cross-Platform Availability:** Enjoy a consistent experience across macOS, Windows, and Linux with the desktop application, or deploy it as a self-hosted web app for browser access.\n* **Obsidian-Friendly Vaults:** ZenNotes works harmoniously with existing Obsidian-style vaults, supporting top-level notes, folders, and embedded files more naturally.\n\n## Installation\n\nZenNotes is available across various platforms. You can grab the latest builds from the official GitHub Releases. The desktop app supports auto-updates, so you typically only need to download it once.\n\n### macOS\n\n* **Homebrew (recommended):**\n sh\n brew install --cask zennotes/tap/zennotes\n \n* Alternatively, download the `.dmg` for your chip (Apple Silicon or Intel), open it, and drag **ZenNotes** to your Applications folder.\n\n### Windows\n\n* Download and run the `ZenNotes--win-x64.exe` installer.\n\n### Linux\n\n* **Arch / CachyOS / Manjaro (AUR recommended):**\n sh\n yay -S zennotes-bin # or: paru -S zennotes-bin\n \n* **Arch (native package):**\n sh\n sudo pacman -U ZenNotes--linux-x86_64.pacman\n \n* **Debian / Ubuntu:**\n sh\n sudo apt install ./ZenNotes--linux-amd64.deb\n \n* **Any distro (AppImage):**\n sh\n chmod +x ZenNotes--linux-x86_64.AppImage\n ./ZenNotes--linux-x86_64.AppImage\n \n (Note: AppImages may require FUSE 2. Refer to the README for details.)\n\n### `zen` CLI\n\nThe desktop app can install a `zen` command-line companion from **Settings ? CLI**, enabling workflows for listing, reading, searching, capturing, editing, archiving, trashing notes, and managing tasks, folders, and MCP.\n\n### Self-hosted Web App\n\nZenNotes can also run as a self-hosted web app with a Go server. Refer to the \"Local development\" section in the official repository's README for detailed setup instructions.\n\n## Examples\n\nZenNotes offers a rich set of features to enhance your note-taking experience:\n\n* **Daily and Weekly Notes:** Enable and customize daily and weekly notes with flexible date patterns (e.g., `yyyy/MM-MMM`, `yyyy-'W'ww`) and dedicated directories, making it easy to track your progress over time.\n* **Advanced Editor and Preview:** The editor, built on CodeMirror 6, provides live preview, heading folding, outline extraction, syntax highlighting for code blocks, and Vim block cursor navigation. The preview supports GitHub-flavored Markdown, KaTeX math, and various diagramming tools.\n* **Powerful Search and Views:** Utilize note search by title and path, or perform vault-wide text searches with configurable backends like `ripgrep` or `fzf`. Dedicated views for tags, tasks, archive, trash, and quick notes help you organize and retrieve information efficiently. On macOS, the `zen` CLI integrates with Raycast for quick access.\n* **Obsidian-Friendly Vault Support:** ZenNotes is designed to work seamlessly with existing Obsidian vaults. It allows primary notes to reside at the vault root, correctly resolves embedded files like `![[image.png]]`, and surfaces loose files as assets, ensuring a smooth transition or co-existence.\n* **Files and Local Assets:** Manage local images, SVGs, videos, audio, and PDFs directly within ZenNotes tabs or reference panes. The sidebar supports multi-select for efficient organization and actions.\n\n## Links\n\n* **GitHub Repository:** ZenNotes/zennotes\n* **Official Website:** zennotes.org\n* **Latest Releases:** GitHub Releases\n* **Support Development:** GitHub Sponsors","metrics":{"detailViews":1,"githubClicks":1},"dates":{"published":null,"modified":"2026-10-01T11:21:28.000Z"}}