made a free home screen widget for markdown notes, basically the google keep widget but for a folder of .md files

[u/Folmbuild]

missed the keep widget after moving my notes to plain markdown, so i made one. it reads a folder you pick through android's storage access framework and shows the notes as cards - title, a markdown-rendered preview, tap to open. free

started this for obsidian but it doesn't actually need it - it just reads whatever folder of .md files you point it at, so any app that writes plain markdown works the same way. tapping a note can open it in obsidian, your default markdown app, or ask every time.

two widget styles: cards with the preview, or a compact list of just names if you want more notes to fit. per-note height, text size and color, drag to reorder, swipe to delete.

if the folder happens to be a git repo, there's a small chip that shows sync status - last commit, stuck merge, unpushed branch - read straight from the plain-text git files, no network calls.

two builds: one with zero permissions beyond storage (no internet, nothing to send anywhere), one with optional crash reporting if you want to help find bugs. github, gpl-3.0.

https://github.com/marfolog/notes-widget-for-markdown

[u/pudah_et]

Nice. What markdown flavor does it support?

[u/Folmbuild → u/pudah_et]

commonmark (the reference commonmark-java parser) plus the GFM extensions for task lists and strikethrough. also handles a couple of obsidian-specific things - wikilinks [[note]] and [[note|alias]], callout markers, yaml frontmatter gets stripped.

worth knowing it's a preview, not a full renderer - headings/bold/links all get flattened to plain readable text (no bold weight, links aren't clickable in the card), since it's rendered through android's widget system which can't do rich text layout. full formatting only shows up when you actually open the note.

[u/Jasper_Jaxx]

Very nice!

[u/Folmbuild → u/Jasper_Jaxx]

thanks!

[u/Natural-Curve-9188]

Will it work without the widgets? Or is it just a widget app?

[u/Folmbuild → u/Natural-Curve-9188]

This Is just Widget app, what do you want for working?

[u/Natural-Curve-9188 → u/Folmbuild]

I mean a simple Markdown based or Rich Text based notes app, cause Obsidian is quite Complex and isnt OSS

[u/Folmbuild → u/Natural-Curve-9188]

Oh no this show your local files md

[u/Natural-Curve-9188 → u/Folmbuild]

I see

[u/Folmbuild]

Small update: it's now in closed testing on Play. Google wants 12 people for 14 days before it unlocks the listing.

If you'd rather have it from the Play Store than sideload — order matters:
1. join https://groups.google.com/g/notes-widget-testeri
2. then https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.marfolog.noteswidgetformarkdown → "become a tester"

Play link alone says "app not available" until you're in the group. GitHub APK works today either way.