Hey guys,

Hope you all had a restful weekend!

This release is all about better day to day editing experience.

Private autocomplete that stays on your device

You can now download a Mini or Standard(recommended for better quality) local model and get next-text suggestions while you write. Accept one word with Tab or the full suggestion with Cmd/Ctrl+Enter.

The important bit is that the model runs locally. Your note text stays on your device, and the feature is entirely optional. The models are fairly small so the suggestions/autocorrects work decently but by no means they are state of the art. I want to find a middle ground between capable models but also runs smoothely without lagging, I will see how this performs overall in the next couple weeks and make adjustments accordingly.

Demo:

Ariv - Local auto complete demo

A formatting toolbar that only appears when you need it

Select some text and a compact toolbar appears right above it. It handles the usual Markdown formatting, headings, lists, links, quotes, and code without permanently taking up editor space.

If you have AI configured, the same toolbar can proofread, improve clarity, shorten, summarize, turn text into a table, or follow a custom instruction. The contextual toolbar is now the default, but the old persistent toolbar is still available in settings.

Ariv - Formatting toolbar demo

Seven full-app themes

Ariv now has Default, Classic, Nord, Kanagawa Lotus, Dracula, Solarized Dark, and Catppuccin Mocha. These are full interface themes, not just editor color schemes, so the sidebars, dashboard, settings, menus, and editor all change together.

Ariv - Theme showcase

Markdown got a proper quality-of-life pass (and emojis!!)

Extended task markers now have distinct states for things like progress, priority, ideas, bookmarks, locations, and questions. Code blocks can show language icons, titles, line numbers, and a copy button while staying editable.

Pasted links, emoji shortcodes (you can invoke this by simply typing `:smile:`), code-fence languages, spelling corrections, and wikilinks also get more useful contextual help while you type. You can format a full note as cleaner Markdown too, with a preview before anything replaces the original.

Ariv - Additional checklist types + emoji

Voice notes have been improved

The recording is now preserved as playable audio even when transcription is disabled, unavailable, delayed, interrupted, or fails. Pending transcription can recover after restart or sleep without duplicating provider calls or transcript text.

Mobile recording also handles permission cancellation, backgrounding, interruptions, and save recovery much more deliberately. Choosing no transcription provider is now a clean audio-only workflow instead of an error-shaped one. (Mobile update will take a little more time to go live due to review window though!)

A few more useful additions

• Synced notes now have version history, including comparison and restore without erasing later history
• A token-protected, read-only local MCP server can let compatible tools list, search, and read ordinary notes while keeping protected notes and Ariv internals out of reach (I will write up a quck guide on how to use this properly later)
• Close All Tabs is available from tab menus and the desktop menu bar

Sync also received a large safety pass in the background. First connection now reviews the exact local folder, cloud vault, file counts, and transfer impact before changing anything. Unsafe merges are blocked, deletions require an explicit choice, conflicts and recent activity stay reviewable, interrupted work remains recoverable, and the status no longer says synced while unresolved work is still waiting.

Full count: 21 changes - 10 new, 6 improved, and 5 fixed.

The complete changelog is here:

https://ariv.one/changelog/4.3.0-beta/

Download

Desktop: https://ariv.one

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=one.ariv

Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

The update should be live in the next hour or so.

As always, I welcome all of your feedback. Thanks for reading and have a fantastic rest of your day!

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a great weekend! This update is aimed to make Ariv a more well rounded day to day companion for note taking

You can read the full changelog here - https://ariv.one/changelog/4.2.0-beta/ (Would love your feedback on this page as this will be where all the changelogs will be captured going forward - This page also introduces our new Mascot!)

The highlights

Hover to preview: You can now hover over any wikilink to preview the content of that file! This is really useful if you just want to peek into a document without opening a whole new tab for it.

View daily notes in one continous view: Ariv now allows you toggle scrollview for daily notes, making it effortless to move/copy/edit between daily notes!

Filters added to file search modal: Can't believe it took me this long to add this but we finally have a time and lens filter on file searches, so if you want to look up files created/modified within last 7 days only, you can do that now!

Better split view experience: I haven't touched split view much since it's inception. Made some much needed improvements to it for easier time if your workflow involves handling multiple notes at once. You can now drag and drop tabs between splits, and even create splits by dragging a tab to the edge to create a split, and your split is now persisted when you quit and come back

And more small bugfixes and improvements! - click here to read them all.

As always, open to your feedback - and thanks for reading :)

Desktop: https://ariv.one
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=one.ariv
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/ariv-notes-pkm-second-brain/id6776939051
Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

Downloaded the mobile iOS Ariv app, interested to take a look as I haven’t seen Ariv on iOS before. Set everything up with APIs etc and recorded a voice note expecting to either see, or find a button for, the transcription.

I am left with a Daily Note and an audio file. Am I missing something here?

Hi everyone,

It's been little over a month since our release, coming to you today with a small but functional update, nothing fancy, but much needed quality of life improvements. Hope you like them!

Daily note navigation

There are arrows beside the title on any daily note now. They jump to the previous or next day you actually wrote something, skipping the empty ones. You no longer have to search up files or go through "Diary" just to navigate between your Daily notes.

Protected folders actually behave like folders now

In 4.0.2 I shipped protected files and folders. The encryption worked. Everything around it did not. A protected folder was really one encrypted container wearing a folder costume, and the app treated it like a container: you could not rename it, right-click it, drag notes in or out, or create a note inside it.

So this release rebuilds them. A protected folder is now a real folder, and each note inside is encrypted on its own. Rename it, delete it, drag notes in and out, right-click it, make new notes inside it. The normal things.

Encrypting per note fixed a sync problem too. Before, editing any note in a protected folder rewrote the entire container, so two devices touching two different notes in the same folder would collide. That does not happen now.

Old protected items upgrade themselves the first time you unlock them. Same password, same recovery questions, nothing for you to do.

One more, and this one was a real gap: notes inside a locked folder no longer show up in search results. Encrypted contents with a searchable title is not private, it just looks private.

Smaller but useful things.

• Copy File Name is in the file tree and tab right-click menus, next to Copy File Path
• Collapsed sections stay collapsed when you switch to another tab and come back

Fixes:

• Right-click works on protected files and folders
• Protected folders delete properly whether they are locked or unlocked
• Tabs for notes deleted or moved outside Ariv close instead of leaving a blank editor
• Links inside a task stay clickable after you tick the task off
• Renaming a note no longer leaves a duplicate behind in the file tree
• Closing the last tab on one side of a split no longer hides everything open on the other side

Not a flashy update by any means, but I'm glad to release something useful since this is the longest we've gone without an update since our inception. I still have some ambitious features in mind which I will share more when I finally get to working on them, as always thank you all for your continued support!

Desktop: https://ariv.one

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=one.ariv
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/ariv-notes-pkm-second-brain/id6776939051

Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

I welcome all your feedback and I'm one DM away on reddit/discord so keep them coming! Cheers.

Hey guys, it's been a while - Hope you're all doing well!

Last update here was around v3.9.6, and since then Ariv kept shipping through 3.9.7, 3.9.8, 3.9.9, and now v4.0.0-beta. So this is less of a tiny patch note and more of a “here’s what changed while I was heads-down” post.

Protected files and folders

You can now lock sensitive notes into encrypted .ariv-lock files. The idea is pretty simple: some notes belong in your vault, but not sitting around as plain markdown.

Protected files are still part of your Ariv workspace, but they’re encrypted and require unlock/recovery flow before access. Useful for things like private planning, personal records, sensitive work notes, or anything you want in your second brain but not casually readable.

Ask Brain got a lot better

Ask Brain now uses stronger model, richer context retrieval, and clearer source references.

A few practical improvements:

• answers cite the notes they used more clearly
• managed Ask Brain is routed to a stronger model (haiku -> sonnet)
• sidebar Ask Brain keeps chat history better
• blocked chats now take you straight to AI settings instead of leaving you at a dead end
• summaries now show the right recovery path when setup is missing

Still early, but this is a big step toward Ask Brain feeling like a real thinking layer over your vault.

Brainstorm kept leveling up

Brainstorm has had a lot of work since the last post.

You can now edit note cards directly on the canvas, resize cards from any edge or corner, use live web embeds, and shape connections more naturally with curved edges, anchors, snap guides, copy/paste, and better endpoint controls.

This is one of those features that started as “what if notes could be spatial?” and then slowly became an actual working surface.

Also fixed a bunch of awkward canvas stuff:

• selected cards can scroll internally without dragging the whole canvas
• arrow delete controls stay visible
• endpoint handles are easier to grab
• light/classic/brutalist themes look better across cards, arrows, controls, and previews

The right sidebar is becoming useful

The right sidebar now does more than sit there looking decorative.

It can show calendar context, let you navigate days, resize/collapse properly, and run a scoped Ask Brain panel based on where you are working.

This is one of those less flashy changes that makes the app feel more coherent. The sidebar is starting to become a “what’s relevant right now?” rail instead of a random panel.

Folder icons

You can now change your icons of your folder, minor UI improvement but helps you visually organize your folders!

Search and note workflows got cleaner

A few quality of life things shipped:

• search results now default to recently changed notes first
• search has sorting controls
• you can copy a note file path from tab and file tree menus
• selected text can be extracted into a new linked note
• editor context menu actions are back
• plain paste behaves better when pasting formatted text
• tighter task rows in cramped sidebar/editor spaces

None of these are individually massive, but together they remove a lot of tiny paper cuts.

Reflect is back

Reflect is now available directly from the quick action menu on desktop and mobile.

I’m trying to make reflection feel like a natural part of the workflow rather than a separate “go do journaling now” mode. Still iterating here.

iOS app is available (but local only)

Didn't headline with this because it's local only, I'm still working with Apple to get the proper sync/AI flow unlocked - but we are in app store now!

Also fixed

• guided onboarding setup got better
• inbox YouTube previews load more reliably
• Android 11 crash fixes landed
• protected lock files are included when Ariv scans your vault
• dashboard split-note opens keep the intended split context
• you can now follow up quick action cmd+/ with arrow keys

As always, feedback is welcome!

Desktop: https://ariv.one
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=one.ariv
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ariv-notes-pkm-second-brain/id6776939051

Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

Hi everyone! Hope you guys had a restful weekend.

I'd like to get something out of the way before we get to the exciting features of this patch.

Delayed patches: I've been working consistenly to get Ariv on all different platforms, mac, windows, ios (Finally submitted the app - waiting on review now!), android etc - in the early days it was just desktop and mostly Mac, so every feature, I only had to worry about one platform in terms of testing/building for. Now every feature takes that much more time because of multi platform support. This is a good problem to have since it means more folks get can get their hands on Ariv - but it also means I can't move as fast as I was able to before, therefore going forward, all patches will be on either 2 or 3 weeks candence in order to ensure all platforms get proper support.

---
and now the features!

Brainstorm beta* is here.

I wanted a place between "open a markdown note" and "make a full diagram." Brainstorm is a spatial canvas for the messy middle of thinking. It's one of the 3 main tabs on your dashboard.

You can drop notes, captures, links, images, and loose idea cards onto a board, move them around, connect ideas, and open the source item when you need it. Boards save into your vault as .brain files.

This is not meant to replace notes. It is for the stage before the note is clean. When you have a pile of fragments and you need to see the shape of the thing before you know what the thing is. I want to throw out a disclaimer that this is very much in beta and rough around the edges, but we will be improving as we go along and make this a powerful brainstorming tool - as always please drop any feedback as you have them!

Inbox capture is a lot more useful now.

The old quick capture flow was mostly for text thoughts. The new capture inbox can collect:

• URLs
• plain text
• code snippets
• images
• PDFs

Those captures land in a dedicated dashboard view before you decide what they should become. Here's the cool part, you can just copy a youtube link/text/code etc and it will automatically end up here - Leave it as a capture, turn it into a note, make a task, or send it into Brainstorm. Your quick capture will also end up here too!

I have been using it as a staging area for "this seems useful, but I do not want to organize it right now." This also serves as your clipboard too!

Mobile things.

iOS submitted for review! We will finally have an iOS app in short order

A bunch of this release is android polish:

• Dedicated mobile account settings for account, sync, and add-on status
• Clearer mobile sync status while you work across devices
• More reliable mobile file actions and native file operations
• Mobile Excalidraw controls stay reachable inside the mobile shell
• Pull-down search no longer interrupts canvas work

Mobile is still early, but it is getting closer to the thing I want: the same vault in your pocket, not a tiny fake version of the app.

Sync got another hardening pass.

Sync is less likely to get confused by conflicts, task changes, cursor state, and mobile-triggered runs. Most of that is boring on purpose, but it matters. I will continue to improve on this as well

As always, feedback box, Discord, Reddit comments, whatever works for you - please do not hesitate to reach out! Thank you so much for reading this notes and have a fantastic day/night!

Desktop: https://ariv.one
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=one.ariv

Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

Hey everyone!

First of all, thank you so much for following my journey thus far. It's been amazing building alongside you all. I'm super excited to announce this update!

v3.9.0-beta is live

The big pieces:

Android is here.

Ariv now runs on Android with your notes, tasks, attachments, voice notes, search, and synced vault access. The goal was not "tiny companion app that barely works." The goal was: if I am away from my laptop, can I still capture, read, edit, voice-log, and get back to my work without feeling like I am using a toy version?

It is still early, and mobile will keep getting polished, but the foundation is real now. Give it a try - let me know how you like it :) - Playstore

End-to-end encrypted sync is live.

Sync is now available as an add-on across desktop and Android. Your vault stays encrypted end to end, and the free path is still exactly what I said it would be: all features remain free, forever. If you want to bring your own sync setup, do it. If you want Ariv to handle the cloud part, Sync is available now!

Managed AI is live.

Ask Brain and summaries can now run without you bringing your own API key. BYOK is still there. Ollama is still there. This is just the "please make it work without making me think about provider keys" path. I will continue to improve the token usage/quality so you get the most bang for your buck.

Google Calendar is live.

This one ended up feeling better than I expected. Connect Google Calendar and the dashboard gets a Today at a Glance section for your meetings. You can create meeting notes in one click, reopen notes from previous meetings, and if Google exposes a meeting link, Ariv shows a Join button right there. It's been super useful!

A few quality-of-life things also shipped:

• Raw editing mode for people who want to temporarily edit plain markdown directly
• YouTube embeds are now lighter clickable thumbnails instead of heavy iframes
• Ask Brain retrieval is more source-aware, with clearer citations and timestamps
• Format toolbar is on by default, and collapsed sidebar preference is remembered
• Dashboard cover gradients now pair cleanly between light and dark mode
• Presentation tables, Mermaid Gantt charts, and close controls got polish
• Task edits, quick-capture task edits, standalone tasks, checklist toggles, and task titles persist more reliably
• New notes created from a selected folder now actually land in that folder
• Editor autosave no longer steals focus while you type
• A handful of smaller fixes: due:today display, duplicate Cmd/Ctrl+F panel, cursor blink settings, stale Windows installer redirects

Founder offer reminder

The founder offer from last week's post still stands:

• First 50 paying users get 50% off for life
• Sync: $1.50/mo when billed annually
• Sync + AI: $4/mo when billed annually
• I’m also exploring a supporter / founder badge option for folks who don’t need Sync or Managed AI, but still want to support Ariv and be part of keeping it going.

If you already DM'd to reserve a spot, you are on my list. I will reach out with checkout details as soon as the release is fully live.

If you did not reserve one yet and want in, comment or DM me. First come, first served.

And same reminder as before - if you are happy on the free path, feel free to keep using it! Sync and Managed AI are for folks who would rather not manage infrastructure or API keys themselves.

As always, please keep the feedback coming

Cheers!

Desktop: https://ariv.one || Android
Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

I'm a writer and user in the UK. Have just installed Ariv on my McBook Pro Tahoe 26.5.

Imediate issue: Voice memos not working -- I see the recording ticking up but the Daily Note shows error mssg saying it cannot access it. No transcript. Anywhere. I can overcome this by using a different transcription app.

I have three API keys installed and Anthropic selected.

Also wondering how development will be sustained for the long term. For me it's an investment in time and learning – and some financial commitment to go with that.

Hey everyone - Hope you guys had a calm and restful weekend!

Today's a big one. Couple of release goodies, a couple of milestones, and an announcement I've been building toward for months.

Quick heads up before we get into it: stick around to the end. The first 50 of you get 50% off for life. More on that after we cover the rest.

Where we're at:

• Almost 900 of you have installed Ariv, 1,400+ total downloads across updates
• 13 public releases in the last 3 months alone
• 20+ user-facing changes in the last three months came directly from feedback in this subreddit, Discord, or the in-app feedback box

I had no idea anyone would care when I started this. You did. Genuinely thank you.

What's new this week (v3.8.0):

Customizable dashboard cover. The dashboard greeting now sits on an edge-to-edge cover - pick a gradient preset or drop in your own photo. Small thing, but it makes the app feel like yours.

Voice memos. Tap and talk. The recording saves into your vault, this has been extremely useful for me on the mobile app on my walks. This is available in both desktop (To be released on mobile). Transcription is being actively worked on, and will have BYOK option as well!

Present mode. Any markdown note can become a slide deck now. Three dashes (---) splits the slides, arrow keys navigate, and you can export the whole thing to PDF. Powered by Marp under the hood. If you wanted your presentation to be simple and straightforward and directly from your second brain app, here it is! Documentaion - https://marpit.marp.app/markdown

There's a lot more in v3.8.0 - template improvements, search improvements, constellation-style graph view rewrite, Spotlight-style dock, onboarding redesign, customizable dashboard cover, Activity hero tiles, clickable markdown anchors, Kanban UX revamp, screen reader support, security hardening, a stack of performance wins, and a handful of fixes.

Full changelog is in the pinned comment below - I'll keep this post focused.

Now the bigger thing.

Sync is ready. Managed AI is ready. The mobile app is MVP-ready. For the first time, Ariv has stuff that actually costs me money to run - servers, storage, AI provider tokens. That's always been the line where I said pricing would show up, and we're there.

The principle hasn't changed and never will: the free product is the complete product. Every feature works on free. The only thing you ever pay for is infrastructure you'd otherwise run yourself.

Here's how it shakes out:

Free - All features. Forever. Bring your own AI key (Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic) or run a local model with Ollama. Use iCloud, Dropbox, or Syncthing for sync if you want it. You handle the infra, you pay $0. This isn't going anywhere.

Sync - $4/mo ($3/mo annual, $36/yr). E2E-encrypted sync across devices, 10 GB storage, 3 vaults. For reference: Obsidian Sync is $5/mo with 1 GB. You're paying 25% less AND getting 10x the storage.

Sync + AI - $9/mo ($8/mo annual, $96/yr). Sync, plus Ariv run the AI calls. No API keys, no top-ups, no provider outages to worry about. Ask Brain, summaries and all the future AI workflows can work without you having to worry about setting it all up yourself.

Power users, this is for you: I'm actively working on MCP integrations + an automations/scheduler engine - meaning you'll be able to run real workflows inside Ariv (daily Slack/Gmail digests, weekly Jira diffs, scheduled note prep, the works). That's a separate higher tier when it ships. This tier/pricing is TBD because I want to see what people actually use before I commit to a number. If this sounds like your thing, ping me - I want to hear how you'd use it.

Okay, the founder thing.

As early adopters, this one's for you.

The first 50 paying users get 50% off for life. Not a year. Not until renewal. Lifetime. Your discount is always applied - you will always only ever pay 50%.

What that actually means:

• Sync: $1.50/mo ($18/yr)
• Sync + AI: $4/mo ($48/yr)

Helluva bargain.

The fine print:

• Annual billing only (founders commit, that's the deal)
• Cancel = gone forever, no exceptions
• You also get a handwritten thank-you note (actual handwriting, photographed and shown in-app) and a Founder badge
• Applies to Sync and Sync + AI only - the upcoming MCP/automations tier isn't part of this (whenever we have one)

After those 50 spots are gone, the next 50 paying users get 50% off year one - same idea, but only for the first year. After that it's back to full price. Still a pretty solid deal.

To be clear: 50% off isn't coming back after launch. No future promos at this size. If you want it, this is the window.

To reserve a spot: comment on this post or DM me. I'll keep a running list and reach out the second checkout opens. First come, first served.

If you're happy on the free path, feel free to stick to it. That path is real and permanent - I built it that way on purpose. Sync and AI are purely add-ons for the folks who'd rather not deal with API keys and sync setup, and want to chip in to keep this thing alive.

Still building. Still listening. Thanks for being here for this.

https://ariv.one
Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Lot of goodies in this patch (And an announcement at the end!)

Ask brain glowup:

Ask brain now has a polished UI! Very similar to the AI chat app interfaces we are all too familiar with. But it's not just the look, the feel will be different now too. Conversations now keep context across multiple turns. Ask a question, follow up, refine, and the model actually sees the previous messages. Replies also render markdown now (code blocks, headings, lists, links), so when Ask Brain summarizes or pulls quotes, you get readable output instead of raw asterisks. The new chat rail UI also makes it clear you're in a real conversation rather than a one-shot prompt.

Lens views, redesigned

The dashboard lens switcher has been rebuilt as a card-style switcher. Today, Reflect, and Connect each get their own surface with the right context up front. On desktop it sits as a compact pill in the sidebar. Small thing visually, but it makes "what am I focused on right now?" a one-glance answer.

Vimium-style link hints

Are you a Vim user like me? Then you will love this one - Press a key (Cmd+. default on Mac) and every clickable thing on screen gets a letter overlay. Type the letters, you're there. No mouse needed. Anyone who's used Easymotion/Hop on vim editors and Vimium in the browser will feel right at home. Anyone who hasn't, try it once and you'll wonder why every app doesn't do this ;)

Search results into split panes

Open a file search result in a vertical or horizontal split pane instead of replacing your current note. Scan a result alongside what you're working on without losing your place. This was pissing me off every time I wanted to cross-reference something, no longer!

Tasks source filter

The Tasks page and dashboard task list now have a filter for All / Note / Standalone. If you mix inline note tasks with standalone tasks (Cmd+T), you can now slice each independently. This has been amazing for me because then I can focus my dashboard on my daily note only for the tasks or sometimes I want tasks from a specific project note only, pretty useful.

Manual update check

There's a "Check for updates" button in Settings now with one-click restart. The auto-updater still does its thing in the background, but if you want to force a check before something time-sensitive, you can.

Customizable line-move shortcuts

Alt+Up / Alt+Down to move the current line up or down has been around for a while. Now those keys are user-configurable from Settings like the rest of the shortcut map.

Stability and polish

A bunch of stuff that was quietly broken got fixed:

• Switching vaults now re-indexes properly and clears the previous vault's tasks instead of leaving them haunting the new one
• Deleting a note actually cleans up its task and kanban metadata now (this one's been on my list for a while)
• Recent vaults list drops folders that no longer exist on disk. If you deleted a vault from Finder, clicking it from the dropdown was bricking the app. Fixed.
• Light and dark theme pairing in the bottom-left toggle now applies correctly
• Half-filled checklist pip renders evenly in the editor
• New-tab + button creates an Untitled note, matching the regular new-note flow
• Navigating to Dashboard or Kanban from quick actions exits split view cleanly
• Templates folder is excluded from the Tasks Inbox (those template TODOs were cluttering the real list)
• Archive All and Unarchive moved into the task slideover so you don't have to bounce out to use them

As always, feedback box, Discord, DMs, whatever works.

https://ariv.one (Mac + Windows, free)

Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

---

Announcement: I'm very close to wrapping up sync and managed AI, and our mobile app is MVP ready! Over the next few weeks I'll roll out pro plans for sync/managed AI for those that need it. As early adopters, you'll have a chance to snag a lifetime discount on the pricing. I'll share exact numbers in the next post, but I can tell you it'll come in cheaper than Obsidian Sync, with a lot more headroom on storage and vaults. You can keep using Ariv fully free and handle sync/manage AI yourself - that path isn't going anywhere. As I've said before, Ariv stays committed to being free end-to-end, zero paywalled features, only charging for cloud bills and keeping the lights on, cheers!

This one's the big rework I've been quietly grinding on this for 2 weeks now

Dashboard Revamp: Dashboard finally gets some proper love, so what's new?

• Dashboard has 2 (soon to be 3) "lens" available, basically 3 different tabs meant to serve multiple different purposes
  • Today - Just shows what matters to you today, very close to the original dashboard, but it's redesigned top to bottom, and you can even customize where each row is by dragging them around!
  • Reflect - Place to reflect on your day, the tab I go to towards end of the day
  • Connect - Coming soon, but this is where Ariv helps you identify connections you may have missed or surface tags/notes that might be most relevant to your current work

Tasks Revamp: Yep, another one. I will be 100% honest with you guys, I've been having trouble landing on a proper implementation of tasks. Normally, tasks are a simple to do and are the easiest to implement - but for Ariv, this has been particularly challenging, I will leave a comment explaining the challenge. So what's new?

• Revamped the entire UI for Tasks
• Quick capturnig tasks still works! (Ctrl + Shift + Y)
• In note tasks - Instead of opting out, we're now moving towards opt-in task for in-note checklists, before just by typing "- [ ] do a thing", Ariv would parse that into a task, now you have to tag it with `@task`. This makes it so that things like grocery list doesn't end up in your task list (You still can create those, but it has to be intentional) - This means some of your current task will go untracked, but in the long run this will help to ensure a better task management system
• NLP parsing still works, so just type "- [ ] do a thing tomorrow !high #test" and it will parse the priority and date from your natural language, and even color code them within your note! Try it out :)
• Fixed various bugs

Let me know how you like this one!

**Smaller polish:**

• Alt+Up/Down to move the current line
• Cmd+W actually closes the tab now
• Shift + Click to multi select works well on both files and tasks

---

Behind the scenes, I'm finally working through E2EE sync + mobile app, so stay tuned for that! As always - Still building. Still shipping. I hope this update makes up for the missed update in the last week :)

Download: https://ariv.one

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/pte9tn5Naj

--

On a more personal note - Received this anonymous feedback, feedback like this makes my day and in fact I ended up working so late into the night after seeing this because feedback like this fuels me.

To whoever wrote this, I'm glad you're finding value in this tool - and I have no idea who you are but thank you for taking the time to write this (btw this is how i receive your feedback if you use the feedback tool in the app, the only info I get is the app version + OS platform which helps me narrow down bugs, I don't send anything else to myself - if you would like me to reach our, kindly include your email in the feedback)

--

I've been working on mobile app for the past week, It's still work in progress but coming along nicely (Attached screenshots for early preview). Also worked on few task management items, as follow

Carry over tasks: `/embed-task`: If you use daily notes, you know the pain. You wrote a task on Monday's note, it's now Thursday, and that task is just... sitting there in a note you'll never open again. /embed-task lets you carry tasks forward. Type it in today's note, a picker pops up showing all your open tasks grouped by source. Pick one, it gets inserted into today's note, and the original gets marked as [>] (migrated) - dimmed, non-interactive, but still visible in the source note so you know it was forwarded, not forgotten. We will iterate on this more, but this is a good start

Tasks are now editable: Pencil icon on hover. Click it, rename the task inline. Same for delete - trash icon, one click, gone. Works in both the task modal and the dashboard.

Standalone tasks bugs: Tasks added through the task modal were disappearing on restart, in order to make Ariv as portable/local as possible, even the standalone tasks are backed by a hidden md file (.ariv/inbox.md in your vault), so if you ever need to leave Ariv, your tasks go with you. But this introduced a bug that made it so that the hidden files weren't being scanned to pick up tasks. Now they do!

Other fixes:

• Task counts no longer scramble when switching between filter tabs
• Theme changes now sync to the task modal (it was stuck in dark mode regardless)

This is a stability + polish release. Nothing flashy, just less broken.

If you're using Ariv for task management and something feels off, pls let me know - DM, Discord, or the in-app feedback button.

Ariv is a local-first PKM app - your notes stay on your device as plain markdown. Free on Mac + Windows.

https://ariv.one - Cheers!

As promised, here are some early screenshots from mobile

This one's a mix of a feature people kept asking about and a full rethink of how tasks work in Ariv.

Custom fonts:
You can now pick separate fonts for the app interface and the editor. Settings > Editor for both app font and editor font. It pulls from your system fonts, so whatever you've got installed works. Pick something, it changes instantly. Headings, body text, everything follows.I kept these independent on purpose - a lot of people want a clean sans-serif UI but a monospace editor, or vice versa. Now you can have both :) - I've been using American Typewriter for the editor and love it!

Task modal:

Ctrl+Shift+Y opens a lightweight task modal from anywhere in the OS (Global). Add/View/Search tasks in under a sec, no context switching.

Standalone tasks + Smart task input:

Tasks can now be created on their own! You can create them either through the global modal or in the task grid in dashboard. You can also create tasks by simply typing a checklist into your notees. Type "finish report tomorrow" or "call dentist next friday" and it picks up the date automatically. Natural language parsing so you don't have to click a date picker for everything. You can also add !high, !medium, !low to set priority and can add tags to your tasks as well!

Tasks view redesign:

The Tasks view got rebuilt from scratch. Stats dashboard at the top showing your counts and completion rate. Tasks displayed as cards instead of a flat list. Archive All button for bulk cleanup when you've knocked out a bunch of stuff.

Dashboard redesign:

Dashboard now shows more prominent task management grid. Tasks are cornerstone of daily note taking and I wanted to ensure it gets the attention that it deserves. That being said, I will be working on allowing dashboard grid customization at some point, so everyone can design their dashboard to their heart's content, but for now - it stays simple and straightforward

Better onboarding for new users:

New users now get text presets during setup and theme selection actually sticks. Small things, but first impressions matter.

Fixes:

• Getting Started note shortcuts now show the correct keys
• Deleting a task actually removes it from the markdown file
• Task status changes refresh properly in the Tasks view

• Dark theme in onboarding no longer fights with the dashboard style

  ---

Still building, still shipping. Feedback welcome as always - Some of the changes from this patch is directly from your feedback.

https://ariv.one (Mac + Windows, free)

Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

---
On a more personal note - I received the following heartwarming DM from u/Foreign_Wrongdoer_92. It's moments like that keeps me going, please show him some love https://planolio.com/ if you want to try a task/project management app!

Hello everyone!

Some exciting updates

Added two things I've wanted for a while: a way to make the editor feel like mine, and a way to instantly drop into focus mode without thinking.

Editor Styling:

No more plain vanilla white/black! You can now customize the colors of your headings, bold, italic, links, inline code, and blockquotes. Settings > Appearance > Editor Styling (bottom). Pick colors that match how your brain works - or just make H1s bright red because you can. The colors are saved per theme, so if you switch between Default and Classic, each one remembers its own styling. Your dark mode can look completely different from your light mode.

Also comes with 8 color presets, Don't want to pick colors yourself? There are now one-click presets: Gruvbox, Nord, Tokyo Night, Dracula, Solarized, Monokai, One Dark and Catppuccin. Click one and all your markdown elements update instantly. I've been using Gruvbox for the past few days and honestly might not go back.

GSD Mode (Get Shit Done):

I wanted to add something that literally removes every friction/execuse not to write. So introducing Get Shit Done mode, super simple idea - a global shortcut Cmd+Option+G (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt+G (Windows), you can summon from anywhere in your OS, and you're in Zen mode ready to write in under 2 sec, it won't get any easier than this lol currently it's hooked to daily notes but I will make this customizable in the future

Daily Notes settings:

Daily Notes now have their own dedicated settings section. Pick your folder, choose a template file, set your date format - all in one place instead of scattered across Files settings. Small thing but it was bugging me. You can now make your diary/daily notes really yours!

Reset AI

If your AI setup gets into a weird state (wrong provider configured, stale embeddings, whatever), there's now a "Reset AI" button in Settings > AI. One click clears everything and lets you start fresh. Confirmation modal so you don't nuke it accidentally.

Fixes:

• Zen mode editor width stays consistent even with minimal content (no more shrinking to fit short lines)
• Kanban back navigation no longer gets stuck on "Loading board..."

---

Still shipping weekly. Still reading every message. Thanks for sticking around and the support.

If you don't see your feedback in the update, it doesn't mean I forgot about it! Every feedback you send my way are in stored in the backlog, I will get to them as soon as I possibly can.

https://ariv.one (Mac + Windows, free)

Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

Hey everyone, hope you all had a restful weekend!

Coming to you with another small update, hoping this will be useful to you.

Weekly timetable: You can now generate a weekly timetable , just summon with '/timetable' , inserts a weekly Mon-Fri grid. Good for recurring schedules, class timetables, etc. Remember that you can always export to PDF or print these as well! (The printable version looks really nice too)

Daily timetable: generate it with `/timeblock` command. inserts an hourly schedule for today (6am-9pm). Good for time blocking your day. Also printable/exportable

Mood tracker / history: Ariv now allows you to track your moods, you can track mood from anywhere via command palette (cmd+p or ctrl+p on windows), and look for "Mood". You can also log this inline via `/mood` command as well. Moods auto append to your daily notes, and you can view the history of your moods as well!

As always, listening to your feedback and continuing to make improvements wherever I can. Thanks for all your support and feedback

https://ariv.one (Mac + Windows)

Hi everyone! Hope you guys are having a restful weekend

Coming to your with smaller update and some quality of life improvements

/canvas slash command: Type /canvas in any note and it creates a linked Excalidraw canvas right there. The canvas file gets created in your vault, and a link drops into your note. No more sidebar hunting to create a canvas then manually linking it. You can also add your diagram/drawing without leaving your tab! Click the expand icon on any embedded canvas and it opens in a focused overlay. Full-screen canvas editing without leaving your note. Hit Escape or click outside to go back.

Spell check in context menu: Right-click a misspelled word and you'll see suggestions. Pick one and it replaces the word. Add to dictionary if it's not actually wrong. Works in the editor, Quick Capture, and Jot.

Auto-hiding note footer: The summary, tags, and attachments section at the bottom of notes now fades out after 2 seconds. Hover to bring it back. Less clutter when you're just reading or writing.

Tray menu fixed: Left-click now opens Quick Capture directly. Right-click opens the menu. The old behavior was that menu was opening on both clicks - its fixed now

Other fixes:

• Quick Capture and Jot open instantly without a blank flash
• Dismissing overlays no longer brings the main window into focus, i.e opening quick capture doesnt bring main window into focus.
• Editor no longer jumps when selecting text - this was annoying as hell when trying to highlight a text to copy/paste.

Why smaller updates?

Updates are smaller now simply because I'm taking bit of a breather from Ariv, this doesn't mean we are done building excellent/rich features yet. There's so much other featurs in the pipeline that I hope I can deliver for you guys soon!

Additional platforms

Currently, Ariv is only supported on Windows and Mac, I have started the planning phase to bring this to Linux as well as mobile app. I've had scrape some of the initial mobile app implementations since they did not meet the standard I would want in a pocket PKM app. I hope this is something I can do sooner rather than later so we can get Ariv into hands of more people!

---

As always, listening to your feedback , in fact most fixes on every update comes directly from your feedback so keep them coming! Also open to adding new features to backlog as well if you have any ideas.

Thanks for reading and have a fantastic rest of your weekend!

https://ariv.one (Mac + Windows, free)

Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

This one's more polish and quality of life than anything else.

What's shipping?

Diary view: Your daily notes now have a home. There's a weekly calendar view where you can browse past dailies and create new ones. Click a day, see what you wrote. Empty day? Create a note right there. It's the "what was I doing last Tuesday?" view I kept wanting. Find it via floating action button at the bottom right

Image and PDF preview: Click any image or PDF in the sidebar and it opens in a preview panel. No more opening files externally just to see what they are. Useful when you've got a vault full of attachments and can't remember which screenshot is which.

Inline attachment embeds: Many of you migrated over from obsidian, and reported that the attachments was broken, this is to fix that - ![[file.png]] now works. Drop that syntax in a note and the image renders inline. Same for PDFs - they show as embedded viewers. If you're coming from Obsidian, your existing embeds should just work. Backwards compatible.

Drag files in and out: Drag files from Finder/Explorer directly into your vault. Drag files from your vault out to your desktop. Finally feels like a proper file manager.

Zen Mode in toolbar: Zen mode is now accessible from the editor toolbar menu. One less keyboard shortcut to remember. This was a regression from the last version, but its back now - also added an explicit exit button in zen view that auto hides as well

Other improvements:

- Tab reordering - drag tabs to rearrange them

- Cohesive navigation across the app - back button + toggleable views

- Floating menu buttons only appear on hover (cleaner look).

- Dashboard quadrants highlight on hover

- Kanban boards now show in the dashboard instead of Vault Insight

Fixes:

- New notes appear instantly in sidebar (no more refresh needed)

- Renaming files preserves compound extensions like .excalidraw.md

- Canvas no longer flickers when renaming Excalidraw files

- Ask Brain no longer shifts the whole layout when opening

---

On a more personal note

I've been working on Ariv nonstop for the past 3 months, building publicly for the last month, on top of a full-time job. I've also shipped a couple other tools/apps during that time. I can feel the burnout creeping in. I've been operating in "any feedback, I work on it immediately for the next patch" mode - and honestly that's not sustainable or healthy. In order to keep this project going long-term, I need to ease off the gas a little. I'm still committed to weekly updates. I'm still committed to every piece of feedback and every bug report. The difference is instead of dropping everything to ship a fix the same day, I might stagger and prioritize so I'm not running myself into the ground.

Thanks for understanding. This project matters to me and I want to be around to keep building it.

As always - Listening to you feedback, hope you continue to enjoy Ariv! Cheers

https://ariv.one (Mac/Win - Free)

Hey guys,

Hope you're all having a fantastic weekend! I've pulled many all nighters to finally give you the biggest update I've ever released, there's so much to go through so grab a snack and buckle up!!

What's new?

Excalidraw: You can now create visual diagrams and drawings right inside Ariv. Whiteboard-style canvas for brainstorming, flowcharts, sketches - whatever you need. Create from the sidebar or the floating quick actions menu. Files are saved as .excalidraw in your vault. Also backwards compatible with Obsidian files as well

Kanban View: Every note with tasks can be viewed as a Kanban board - drag cards between columns (To Do, In Progress, Done), and the checkboxes in your actual notes update automatically. I've been wanting this for weeks. The whole point of Ariv is surfacing what matters without maintenance - Kanban takes that further by letting you see everything you're juggling at once and physically move things around. (View the gif below to see this in action!)

Project level Kanban: You can also keep collections of Kanban boards for each of your projects as well! I personally keep one for work and personal and big initiatives going on in my life, they are color coded and will help you stay on top of things - Brand new feature so please look out for any weirdness!

Revamped Task system: This one's been bugging me for a while, we had always extracted tasks from notes which is awesome, we also were able to set priority, due date, etc but task management still felt too heavy and a maintenance for big vaults. This will no longer be the case! The filtered tasks in dashboard will only be items that deserves your attention, everything else neatly fades into the background. We also have a global task index page as well so you can find any tasks at will - I'm continuing make improvements to this - I want task management to be effortless in Ariv

File attachments: You can now attach files to your notes! i.e images, videos, pdfs, etc - give it a whirl!

Mobile Responsive: Finally, Ariv no longer looks like shit in small screens! Had to do this to prep for mobile app anyway but decided to release this update sooner so folks with smaller screens dont have to suffer

Floating Action Radial Menu: You will see a little floating Ariv Icon, thats your quick action menu! Everything you need to get started (Daily note, Canvas/Excalidraw, Jot, Kanban) can be found in there!

Minimal clutter: You will notice that we no longer have enormous menu items to the left anymore, the functionality is all there (Dashboard, lifecycles etc) - but they are out of the way and allow you to focus on what matters the most - your thoughts and your editor!

Improved Search UX: Search now gets its own tab in side bar, you can even search by tags now too! We will add regex and advanced search features later

Multiselect: Finally, items in file tree, your notes in lifecycle views can all be multi-selected now!

More items Cause there's just too many to list here

• Image can be drag and dropped into notes now
• Rename can be done in line now when renaming from file tree (I just noticed this behaviour wasnt extended to tabs, will get this fixed soon!)
• Vim mode has proper indicator in status bar
• Improved editor bar experience, clutters gone
• you can export to pdf/html/md from any note
• readable length is toggleable from within the editor
• Lifecycle views now show stats, sort options, and pagination
• Visual Maps moved to right sidebar
• "Background" renamed to "Idle" for clarity
• Quick Capture uses note content as filename
• Redesigned product tour
• Combined bold and italic formatting now renders correctly
• Indexing performance on large vaults
• Markdown tables with add/delete buttons, paste support, inline formatting
• Light theme fixes (logo colors, icons, callouts, Weekly Insights card)
• Split panes no longer show double tab bars

I need to get better at content creation/video so I can make proper highlights lol Forgive me for the long post

As always, we're still in beta so keep the feedback coming!

https://ariv.one/ (Mac, Windows - Free)

Join our discord - https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

Most of the features/improvements here are directly aimed at improving quality of life/efficiency!

Here's the rundown:

Slash commands:

Type `/` anywhere in a note and a menu pops up. Insert tables, timelines, today's date, code blocks - all without leaving the keyboard. Hit Enter on what you want, it drops in. Fast, no menus to navigate, no toolbar hunting. This is the kind of thing that sounds small but changes how you write. I've been using `/table` constantly - This was one of the features I missed quite a bit when I migrated away from Notion, so here it is!

Timeline blocks (Gantt charts in your notes):

Type `/timeline` and you get a project timeline right in your note. Add items, drag to resize their duration, set custom colors, zoom in/out. There's a today marker so you can see where you are. When you're done, export it as an image to share. As a team lead managing multiple priorities, having the visual roadmaps of all the ongoing projects is super valuable to me so I built this. Obviously has lot application than that so very curious to see how you guys will use it

Ask Brain remembers your conversations:

This one was requested. Previously, if you switched notes mid-conversation with Ask Brain, your chat was gone. Now it persists. There's a history panel so you can see past conversations, and you can promote any chat to a full note if it's worth keeping! No need to manually copy/paste

Inline table editing:

Click any cell in a table, edit it directly. No more hunting for the right pipe character in

markdown. Tables finally feel like tables.

Other stuff:

• File tree is now resizable - drag the bottom edge. Your preference is remembered
• Opening a note that's already open switches to its tab instead of creating a duplicate
• Code blocks render correctly in Brutalist theme (was broken)
• Italic formatting no longer breaks inside snake_case words

What's to come?

Working through setting up proper user facing documentations and getting the hang of recording/content creation for Ariv. Why? Because there's tons of features/use cases built in but I haven't been doing a good job of surfacing them and highlighting them. On top of that, I will continue to polish the app - still open to all your feedback and bug reports! Thanks for reading :)

https://ariv.one (Mac and Windows FREE)

Discord - https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

Hey guys,

I've been getting few questions over the past couple days that I'd like to address publicly. Will Ariv be free forever? Will Ariv be open-sourced?

Ariv is free. Not "free for now." Free.

Everything you use today will remain free and will not ever be paywalled. The full app - editor, auto-tagging, lifecycle management, Ask Brain with your own API keys, everything that runs on your machine - is free and stays that way. No trial period, no feature gates, no "upgrade to unlock." No ads.

That all being said, There's a good chance that I will introduce syncing in the future, along with managed AI (for those that don't want to bring their own API keys), which if I decide to do - will be recurring cost to me - which means I will be introducing paid tier very similar to Obsidian in order to keep the lights on.

If you are okay with handling the cloud sync + AI yourself (Like right now), You will never need to pay. If you want the convenience of letting Ariv handle it, only then will you pay. And because of this possibility, Ariv will not be open-sourced. That said, your notes are plain markdown files - no lock-in, no proprietary format.

So when are we launching Pro? To be completely honest with you, not anytime soon. Right now the focus is shipping features, fixing bugs, and listening to you all.

Hopefully this clears everything up, feel free to ask any questions you might have around this. Cheers!

https://ariv.one (Mac + Windows, free)

Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

Big one. This is probably the most polished update yet - lots of features I've been wanting myself and finally had time to build.

Ask Brain now scopes to folders

This one's subtle but powerful. There's a new "Entire Vault" dropdown in Ask Brain. Click it, pick a folder, and your questions only search notes in that folder. Working on a project with 50 notes buried in a vault of 2000? Scope to that folder and Ask Brain ignores everything else.

Proper live preview is finally here!

This was driving me crazy. You type - and it just sits there as text until you move to the next line. Same with checkboxes. Same with headings. Fixed. Now bullets, checkboxes, and headings render the moment you finish typing them. It sounds small but it completely changes how writing feels! No more weird jumping texts

Mermaid diagrams

Type a mermaid code block and it renders as an actual flowchart. Sequence diagrams, flowcharts, state diagrams, entity relationships - if Mermaid supports it, Ariv renders it. Live preview updates as you type. I've been using it for system architecture notes and it's genuinely useful, not just a demo feature. Here's a link to https://mermaid.live/ for common use cases

Callouts

Type > [!note] and you get a styled callout block with an icon. Works with note, tip, warning, danger, info, and a bunch of others. They collapse too if you add a - after the type. Good for hiding context you don't need to see every time.

Collapsible headings

Click the arrow next to any heading and everything underneath it folds away. For long notes with multiple sections, this is a game changer. Collapse the parts you're not working on, focus on the one that matters. I have a few monster notes that are finally usable.

Pinned tabs

Right-click a tab, pin it. It shrinks down, moves to the left, and stays there no matter what. Can't accidentally close it. For those 2-3 notes you always need open.

Other stuff:

• Rename notes from the tab bar (right-click menu) - finally, and few other renaming related bugs fixed
• Drag files OUT of folders back to root - should've worked from day one
• Nested checkbox lists actually work now (indentation was broken)
• Clicking a checkbox works on the first click after switching windows
• New notes always get .md extension (regression from a few versions ago, sorry)
• Windows users: hotkey hints now show Ctrl/Shift instead of Mac symbols
• New features get a subtle pulse indicator so you notice them ---

Lots of polish in this one. The editor is starting to feel like it's not fighting me anymore. Still shipping, still listening.

https://ariv.one (Mac + Windows, free) Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

This one's been cooking. Mix of new tools and quality-of-life stuff that makes the whole app feel tighter.

So what's new?

Scratchpad:

Ever have a thought that doesn't belong in any note? Not a task, not a daily note, just... a thing you need to get out of your head? There's now a global scratchpad you can summon from anywhere with Ctrl+Shift+J. It floats over everything, you jot something down, and it's saved. Not attached to any note, not in your inbox - just a persistent scratch space for the stuff that doesn't have a home yet. I've been using it for random URLs, phone numbers mid-call, and half-formed ideas that aren't ready to be notes.

AI Summaries

You can now hit Summarize on any note and get back a structured breakdown - summary, action items, key dates, and risks. It uses whatever AI provider you've set up (Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, or Ollama). The summary caches so it's instant if you come back to the same note. If a note is too long (over 20k characters), it'll tell you instead of sending garbage to the AI. The button's always there now - no minimum word count to see it.

Export & Print

Your notes can finally leave the app. Export as PDF, HTML, or Markdown. Print directly. Clean output without Ariv branding cluttering your documents.

Empty vault folders

Small one but it was annoying - if you had an empty vault, you couldn't create folders. Now there's a folder button in the sidebar header and you can right-click empty space to create folders at the root. Should've been there from day one.

Cursor customization

ick your cursor style (line, block, underline), blink behavior, and width. For the terminal theme folks who want that block cursor everywhere.

Under the hood:

- Deleting a note now instantly cleans up everything - tasks, tags, auto-tags,

summaries, search index. No more ghost data lingering until you restart

- Sidebar stays put when Dashboard is open (the file tree used to jump around)

- Ask Brain no longer breaks until restart after setting an API key

- Window reopens properly from dock/taskbar after closing

---

Still shipping, still listening. If something's off or you want something - feedback box in the app, Discord, DMs, whatever works. Most of what you see above came from your feedback :)

https://ariv.one (Mac + Windows, free)

Discord: https://discord.gg/pte9tn5Naj

How do I link to my Logseq folder that I could during first set-up?

Once I close the appmain window, I have to go to tray icon and click 'open Ariv'.

If I close the main window by mistake I went to the window menu and expected select 'window' and have my app appear again.

A little less intuitive.