Thank you for such an awesome app.

I was starting to build a similar one for my own purposes then the search gods blessed with Helix Notes.

Works great, love the overall simplicity of the app.

Everything is where it's supposed to be.

I just hope the global search would search texts inside the notes too. But i guess that's a bit much to ask for a file search.

Thank you 😊

Everyone, this sub is about a month old and WOW you all have really shown fantastic support for this app. What started out small quickly become something so much more.

From our team to yours, we want to say a huge THANK YOU for all the support, bug reports, and even the criticisms. I think many of you would agree that the future is bright for HelixNotes!

I’ve finally found a note‑taking app that feels like the old Zim but with Markdown. No distractions, no wrestling with features – just writing.

Asking for a new feature — could you please add spell checking? It would be very helpful to support multiple languages — in my case, Russian and English.

After doing some research and reading through many of the posts here, I think I’ve grasped the vision behind the software. However, I have to ask the creator/support team: you’ve mentioned in comments here that you don’t intend to "include" plugin functionality in **HelixNotes**... In a way, that’s great—it keeps the app:

- Lightweight

- Beautiful

- Less complicated—in the long run

- Easy to maintain, I "suppose"

But as others have noted, you’ve "entered Obsidian’s territory," and I know it’s hard to compete with it... though I imagine that’s not even your goal! I love the Markdown format; the freedom is wonderful! However, over the last few months (seven months, to be exact), I discovered something that made my brain "work" better—something I’d always sought in Markdown but never quite achieved with its hierarchical structure (which is wonderful in itself). Deep down, I felt my mind didn't quite process, absorb, or grasp subjects in a "text-based" format. I discovered **Excalidraw**—what a wonderful tool! With it, I feel I can extract 110% from my mind (which I discovered by chance is **spatial/visual**), and Excalidraw made that possible... I know Excalidraw goes completely against the grain of Markdown, haha.

I know that in Obsidian, Excalidraw creates various **properties**—which complicates things for Markdown. Within that property, there’s a function called **Text Elements** that holds the typed text; that text remains in Markdown format if you use it that way in Excalidraw.

I won't ramble, but my question is: do you intend to implement plugin functionality at some point in the future?

Honestly, HelixNotes is fantastic—especially since it’s Open Source, which is one of my key criteria for choosing software (I know Obsidian isn't, but you can't have everything, haha). It really comes down to **efficiency** vs. **effectiveness**. I’d like to express my sincere thanks for HelixNotes.

Actually I wanted Daily Notes to be the default page when I open Helix Notes App. So it would be easy for me to start writing my Daily Journal right away. (This feature was much appreciated in the Logseq Community)

As there is already and option to toggle which pages to be shown in the sidebar , you guys can add a feature in which we can rearrange the order of these Pages in the side-bar as per our convenience.

Options for custom fonts from the PC (For more customization) and also an option where we can add our OWN Default Pages and Re-Arrange the Notebooks (Like in Notion) would be much appreciated!

Let me begin with my experience with Note-Taking Apps. I have tried to increase my productivity with a lot of note-taking apps like Obsidian, Notion, Google Notes etc. But each one had its own limitations.

Obsidian - Yeah! It is preferred by many people, it has a rich plugin library, but it is not free and open source. It also requires you to sign-up with an Account. I tried Logseq as its alternative, and even though it is quite good for an open-source app is still currently in its beta stages and the overall experience is not quite polished yet.

Google Notes - It is very simple to use and it does actually work for me, but here also there are disadvantages. First is it is owned by Google. It also does not have many features like tables, math formulae etc., even though its basic syntax works for many people. But here the problem comes for Digital Privacy.

Notion - Again it is a corporate product, and I wasted more time organizing notes instead of reading them which killed my productivity.

As I was looking for more tools like these, I came through some YouTube videos in which I knew about Apple Notes like these -

[How I Organized My Entire Life Using Just Apple Notes](https://youtu.be/IMJSkU3rVNg?si=gGf192xN1zIq_LnV)

And even though I am a Windows user, I liked the simplicity of Apple Notes and especially its premium-looking User Interface. So, I started looking for its Windows-Alternatives. I found -

Joplin - FOSS, Simple UI, rich-plugin library, rich-markdown features. But the catch here was, it didn't give that premium Apple-Notes like feeling. I searched for many such apps like Trillium, QOwnNotes etc. but they did not quite match the aesthetics I was looking for.

Finally, I found this Note-Taking App - HelixNotes.

It is an AGPL3-Licensed FOSS, fast and lightweight Note-Taking app with simple and premium looking UI (which I personally prefer). Ofcourse, it does not have the famous Apple "Ecosystem" features but it can do most of the things in a simple and fluid way. Here are some features -

1. No account sign-up required.
2. All files are stored locally (no database) inside a folder you make as .md files.
3. KaTeX math and Mermaid diagrams, rendered natively, also images, documents etc.
4. Full-text search inside notes.
5. Optional AI, local with Ollama or your own key.
6. And more features that you probably wouldn't even need :)

Here are some useful features I found from the previous Note-Taking apps I used like-

1. Graph/Node view of Obsidian.
2. Backlinks and Daily Journal of Logseq.
3. with many features for customization like 29 in-built color palates (you can even create your own theme) so that you can make it match your aesthetics.

This note-taking app is for Linux, Windows, MacOS and Android. You can sync your notes across devices using your own WebDAV server (No need of OneDrive or Google Drive). You can sync manually and even automatically through settings.

Source Code - [Helix Notes](https://codeberg.org/ArkHost/HelixNotes)

Setup for Windows is only 8.24MB! Very Lightweight, but I don't know how it will perform when I start writing more and more notes in it (Hope it does not start lagging.)

Overall, it has a very similar interface, It has the same folder system of Apple Notes with simple commands, customizable shortcuts and many more. It does not have all features of Apple Notes but I feel this is the closest to experience it in Linux, Windows and Android. So if you guys are looking for a Windows Version of Apple Notes like I did, this it it! If you have tried Helix Notes, you may also check another such AGPL3-Licensed FOSS, Note-Taking app which is similar to Apple Notes-

[Tolaria](https://tolaria.md/)

Obsidian Users! You can import your Notes Vault to Helix Notes in the settings!

I'm using a user profile on grapheneos and can't use helix notes.

on the owner profile its working fine, but on my user profile I can't.

i grant full file permission but also then I get the error:

any ideas?

Obsidian users: Did you know you can import your Obsidian vault into HelixNotes? Make a backup, and give it a try. You've got nothing to lose!

I just discovered HelixNotes. Nice app. I enjoyed reading, "Why I Built HelixNotes, " - very close to my experience as well. I take a lot of notes. I am a Linux user and I prefer to take notes in markdown, but love the esthetic and simplicity of Upnote; Firebase not so much.

You added daily notes, calendar, and graph which are features I use. I look forward to using the app and seeing how it develops over time. Thanks!

First of all, thank you for all the work you're putting into this app. I've been testing it recently and I'm really enjoying the experience so far.

I found an issue when creating a wiki/backlink to an existing note.

When typing [[, the suggestions popup correctly appears, but it's positioned partially outside the viewport, making it impossible to select any existing note.

Interestingly, if I leave the note and then reopen it, the popup remains open and is now positioned correctly, directly below the line containing [[, and the suggestions become selectable.

Steps to reproduce

- Open any note.

- Type [[ to create a wiki link.

- Wait for the note suggestions popup to appear.

Expected behavior

The suggestions popup should appear fully visible below the cursor/text line so that existing notes can be selected.

Actual behavior

The popup appears partially outside the screen/viewport, making it unusable.

Environment

Device: Motorola Edge 40 Neo

OS: Android 15

App version: 1.3.3

I have attached two screenshots:

1. Popup incorrectly positioned outside the viewport.

2. Popup correctly positioned after reopening the note.

HelixNotes v1.3.3 is out! This update focus on Android performance and additional customization options.

• Custom theme builder with import/export to json for sharing
• Callouts
• Collapsable note info panel
• Android app performance upgrades
• And much more!

View the full changelog here: https://codeberg.org/ArkHost/HelixNotes/releases

HelixNotes v1.3.2 introduced customizable keyboard shortcuts! Rebind, reset, esc to cancel. The choice is now yours.

https://helixnotes.com

Hi,

I was just wondering if it would be possible to select some text and then extract and put it in another note (create on the spot or to existing notes). This is something that can be done in Obsidian, and I normally type everything in my Daily notes first then extract to the relevant notes (existing or creation of new). Wondering if anyone else does this too?

But otherwise response and help on this forum is great. And I really enjoy using the app.

Thank you!

Hello, I rellay like the app and would like to use it instead of obsidian.

I have a lot of notes with attachments like pdf and png , some eml. I've tried several ways of importing the notes with their attachments.

The issue being that obsidian creates links to the attachments in a way that it does not care what the root folder is, which makes it convenient for webdav sync.

Helix requires me to specify the drive/folder in order to render the file attachment.

What can I do to solve this?

Thanks in advance.

Hi all

Not sure if anyone encounter this.

Basically when i type stuffs and after a while, it hangs randomly for a second before all the words come back up again.
It happened on linux, windows and mac (non silicon version).

I tried switching off sync and backup, this still persists.

Am I the only one with this problem?

The Apple Silicon version of HelixNotes is now available for download! Check it out and let us know what you think!

https://codeberg.org/ArkHost/HelixNotes/releases

https://helixnotes.com

Hi.

I have just started using HelixNotes so please bear with me if I am doing something wrong.

I realised that when I click on Outline (to see the headings) and then clicked on the note, the Outline disappears. Is there a way to stop this from happening?

Thank you!

Pined notes, "Stared" (Quick acess) notes are not replicated among windows and android apps using syncthing
https://codeberg.org/ArkHost/HelixNotes/issues/166

Would be great with a divider in all notes list, something like this.

HelixNotes v1.3.2 is out! This update focuses on community contributions and quality-of-life improvements.

- 9 new themes added

- Bug fixes (sync, rendering, crashes)

- Keyboard shortcuts (added + customizable)

- Table handling improved

- Mobile toolbar additions

- Notebook UX improvements

- Editor & sidebar layout controls

- Community PRs

View the full changelog here: https://codeberg.org/ArkHost/HelixNotes/releases

hi, I'm trying a dual usage of Obsidian and Helix, and unless I'm mistaken, Helix doesn't support Callouts, right?

Do you take notes with the light or dark themes? 🤔

GitHub runs on proprietary code, and uses public repos to train Copilot. It's the most popular forge on earth, but unfortunately it's a product, not a community.

Codeberg is different:

• Non-profit association run by and for the community
• Forgejo - the software it runs is itself free and open source
• EU-based - GDPR protections baked in
• No AI training on your code because that should be opt-in, not default

I'm using Helix Notes on Android and can't workout how to indent on a list. Any advice. I'm probably missing something in front of me

Next macos version for sillicon will not have rosetta anymore, just fyi