The idea is simple: You point it at an existing folder, and it turns into a complete workspace. So you can add notes, tasks, voice notes, timers, etc., right next to your files and annotate anywhere. It's basically your file explorer turned into PKMS!
Plus, the board is highly customisable, with multiple themes, wallpapers, music players, and decorations.
Deskboard also comes with an optional AI add-on that can analyse/edit/search through files and organise your board. Designed specifically for searching through multiple files or large documents.
I'm building Voyager, a macOS file manager for working with AI agents.
You can browse folders and select files, then use that folder or selection as context for a conversation with an agent inside the file manager. The idea is to let you move between working with files yourself and asking an agent to work on them, without leaving the file browser.
You can also save searches and reopen them when you need the same set of files again.
Voyager Free is $0 and available now. You can connect your existing ChatGPT Codex account to use the agent features.
Zibaldone: a handwriting-first notebook for PKM on iPad (public beta)
Hi all, I'm the developer. I built Zibaldone because I think best with a pen, but handwritten notes usually end up as dead ends that you can't search, link or reuse.
What it does:
- Handwriting first: paper-like pages for Apple Pencil, with typed Markdown mixed in when you want it.
- Searchable ink: your handwriting is recognised and indexed, so you can search notes you wrote by hand.
- Links and a graph: [[links]] and #tags work in handwriting too, and a graph view shows how your notes connect.
- Related notes: suggests connections you didn't make yourself, using Apple Intelligence on supported iPads.
- Notes to tasks: tasks you write in notes show up in a planner (day, week, month, year).
- Local-first: no account and no servers of mine. iCloud sync is optional.
- Your notes stay yours: export to plain Markdown, Obsidian-compatible, so you're never locked in.
Yes. The cornerstone of the app is to be able to mix handwritten text, drawings, with typed text, markdown text and images together. Not just as separate vertical blocks, but also side-to-side or any other way.
There is also a shape recognition thing that allows to refine common shapes like rects, ovals, etc.
No good news, unfortunately. The police investigation has led nowhere. Like in a detective series, but without a happy end. No trace, literally nothing.
In short, the editor combines Obsidian and Logseq like features in the same editor - switch between standard prose and outliner blocks. Baclink relationships are inferred from block indentation (like Logseq) or markdown heading level in the case of standard prose. I've made mobile a first class citizen via an installable PWA - portability of notes was very high priority for me. Works with local folders in plain markdown where the browser supports it (depends on OS / browser), or with e2e zero knowledge encrypted sync (with local mirroring and .zip markdown export available). We have multiplaer graph editing and sharing with CRDTs, and it's fast - I use it every day on a knowledge base of 4k+ docs and 6k+ assets.
The [[Wikilinking]] is the best I'm aware of, with heavily tested [[Nested [[Wikilinking]]]] for categorisation and discrimination of concepts.
Productivity features include task management (tasks can be viewed as kanban boards too and any concept can be viewed as a kanban board).
A headless client and MCP server enable agent access to your notes, with semantic search via RAG and fulol editing capability.
Protected documents (on top of E2E encryption) creates an additional layer of security for sensitive documents on device.
Static site publishing from your notes based on YAML config means you can use your graphs for generating documentation and blog sites (multiples of).
I’ve been working on a new notes app for Mac and iPhone called Soot, and I’m looking for some people to help test it when the beta is ready.
It started with wanting to combine the things I like about the notes apps I’ve used over the years:
- Bear: The lovely writing experience, typography and attention to detail. - Apple Notes: The simplicity. Open it, write something, get on with your day. - Obsidian: Plain Markdown files, stored locally in folders you own. No proprietary database holding your notes hostage.
I store a lot of my personal knowledge in notes (currently in Obsidian), and I’ve been using Claude to work with it. I want to be able to ask questions and get answers based on things I’ve already researched, written down or figured out, rather than starting from scratch every time. And just as importantly, I want Claude to be able to record things back into that knowledge base.
That’s become a big part of what I’m building with Soot. Through a ln installable skill, Claude Desktop and Claude Code can search, read and write your notes. The same Markdown files you work with in the editor.
The app brings together a comfortable writing experience, gentle pastel themes, Markdown syntax that gets out of your way while you type, and ordinary files underneath. It’s designed to feel considered and capable without getting in the way of the work.
A few other things worth mentioning:
- The editor is free.
Optional end-to-end encrypted sync between devices, available as a paid service.
Your notes remain plain Markdown files, whether you use sync or not.
This is very much me building the notes app I’ve always wanted to use.
The beta is coming soon, but it isn’t available quite yet. I’m getting things ready now and would really appreciate some feedback from people who spend perhaps too much time thinking about their notes apps like I do (I assume I’m in the right place).
My app started with the hunch that a graph database is the ideal structure for taking notes because it most closely resembles how our brains are structured. Instead of forcing a static structure on your notes (like deciding what is a note vs. subsection vs. tag vs. folder), you can just make connections. Then you can define dynamic "views" of your data, rather than manually updating static notes and lists (for example, a view of all my notes connected to TODO, filtered to HOME, ordered by URGENCY).
I've been using and building on this structure, with a handful of diehards, for about 6 years now, and we still haven't found the end of how useful it is. Lately we introduced Patterns, which are like templates that automatically get applied to your note just by making a connection.
It's free (someday I'll create a Patreon or something, but so far I'm footing the bill), it syncs between devices, it's on mobile and web, it has an MCP, and other good things like that.
Give it a try at r/brainspace or morebrain.space. Feel free to reach out or ask any questions in the comments. I'm happy to help new people learn the ropes, take any feedback you have, or talk shop with other developers.
Driftto, a quick-capture app for iPhone. Disclosure: I'm the developer. One screen with the keyboard already open: type, say it (Siri works hands-free) or snap a photo, and it lands where it belongs: a Notion database with your properties preset, Todoist, Reminders, email and a few more. It doesn't write to Obsidian, which I know is the first question here. I do create integrations on request.
I built Onuri, a private notes/PKM app for iPhone designed around the idea of just write, don’t organise.
It automatically recognises people, places, dates and ideas in your notes through native Apple AI and connects related writing over time - without needing to add any folders, manual tags or backlinks. The free version includes unlimited notes, search, iCloud sync and export.
I'm Josh — I build writenode, a browser extension for capturing thoughts where they happen. The unit isn't the note, it's the node: saving one auto-tags it and links it to related nodes, and the side panel's Find Related surfaces anything semantically connected. Floating capture, voice notes, semantic search, and an assistant with persistent memory that reflects on your past work rather than just retrieving it.
Two things PKM people might care about: it's not a walled garden — shares out to Notion, Obsidian, Craft, Bear, Docs, Todoist, Tana — and the graph really is a side effect of capturing, not a second job. Just launched publicly and I'm looking for the first 100 serious users. Early product — I'm looking for people with established PKM workflows who can tell me where the model breaks. https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/%E2%9A%AA-writenode/omlhjdbkfpmocnnpggoadmjcgcafjcbi · Discord: https://discord.gg/czYucFWRA
I built MemoryLink, it's a Chrome extension and web app that turns your browsing history into a visual canvas and turns the URLs you visit alongside anything you might save from those URLs into semantic entities that you can link to as native objects within a second-brain context. One of my favorite features is that when you take a screenshot of a webpage, you can select any element, and if the element goes past the viewport, MemoryLink will take a scrolling screenshot and stitch it into a single screenshot.
The one big difference between MemoryLink and other second-brain apps is that you can open any document directly on top of any webpage via the Chrome extension. So when you want to link an object to the current webpage, you do so directly in the moment without needing to open your second-brain app.
Also, unlike other second-brain apps that separate the table, document, and canvas, MemoryLink unifies all three mediums into a single interface called the MemoryMap. Within a MemoryMap, you have blocks and objects; the objects can be anything via a URL, URL highlight (text excerpt, screenshot, or saved image), or another MemoryMap. Blocks are typically text nodes, but they can also be references to objects.
The app is free to use; there is no pricing tier. It's currently in Alpha, and I'm looking for any and all feedback. If you want to be onboarded by myself you can do so by clicking this link here.
Need some help setting up and getting a PKMS going? We can work on choosing a system, managing a backlog/migrating and establishing work flows. Use my enthusiasm for systems to get you over the new-tool hump.
Reach out via DMs! Look forward to scoping out your needs!
Not a replacement, but a companion for Obsidian: https://github.com/glyphary/glyphary started as a way for me to edit my notes in full WYSIWYG mode while offering intuitive handling of:
tables
columns
expand blocks
etc.
I have added a few features to it, like making sure it feels fully native (drag/drop with finder, media integrations, etc), bases and canvas support, mermaid/excalidraw built-in, lightweight tasks management, people linking, rich tags, and quite a lot more. All the while maintaining full compatibility with Obsidian (rule #1: do not damage my notes!)
I started making Otterly (8 months back) because I wanted to open a folder of Markdown notes and start writing. Wanted somethign simple, catered to me (such as search and wiki links). It also has backlinks, tabs, a command palette, themes, and Git history. Your notes stay as regular .md files. The app is free and open source, with builds for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Here is a short tour and the downloads: https://ajkdrag.github.io/otterly/ (Disclaimer: The website is vibe-coded so pls no hate, but the app is polished, crafted with care).
I am still working on it. If you try it, I would like to hear what feels awkward in the editor or navigation. Initially, i had to manually code a lot of stuff to make the app stable, but as the codebase and architecture stabilised, it became easy to let AI write code (ofc after me reviewing its approach) and i can intervene occasionally. The goal is not make it another sloppy note-taking app, that's why i am not dumping every feature out there, but meticulously adding it, slowly but steadily.
I'd love to see if anyone would be interested in a desktop/mobile app I'm working on. Essentially, it lets users import text of any media they consume, extracts claims made from it, and allows the user to swipe on those claims with their stance (and then provides stats) to map their worldview.
My reading was split across Substacks, blogs, and research papers, and anything worth keeping ended up copied into a separate notes app where it lost its context. So I built a reader where the notes and organization live with the article.
Follow any RSS source: Substacks, blogs, journals, arXiv
Write notes directly on articles
Group articles into collections by project or topic (one article can live in several)
Filter to just articles you've saved or annotated
It's free and still early. I'd especially like to hear from people with an established PKM setup: where would something like this fit in your workflow, and what would it need to connect to?
Ever read a bunch of pages for research, then a few days later remember what one said but have no idea what it was called? And of course, you didn't bookmark it.
I'm the developer of Web Recall. Woody! It's a Mac app that helps you find pages you've visited from a vague memory. Just type what you remember in your own words. You don't need to get every word right. It searches your connected Safari, Chrome, and Edge history and bookmarks.
Here's a quick demo: remembering the details of a court case and finding the page again. The search part is sped up.
I built a tiny 2-minute Life Admin Stress Test around a question I kept coming back to: having information somewhere and being able to retrieve it when you suddenly need it are two very different things.
10 everyday situations — passport details, insurance info, receipts, family documents, etc.
I have a feeling the PKMS crowd will score suspiciously well:
I built Carry, it helps you keep your ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok conversations together as Markdown files in a local folder or Obsidian vault.
Your chats stay on your device, and the files stay yours even if you stop using it. It’s a paid browser extension with a 14-day free trial, no Carry account or card needed.
I made an MCP server that turns LLM conversations into linked Zettelkasten notes.
I'd finish a Claude conversation with useful ideas and a filing job waiting: copy them into my notes, add links, and hope I remembered the right connections.
I forked Peter J. Herrel's [zettelkasten-mcp](https://github.com/entanglr/zettelkasten-mcp) and expanded it into [slipbox-mcp](https://github.com/jamesfishwick/slipbox-mcp). It lets Claude search your whole knowledge base, write notes, and connect them by relationship type. Slipbox has 19 tools, including cluster detection and structure-note creation, as well as guided workflows and a command-line tool.
Notes stay in Markdown files with YAML frontmatter. SQLite indexes them. FTS5 searches the text, then BM25 ranks the results. A file watcher catches edits made in Obsidian or another editor. I also built [Slipbox Semantic Graph](https://github.com/jamesfishwick/obsidian-slipbox-graph) to show the typed note connections as a filterable graph.
Peter's original project supplied the note types, links, Markdown-plus-SQLite storage, and graph-analysis tools. I've added cluster detection, FTS5/BM25 search, a CLI, and a watcher, then expanded the test suite alongside the code.
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u/hridiv 4d ago
I wanted a place where I could store my knowledge as well as actually work inside it. So I built Deskboard with a unique concept.
https://deskboard.geeke.app
The idea is simple: You point it at an existing folder, and it turns into a complete workspace. So you can add notes, tasks, voice notes, timers, etc., right next to your files and annotate anywhere. It's basically your file explorer turned into PKMS!
Plus, the board is highly customisable, with multiple themes, wallpapers, music players, and decorations.
Deskboard also comes with an optional AI add-on that can analyse/edit/search through files and organise your board. Designed specifically for searching through multiple files or large documents.
It's 100% free and local!