HelixNotes - a local-first markdown note-taking app (Rust + Tauri, AGPL-3.0) (helixnotes.com)
from ArkHost@lemmy.world to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 16:30
https://lemmy.world/post/43147928

I built a note-taking app because the one I wanted didn’t exist. Clean UI, local .md files, no cloud, no account.

Built with Rust + Tauri 2.0 + SvelteKit. Full-text search powered by Tantivy. Graph view, AI writing tools (bring your own key), Obsidian import, version history.

Available for Linux (AppImage, APT, AUR), Windows, and macOS. Source: codeberg.org/ArkHost/HelixNotes

#selfhosted

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3abas@lemmy.world on 14 Feb 21:52 next collapse

Your website says “No sync. No lock-in. No bullshit”

Would you mind elaborating on the thought there? Why no sync?

I use obsidian with self hosted live sync, my notes are mine and they live on my hardware, but they are always in sync between my devices. If I’m on my desktop and take notes, I can pull them up on my laptop or even my phone. With this, I can’t reference my notes (or update them) until I’m back on my desktop.

The line “No sync. No lock-in. No bullshit” tells me you’re opposed to it on principal, meaning you don’t intend to ever add the ability to sync, and that’s a nonstarter for me and a lot of people I image. I’d love to migrate from obsidian to something open source, and I’d love to potentially spend time working on contributing a self hosted live sync like feature, but I need to know if my work and pull request will be immediately rejected on a principal I’m not sure I understand?

ArkHost@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 01:41 collapse

Good question. “No sync” means no built-in cloud sync - not that sync is impossible. Your notes are plain .md files in a folder, so you can sync them with Syncthing, Nextcloud, rsync, Git, or anything else you already use. The app watches the filesystem for external changes and picks them up automatically.

The philosophy is: I don’t decide where your files go. You do.

As for contributions - absolutely welcome. PRs won’t be rejected on principle. If you want to work on a self-hosted sync feature, open an issue on Codeberg and let’s discuss the approach first. I’d love to see it.

3abas@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 02:56 collapse

Sounds good, I’m trying out the app and seeing if I can really use it to replace obsidian, and I might dedicate some time to contribute if I end up using it. I agree with your assessment that obsidian’s customization with its plugin eco system leads to it becoming a side project that you have to baby instead of just a note taking app.

I don’t use a lot of plugins on obsidian, but I use rely on a few that make organizing notes easier, mainly:

  1. Daily notes: I really like being able to click one button to create a note with a date and organized into date folders, these are usually quick notes that reference bigger notes. Not being able to do it with a click means I just won’t do it at all, so my quick notes could very quickly become a giant list of unorganized files in the vault root.
  2. Templates: not a huge deal, I can manually apply templates from a template .md file, but it’s a nice feature.

On sync, two problems with using “whatever” to sync entire vault:

  1. I have to install and configure syncing on every device, and make sure they’re connected
  2. Merge conflict and sync order! I used to use seafile I sync, and I can’t tell you how frustrating it was to lose entire notes because they were overwritten externally.
ArkHost@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 03:00 collapse

Great feedback.

  1. Daily notes - not there yet but it’s a straightforward feature to add. I’ll put it on the roadmap.
  2. Templates - same, noted.
  3. Sync conflicts - fair point. HelixNotes watches the filesystem for external changes, but conflict resolution when two devices edit the same note is a real problem with any file-based sync. Syncthing handles this better than most (it creates conflict copies instead of overwriting), but it’s not perfect.

If you end up trying it and want to contribute, open issues on Codeberg for what you’d like to see. Contributions are very welcome.

3abas@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 05:14 collapse

Oh, forgot to ask, are mobile apps on the roadmap?

Obviously your chosen tech stack makes that difficult, but notes on the go are pretty essential.

ArkHost@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 05:20 collapse

I’m thinking about the mobile app in terms of how already. But it’s definitely on the roadmap.

unlisted@feddit.org on 15 Feb 08:45 next collapse

I just downloaded. Looks amazing. I will try it out. Do you have a Patreon Page or something?

ArkHost@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 08:50 collapse

Thanks! No Patreon yet, but I’ll set something up. For now, the best support is feedback and bug reports.

unlisted@feddit.org on 16 Feb 05:20 collapse

So far it has been smooth sailing. But I will report. Only things Iam missing are:

  • the ability to open notes side by side or alternatively to open a second instance of the app.
  • ability to swap/move line up/down via shortcuts with arrow keys
  • showing line numbers

maybe you can consider these for the future.

ArkHost@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 05:54 collapse

Great! Thanks for the feedback.

All 3 enhancements noted. Will be implemented in next release.

Update: The line shortcuts and line numbers will be in the next release. The side-by-side/split view requires a significant architecture refactor, so that one will take longer - it’s on the roadmap but not for the immediate next release.

unlisted@feddit.org on 17 Feb 10:51 collapse

Wow, that was really fast. Thank you very much!

ArkHost@lemmy.world on 23 Feb 03:05 collapse

You can now open a note in a separate window. This has been added in v1.1.6, along with other fixes and feature additions.

chicuongle@lemmy.world on 17 Feb 03:23 next collapse

What is about obsidian?

captcha_incorrect@lemmy.world on 18 Feb 01:53 collapse

Is it possible to view files in the root of the vault?
Also, is it possible to show non .md files?

My use case for the second question is that I have .pdf and .xml that acompanies my notes. Having HelixEditor showing them as well (or opening them in system default editor) would be nice.

IllNess@infosec.pub on 20 Feb 08:21 collapse

Not ideal since you can’t easily sort by folder hierarchy but you can see your root files in All Notes.