in development · macOS and Linux first

A quiet notes app for people who build things. Markdown files you own, one column to write in, and every key where your hands already are.

try it here — type a line⌘↩jke⌘K
~/notes 4 notes
what’s in the box

Batteries included.

No plugins to hunt for. Everything below ships in the app, works offline and is on by default.

Offline-first

local

No account, no spinner, no waiting on a server. Works on a plane, in a submarine, or on an island in the middle of nowhere.

Private

no tracking

No analytics, no telemetry, no machine-learning training data. What you write never leaves your machine unless you send it.

Encrypted

AES-256

Notes are encrypted at rest and in sync. The key stays with you.

Backlinks

[[

Type [[ to link any note. Each note shows the sentence that links to it, not just a title.

Graph

gv

See how your notes connect. Clusters show up on their own; follow any line to the note behind it.

Full-text search

⌘K

Every word, every note, as you type. Press ⌘K and it’s there.

Tasks

- [ ]

Any checkbox in any note is a task. Mark it done, or cancel it with [-] so you remember you decided not to. Every open one shows up in a single list.

Tags and folders

# /

Write #lisbon in the sentence, or file it in a folder. Use both, either, or neither — nothing to keep tidy.

People

@

Write @elizabeth and every line about her is one keystroke away, right before the meeting.

Command palette

:

Type : and name what you want. Everything the app can do is in there, so there’s no menu to learn.

Vim mode

esc

Modal editing, motions, text objects and registers, all there if you want them. And yes, you can quit: :q. We checked.

Sync

git · iCloud · Drive

Your vault is a folder. Keep it in git, iCloud or Google Drive — commit it, push it, diff it. Your history is yours.

Password-protected notes

--lock

Lock a single note behind its own password. Everything else stays one keystroke away.

Themes

:theme paper

Light, dark, and a few in between. Pick one, or write your own in a single CSS file.

More batteries to come.

how it works
⌘↩

Capture first

Most of what you write down is small. A lens is soft wide open. Alan wants the dashboard on Thursday. Type it in the box and press ⌘↩ — that’s the whole ceremony. When a line turns out to matter, ⌘E opens it as a full note, with nothing lost.

~/notes

Your files

Every note is a markdown file in a folder you choose. Grep it, keep it in git, open it in vim. paperkites is one way to read those files, not where they live.

# [[ @

Things find each other

Tags live in the sentence, not a sidebar. A link shows you the sentence that points back, not just a title. And @elizabeth brings up everything you’ve written about the people you work with — right before the meeting.

esc

Built for the keyboard

Vim bindings throughout. j and k through your notes, gd to follow a link, ⌃o to come back, ⌘K to go anywhere. The mouse is welcome, never required.

from the terminal

Or never leave the shell

A small CLI, kite, writes to the same folder. Pipe into it, alias it, bind it to a key.

# a whole note
$ kite note "Preemption window is 2ms, not 20. Re-run the bench before review."
# one line, straight into the box
$ kite write 35mm is soft wide open
# save a link for later
$ kite capture https://example.com/queueing-theory
# tidy markdown across the whole folder
$ kite format ~/notes
# tagged, locked, with photos attached
$ kite write "Lisbon, day two" --tags "lisbon, europe/tour" --lock \
--attachments ~/Downloads/images/lisbon/
plain markdown on disk

Your notes are files.

Every note is a .md file in a folder you choose. Open it in vim, grep it, back it up, walk away with it. paperkites is how you read them, not where they’re kept.

graph view

See how it connects.

Every [[link]], #tag and @person becomes a line. Clusters show up on their own. Follow any line to the note behind it.

Graph view of a whole vault of notes
the whole vault
Graph view of one note and the notes linked to it
one note’s neighbourhood
shortcuts

Hands on the keys.

Everything has a shortcut. Vim is there if you want it, and invisible if you don’t.

motions
Next / previousjk
Top / bottomggG
Half page⌃d⌃u
Follow linkgd
Go back⌃o
editing
Inserti
Back to normalesc
Delete linedd
Undo / redou⌃r
Toggle taskx
Cancel task-
notes
Capture a line⌘↩
Grow into a note⌘E
Go anywhere⌘K
Link a note[[
Search in note/
commands
Open or create:e name
From a template:new meeting
Filter by tag:tag lisbon
Open tasks:tasks
Commit and push:sync
why I’m building it

After trying a lot of note apps, it always felt like something was always missing, or there was far too much.

Close to ten years of switching apps, plus a few honest attempts at journaling with a real pen and paper. Each one got something right. None of them got all of it.

paperkites is my take; a simple place to write, the right tools close by, and privacy as the starting point rather than a setting.

I’m a software engineer by day. By night I’m an adventurer, a photographer, and someone who can’t stop building things.

It’ll miss a few features, I’m sure. That’s fine — I’d rather it did the important things well.

paperkites with a note open beside the graph view
The ⌘K finder searching notes and tags for “file”
The paperkites home screen: the capture box above a list of recent notes
“We store it securely.” Your disk.
Folder tree, or tags? Or both.
“Sign up to write a single word.” Just open it and type. Or skip the app, use thekiteCLI.

Almost ready to fly.

Coming soon to macOS and Linux.