NB

A fast, local-first Markdown note-taking app. Notes are plain .md files stored wherever you want — back them up with Git, sync with any file-sync service, or open them in any text editor.

Features

• Markdown editor with live inline rendering (headings, bold, italic, code blocks, tables, blockquotes)
• Interactive checkboxes — click to tick/untick without editing raw Markdown
• Wiki links — [[Note Name]] renders as a clickable pill and navigates between notes
• Tags — YAML front-matter tags managed via a tag bar at the bottom of the editor
• Templates — reusable note templates with shortcut buttons for quick entry insertion
• Tabs — working tab + pinnable permanent tabs, middle-click to close
• Outline panel — auto-appears when a note has 2+ headings; click to jump to a section
• File history — browse and restore git snapshots of any note
• Full-text search across file names; local sidebar filter for quick narrowing
• Drag & drop files between folders in the sidebar
• Auto-save 800 ms after the last keystroke; Ctrl/⌘+S saves immediately

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• npm 9+

Setup

1. Install dependencies

npm run install:all

2. Create your config file

cp config.example.json config.json

Edit config.json to point at your notes directory:

{
  "notesDir": "~/notes",
  "templatesDir": "~/notes/templates",

  "templatePaths": {
    "daily-note": "Daily/{{date}}.md",
    "meeting-note": "Meetings/{{date}}-{{slug}}.md",
    "blank": "{{title}}.md"
  }
}

config.json is gitignored — it never gets committed.

Running

Development

Runs the Express API server and the Vite dev server concurrently. Open http://localhost:5173.

npm run dev

Production

Builds the React client, then starts a single Express process that serves both the app and the API. Open http://localhost:3001.

npm start

Custom config path

By default both commands look for config.json next to server.js. Override this with a CLI flag or environment variable:

# CLI flag
node server.js --config /path/to/my-config.json

# Environment variable
NB_CONFIG=/path/to/my-config.json node server.js

Priority order: --config flag → NB_CONFIG env var → config.json in the repo root.

The server will exit with a clear error if the config file is not found.

Project structure

nb/
├── server.js            # Express API + WebSocket server
├── config.json          # Your local config (gitignored)
├── config.example.json  # Safe defaults to copy from
├── client/              # React frontend (Vite)
│   └── src/
│       ├── App.jsx
│       └── components/
├── notes/               # Default notes directory (if using repo-local paths)
├── templates/           # Default templates directory
└── e2e/                 # Playwright end-to-end tests

Testing

# Unit tests (Vitest)
npm run test:unit

# End-to-end tests (Playwright) — requires the server to be running
npm run test:e2e

# Both
npm run test:all

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl/⌘+S	Save immediately
Ctrl/⌘+T	New note from template
Ctrl/⌘+W	Close current tab
Auto-save	Saves 800 ms after last keystroke