Getting started

Noteside is a native desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Download a build, or run it from source.

Install

Grab the latest installer for your platform from GitHub Releases:

• macOS. A .dmg, with separate builds for Apple Silicon and Intel.
• Windows. The .msi or .exe setup.
• Linux. .AppImage, .deb, or .rpm.

macOS reports the app as "damaged and can't be opened." It isn't damaged. That's Gatekeeper refusing an unsigned, quarantined download, more strictly on Apple Silicon. Drag Noteside into /Applications, then clear the quarantine flag:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Noteside.app

It opens normally after that. Right-click → Open does not clear the "damaged" message. Only removing the quarantine flag does.

Windows shows a SmartScreen prompt. Click More info → Run anyway.

Build from source

Prefer to run from source, or want to hack on Noteside? You'll need:

• Node 24 and pnpm 11. Run corepack enable; the repo pins both.
• Rust (stable) plus the Tauri 2 system dependencies.

pnpm install
pnpm dev:desktop    # the desktop app: native window + Vite HMR

To build your own installer: pnpm tauri build.

Open a notebook

A notebook is a folder of Markdown files that you choose. There's no import step and no database. The first time you launch, Noteside asks you to Open a notebook; pick any folder.

• Every .md file in the folder (and its subfolders) becomes a note.
• Hidden files and folders (anything starting with a .) are skipped, .git/ and .noteside/ included, so a notebook can live inside a repo.
• Edits from outside Noteside (another editor, git, a sync client) reload live.

Switching notebooks

Keep as many notebooks as you like and switch between them. Press ⌘O, or use the folder button in the toolbar, or :notebook, to open the notebook switcher, a list of the ones you've opened recently (most recent first). From there:

• Enter switches to the highlighted notebook.
• New notebook… creates a fresh folder. Type a name and pick where it lives.
• Open folder… opens any existing folder as a notebook.

Noteside reopens whichever notebook you had open last the next time you launch.

Your first note

Press ⌘N (or :new, or <Space> n) to create a note. It lands in the folder of the note you have open, or at the notebook root if you don't have one open. See Folders for how to organize and move notes around. New notes start as Untitled; a note's title is taken from, in order:

1. a frontmatter title: field,
2. otherwise the first heading or non-blank line,
3. otherwise the prettified filename.

So typing # My ideas at the top names the note "My ideas" in the sidebar. You can also rename a note directly with :rename, or by right-clicking it in the sidebar → Rename…, and Noteside updates the title for you. Either way, on an explicit save (:w / ⌘S, never autosave) the file on disk is renamed to match the title too (untitled.md becomes my-ideas.md, staying in its folder), so filenames keep up with your notes. A title: in YAML frontmatter wins over the heading if you'd rather set it explicitly.

Saving

Noteside autosaves about a second after you stop typing, so your words are always on disk. You can still save explicitly with :w or ⌘S, which is handy before quitting. Also:

• :q closes the note and takes you back to the notebook.
• :rm deletes the current note. Every delete asks you to confirm first, whether it came from :rm, the <Space> d leader, the command palette, or a right-click on a note → Delete, since deletes are permanent (there's no trash). That right-click menu also has Duplicate and Reveal in Finder/Explorer.

Next: get to know the editor, organize with folders, learn the keybindings, or theme your ~/.notesiderc.