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 — .dmg (a separate build for Apple Silicon and Intel)
Windows — the .msi or .exe setup
Linux — .AppImage, .deb, or .rpm

First launch

The builds aren't code-signed yet, so your OS shows a one-time warning on first launch. The app isn't broken — your system just can't verify an unsigned download. Signing is on the roadmap.

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 — click More info → Run anyway on the SmartScreen prompt.

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) + the Tauri 2 system dependencies

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

No Rust toolchain?

pnpm --filter @noteside/desktop dev:web runs the UI in a plain browser against an in-memory mock backend — handy for trying it out or doing frontend work without a native window. Your edits won't touch disk in this mode.

To build your own installer: pnpm tauri build.

Open a notebook

A notebook is just 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.
.git/ and .noteside/ are ignored, 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 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. New notes start as Untitled; a note's title is taken from, in order:

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

So just typing # My ideas at the top names the note "My ideas" in the sidebar. You can also rename a note directly — :rename, or right-click 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 → 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 — your words are always on disk. You can still save explicitly with :w or ⌘S (handy before quitting), and:

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

Next: learn the keybindings, try live preview, or theme your ~/.notesiderc.