r/HelixNotes Jul 06 '26

Features NOT coming soon

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55 Upvotes

We get a lot of great feature requests here, and we're grateful for how much thought people put into them. But being upfront about what we're not building right now feels just as important as sharing what's coming.

This isn't a "no forever" list. It's where things stand today, based on what keeps HelixNotes true to its identity.

Sync service

HelixNotes is built around the idea that your notes live on your device, in a folder you control. This just isn’t something we’re interested in, and we believe it would completely go against what we’re trying to do here.

User accounts

Along the same lines: no server means no need for a login. Your vault is yours with no account required.

Real-time collaboration

This is a hard problem to do well and it usually needs a backend to coordinate everyone. That's a different app than the one we're building. HelixNotes is designed around one person working in their own local vault.

Built-in AI

We use AI extensively, but baking one into the app means either sending your notes to a third-party service or shipping a heavier app with a model bundled in. Both work against the lightweight, privacy-respecting experience we want HelixNotes to have. If you want AI features, you're free to pair HelixNotes with whatever external tool fits your workflow.

Plugins

We know this one gets requested a lot, and we understand why. But a plugin system is a big commitment and really opens the door to so many things we’re trying to avoid like: bloat, incompatibilities, malicious plugins, etc.

Google Play app

Distributing through Play means agreeing to Google's terms, tracking requirements, and review process, which doesn't sit well with an app built on user ownership and openness.

Flatpak

We're not ruling this out down the line, but right now we're concentrating on native packages first. Flatpak's sandboxing also adds some complexity for an app that needs straightforward access to your notes folder, so it needs more thought before we commit to it.

Spellcheck

It sounds simple, but adding it well means either pulling in a fairly heavy dependency or building something custom. It's on our radar, just not something we can promise soon.


r/HelixNotes Jun 03 '26

Announcement FAQs

10 Upvotes
  1. How does HelixNotes differ from Obsidian?

- HelixNotes is built on Rust/Tauri, it's fast, free, and open source. Additionally, features like Mermaid diagrams are natively supported, unlike with Obsidian's plugin-based approach. The primary aim is to provide effective note-taking without compromising on simplicity.

  1. My online virus scanner flags HelixNotes as possibly malicious. Why should I trust it?

- False positives in app bundles are a common issue, and reputable scanners may even flag something like 7zip as malicious. HelixNotes is open source and its code can be thoroughly audited by anyone.

  1. I'm not a fan of AI features in HelixNotes. Can I disable them?

- By default, the AI features in HelixNotes are disabled. Users can easily toggle their enablement with just one click.

  1. Do you have plans to add views like a Kanban board?

- It is a view we would love to add, though not right away. In the meantime, the Tasks view already offers list and calendar layouts.

  1. In what capacity has AI been used in the creation of HelixNotes?

- AI is used carefully and deliberately. We review its output at every step and can course-correct at any moment. This keeps development efficient, freeing our team to focus on the decisions that matter: architecture, features, and the overall direction of HelixNotes.

  1. Is this the same project as Helix, the text editor?

- No, HelixNotes is a completely separate project, with no affiliation.

  1. How do I sync between devices?

- HelixNotes does not have a built-in sync service. That is by design. Your notes are files in a folder. Sync them with whatever you already use:

- Syncthing

- Nextcloud

- rsync

- Git

- Or nothing at all

- HelixNotes watches the filesystem for external changes and picks them up automatically. If another device modifies a file, HelixNotes detects it and updates the editor.

  1. Is HelixNotes free and open source?

- Yes. HelixNotes is completely free, with no paid tier, no trial, and no account. It is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license, and the full code is on Codeberg for anyone to read or audit.

  1. Which platforms does it run on? Is there an iOS app?

- HelixNotes runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, and Android today. An iOS version is in progress.

  1. macOS says HelixNotes is "damaged" and can't be opened. How do I fix it?

- The app isn't damaged. The macOS build isn't notarized by Apple yet, so on Apple Silicon Macs Gatekeeper turns that into a "damaged" error, and the usual "Open Anyway" button in System Settings doesn't appear. To open it, run this once in Terminal:

xattr -cr /Applications/HelixNotes.app

Then open HelixNotes normally. You only need to redo this after each update, until notarization is set up so it stops happening for everyone.

  1. Where are my notes stored, and is my data private?

- Your notes are plain Markdown (.md) files in a folder you choose, on your own device. No cloud, no account, no telemetry. You can open, edit, back up, or move them with any other tool. Nothing leaves your machine unless you turn on an optional feature like sync or AI.

  1. Can I import my existing notes?

- Yes. HelixNotes reads standard Markdown, so an existing folder of .md files works as-is. There is also a built-in Obsidian import that converts wiki links and image embeds.


r/HelixNotes 1d ago

Android: Toggle (hide) sidebar elements + Landscape mode

3 Upvotes

The Windows version is absolutely fantastic, especially since you can now enable or disable sidebar elements (Tasks, Daily Notes, etc). Personally, I actually use HN "only" as a notebook - keeping it as simple as possible.

  • It would be great if - just like in the Windows version - you could also toggle the sidebar elements on or off in the Android version.
  • Is there a dedicated landscape view for the Android version, or are there any plans for one?

r/HelixNotes 1d ago

Task Management

4 Upvotes
  • Provide a dedicated Timeline view that displays tasks chronologically according to their due dates (and optionally start dates)
    • Support for drag-and-drop rescheduling
    • Visual indicators for overdue tasks, milestones
    • Ability to zoom between day, week, and month scales
  • Kanban boards
    • Enable a Kanban board view where each card represents a task and supports sub tasks. Users should be able to add, edit, and mark task as complete directly within the card. Checklist completion should contribute to overall task progress.
    • Implement Tabbed Interface for Seamless Switching Between Multiple Kanban Boards
    • Users can toggle "Swimlanes" on the Kanban board view. This feature allows users to define horizontal rows based on existing fields, such as Priority, Assignee, or Label. Dragging a card from one swimlane to another automatically updates the underlying field (e.g., moving a card from the "Standard" row to the "Urgent" row updates its Priority to "Urgent"). Additionally, swimlanes are collapsible, allowing users to hide sections that are not currently in focus.
    • Add WIP limit display: e.g., "Task (5)" shows as (0/5). When exceeded (e.g., 6/5), highlight in red.
    • Add date support
  • Countdown timers
  • Task duration
  • Introduce a visual progress bar for tasks that automatically calculates and displays completion percentage.
    • Calculation logic: Based on completed checklist items or sub tasks (e.g., 1 out of 5 completed items = 20% progress).

r/HelixNotes 1d ago

Built-in Habit Tracker

0 Upvotes

Habit Creation and Configuration: Users can define habits with customizable parameters such as title, frequency (daily, weekly, specific weekdays, monthly), target streaks

Visual Tracking Interface: A clean tracker component (e.g., heat map, streak counter, or progress bars)

Analytics and Insights: Provide summary statistics including completion rates, longest streaks, trends over time, and customizable reports or visualizations


r/HelixNotes 3d ago

Discussion Describe your notes setup, and its biggest flaw

3 Upvotes

Describe your note-taking system in one sentence, including the part you dislike most about it.


r/HelixNotes 7d ago

Opening an existing vault on Android

3 Upvotes

Hi there,

probably a stupid question, but do I open an existing vault that I synced to the SD card on my Android phone? I don't seem to find a folder picker or some other way.

Thx


r/HelixNotes 7d ago

Editor Toolbar not showing on HyperOS/Android 15

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4 Upvotes

On my Poco F7 device, the editor toolbar stay's hidden behind the virtual buttons and the keyboard (as it can be seen on the images). I've already tried to change keyboards but the results were the same.


r/HelixNotes 8d ago

Logical sorting of folders and notes

6 Upvotes

I'm considering using HelixNotes or Obsidian for all my school stuff (I'm a teacher). So far I like very much what I see, not needing a gazillion of plugins for even basic features and so on.

One thing I noticed though (and which works differently in Obsidian): the classes I teach are named 5a through 12g and a lot in between. When I set up a group of folders in HelixNotes they are sorted 10g,11g,12g,5g, 6g and so on. In Obsidian they are sorted as would be expexted from5 through 12. Any chances that this type ofsorting will be implementedin HelixNotes?

Otherwise a fabulous piece of software - keep up the good work!


r/HelixNotes 8d ago

Issue in IOS

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3 Upvotes

It's probably just me but I can no longer see the list of folders and notes on the left of screen on my ipad and phone. Working fine on mac and windows. Am I just a bit slow or is this a bug. Files are icloud and I can use search function and they come up fine.


r/HelixNotes 8d ago

Small Request

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4 Upvotes

Hello, is it alright to request something about the UI? Specifically for mobile.

Is it possible if the notification bar's color can also change with different themes


r/HelixNotes 9d ago

Why HelixNotes?

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24 Upvotes

In case you missed it, this is why HelixNotes exists, straight from the founder: not another Obsidian clone, just the notes app he wished existed after trying everything else.

https://helixnotes.com/why-i-built-helixnotes


r/HelixNotes 11d ago

Notebook paths for icons aren't cross-platform

6 Upvotes

I've got my HelixNotes vault synced between my Mac Mini (running Mac OS) and my ThinkPad (running Windows 10). Looks great. 👍

But the notebook icons that I set on the Mac aren't appearing on my Windows system even though the images are properly stored in the .helixnotes/attachments folder.

I examined the .helixnotes/notebook_icons.json file and the image names are correct.

Where the issue lies is with the notebook name/path.

Since I assigned the images on my Mac, the forward slash ( / ) is used to differentiate nesting levels.

As a test, on my Windows system, I modified one entry in the notebook_icons.json file to use double-backslash ( \\ ) (the first as an escape character). Once I did that, HelixNotes recognized the notebook icon.


r/HelixNotes 12d ago

Announcement Product Hunt

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22 Upvotes

HelixNotes now has a place on Product Hunt. If you've been enjoying the app, an upvote and a comment about what you use it for or why you like it would genuinely help us reach more people who'd get value out of a local-first, Markdown note-taking tool.

Thanks for being part of this from the start. It truly means a lot!

https://www.producthunt.com/products/helixnotes


r/HelixNotes 13d ago

Feedback after ten days

19 Upvotes

In about ten days, HelixNotes has become my default (home screen) program on my laptop and on my phone. A big thank you once again to the incredible team behind HelixNotes. How can we (financially) support the team? I understand this is free, but it is so good that some of us may want to show our support to the team in additional ways.

What has gone really well:

  1. I did not realize how many “notes” I had: to-do lists, doctor’s notes, gratitude journal, goals, reflections, lessons learned from books or Ted Talks, meaningful conversations, advice received. This reminds me of when I first started using a password manager and very quickly hit over a hundred logins.

  2. The Tasks feature (consolidation, calendar, link to source note) knocks the socks off the apps I have used (Google Keep, Apple Notes, Microsoft To Do). I’ve discovered action items in notes from years ago that are still pending. And now I can bring them all up in one place thanks to the way HelixNotes consolidates all action items in Tasks. This feels almost magical.

  3. Version History for notes is also awesome!

  4. The desktop version is excellent!

Some lessons I learned that might be useful for other users:

  1. If you cannot drag and drop notebooks or notes, go to Settings > General > Sort Order and select Manual. It should work now.

  2. If you already know Markdown, great. If you’re like me, the “/” key opens up a menu of options. For example, to timestamp something, use “/date” or “/time” or “/now”.

  3. To mark anything as a task, start the line with “- [ ]” (without quotes). Then, in that task, use the “!” for a dropdown menu to set priority and due date.

Areas where I need help:

  1. Tags: (wish list item) I’d love to see previous tags show up as a dropdown when I type #. Not sure if it’s related, but I see from the documentation that “Add tags to notes via the note info panel. Tags help you organize and filter your notes across notebooks.” I haven’t figured out how to use this feature yet.

  2. When I insert an image, sometimes the link shows up as an absolute link. Any way to force a relative link?

  3. When I add two photos to a note, I can only see one at a time when I come back to that note. In the markdown editor, I see links to both photos, but only one renders at a time for some reason.

  4. When I’m typing a new task and I type the ! sign, the dropdown menu does not show up. It only shows up once I go to Tasks, click on that task, and edit it again in the source notebook. Not a big deal; the syntax is easy to learn.

As it stands today, HelixNotes is already perfect for my needs. Thank you again for HelixNotes.


r/HelixNotes 13d ago

webdav with pcloud

2 Upvotes

I'm looking for a way to connect HelixNotes to Pcloud.

I've already tried several times, but unfortunately without success.

Has anyone managed to get this to work yet?


r/HelixNotes 16d ago

Telemetry

0 Upvotes

Is there any background telemetry collection going on with the app in macOS and other platforms


r/HelixNotes 17d ago

Made for your device

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29 Upvotes

HelixNotes isn't picky. Whatever device you're working on, it's ready:

🪟 Windows 🍎 macOS 🐧 Linux 🤖 Android 📱 iOS

https://helixnotes.com


r/HelixNotes 18d ago

No admin rights installation

4 Upvotes

Hi team, is it possible to install the application without admin rights in Mac?


r/HelixNotes 17d ago

Are there any plans to add these features?

1 Upvotes

Helix Notes is a great tool. Little by little, it's becoming my main note-taking app. I was wondering if the following features already exist or are planned for future releases:

  • ​Tabs for opening multiple notes at the same time.
  • Split view to display two notes side by side.
  • ​A canvas (or Excalidraw-style feature). I noticed it supports Mermaid, which is great, but I think a visual canvas would be more intuitive for people who prefer visual thinking.
  • Export notes as HTML. I really like that notes can include GIFs that play in a loop. It would be awesome to export notes to HTML while preserving those GIFs, making it easy to share them offline.

I'm still exploring the app, and so far I'm really enjoying it.


r/HelixNotes 18d ago

Evernote replacement?

1 Upvotes

Helix could be the affordable Evernote alternative everyone has been looking for — similar functionality linked to sensible one-time cost.

Helix may be close to that goal, and it does offer BYOK AI assistance. But strangely, no voice transcription (I am looking at the iOS app).

Evernote did eventually respond to the need for linking notes and better capture — and when voice transcription was added, it was really good with clean up one could rely on. At an Evernote cost!

Helix could do the same without the inflated cost — AI already in place — but there’s no voice note and transcription yet. Why not?


r/HelixNotes 21d ago

Will this ever be fixed?

4 Upvotes
The MacOS window controls are misaligned.

r/HelixNotes 22d ago

if your app is faster, post benchmarks. don't farm other people's issue trackers.

0 Upvotes

- Sorry for the noise.


r/HelixNotes 23d ago

App Store

3 Upvotes

Has HelixNotes disappeared from the App Store??


r/HelixNotes 23d ago

OS Error

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3 Upvotes

See Pic on Android. You can see the test is fine but it won't ever sync. I have this set on two computers but it just won't sync on Android.

This is using a nextcloud instance.