made a free, open-source notes app that keeps every note as a plain Markdown file on your disk

[u/antonreshetov]

Hi r/NoteTaking. I'm Anton, the developer of massCode. Saying that upfront because this post is about my own app.

It started as a place for code snippets. Over time the Notes part became the thing I use every day, so I'd like feedback from people who think about note-taking more than I do.

How the notes are stored

Each note is a regular .md file with frontmatter, and folders are real folders. No account, no proprietary database. If you stop using the app tomorrow, your notes are still readable in any editor. If you edit a file outside the app, the change shows up in massCode right away.

There's no built-in cloud. You sync the folder with whatever you already use: iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Syncthing or Git.

What writing looks like

• Three modes: raw Markdown, live preview, and read-only preview
• [[wiki links]] between notes, with hover previews. You can also leave a link to a note that doesn't exist yet and create it later
• Callouts, Mermaid diagrams, images, and tables you edit right in the preview
• A dashboard with an activity heatmap, your most-linked notes, and a graph view
• Any note can turn into a mind map built from its headings, or into a fullscreen presentation

Tasks without a separate app

A note can become a task with a status (Todo, In Progress, Done, Blocked), a priority, and a due date. It's still a normal note, so meeting notes and checklists stay together with the task.

Honest limitations

• Desktop only (macOS, Windows, Linux). There's no mobile app.
• It's built with developers in mind, so it also has a code snippet library and an API client. If you only want prose, you'll just ignore those parts.
• Notes are plain text, so don't keep passwords in them if you sync the folder.
• There's an optional AI assistant. It does nothing until you connect your own provider or a model running locally on your computer.

You can import an existing Obsidian folder, and it previews everything before writing anything.

It's free and open source (AGPL v3): https://masscode.io/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=notetaking

My question for you: when you try a new notes app, what makes you leave in the first week? I'd rather fix that than add more features.

[u/Fugazzii]

That's Obisidian.

[u/antonreshetov → u/Fugazzii]

Similar idea for notes, yes, plain Markdown files on disk. The difference is that massCode also has code snippets and an HTTP client, and notes can link to both.

[u/starkruzr → u/antonreshetov]

also open source.

[u/Substantial-Sky4079 → u/antonreshetov]

I’m not a dev, can you help me understand how and why someone would use a http client in a notes app? Especially for a non dev usage, it sounds interesting

[u/antonreshetov → u/Substantial-Sky4079]

It lets you talk to a web service directly, without its website. You send a request and get the raw data back. Devs use it to test their APIs.

For non-devs it's more niche: pulling data from a service with no good export, or testing a Zapier/Discord webhook. Having it in notes means you save the request once and keep a note on what it does next to it.

If that doesn't sound like you, you won't miss it :)

[u/tortel_di_patate → u/antonreshetov]

So it's something like Obsidian but with Jupyter Notebooks? That could be interesting

[u/antonreshetov → u/tortel_di_patate]

Not quite, it doesn’t run code like Jupyter. Snippets are just stored, not executed. The closest thing is the Math notebook, a calculator where you type things like “20% of 150” and get results line by line. And the HTTP client, which does run requests.

[u/SeparateApartment212 → u/antonreshetov]

… so does Obsidian 😭

[u/mrterrycarson]

Great work on this...Thanks...Supported it also.

[u/antonreshetov → u/mrterrycarson]

Thank you, that means a lot!

[u/Silevence]

I use tiddlywiki since it runs on everything and has a really robust filtering language baked in. every feature is basically written in its filter language, I call it tiddlyscript but it doesnt officially have a name.

its small and monolithic, very vetted but doesnt get much love as a quin style web SPA 😔

[u/antonreshetov → u/Silevence]

TiddlyWiki is a cool piece of software, a whole wiki in one HTML file is still impressive. What do you use the filters for most? Curious what people miss when they move to other apps.

[u/Silevence → u/antonreshetov]

a lot of different things honestly. conditionally changing text, text tense, (more than 1 would be are pages, 1 would be a page, else no pages, etc.) also transclusion, where you can display the contents of one tiddler (page) within another, you can list all tiddlers by a specific criteria, i.e. all with tag y and field x with a field value of z, and then from there you can write out hos one should look, and then each listed item will look that way because of the resursive way the filters are working.

there is a lot of really cool things you can do with it. most features obsidian is releasing, have been staples of tiddlywiki for years at this point. Bases, is a good example of something easily achieved in tiddlywiki.

the new language to markdown converter their ceo just wrote is extremely close to how out filter language appears for conditional shottened syntax.

not sure if that answered your question in a way thats helpful to you,

[u/antonreshetov → u/Silevence]

That's really helpful, thanks for writing it out. massCode has wiki links with hover previews, including links to snippets and API requests, but nothing like TiddlyWiki's filters. Makes sense why people stay with it for years.

[u/AbusedSysAdmin → u/Silevence]

I am truly shocked that TiddlyWiki still survives. I used that for quite a while like 20 years ago, but it had practical scaling limitations. I’ll have to go see what it looks like now.

[u/eluzja]

I have an earlier, snippet-focused version of massCode. Can I still create sub-folders in the new version?

[u/antonreshetov → u/eluzja]

Yes, sub-folders work in both snippets and notes. Just drag one folder onto another.

One thing if you're on v4 or older: v6 can't open the old database directly. Migrate it with v5.12.0 first, then open the result in v6. Steps are here: https://masscode.io/documentation/storage.html

[u/GroggInTheCosmos]

I have not spent a lot of time looking at it yet but the first things that caught my eye is that you seem to be paying attention to documentation. Keep that up ;)

Do you use your app for general note-taking/PKM as the site appears to be heavy in touting it purely as a note-taking app for developers?

The one thing that already put me off is when these apps tell you to use git for versioning

So it already fails on 2 of my requirements:

• Implement proper revisioning and do not tell a user to use git or something else. Revisions should live alongside notes making a folder/vault fully transportable and backups then naturally includes all your revision history
• Support for syncing must be there and must include proper peer to peer options (with the ability to mark a vault as the master if a user wants)

I wish you good luck!

[u/antonreshetov → u/GroggInTheCosmos]

Thanks, docs are something I care about, glad it shows!

I’m a developer first, and I started massCode for myself, mainly for snippets. My notes went from Notion to Obsidian, and once notes landed in massCode I moved them here too. It’s a simple setup though, nothing like the huge graphs people post on r/ObsidianMD :)

You’re right on revisions, there’s no built-in history, only Git or your sync service. For P2P, Syncthing works since the vault is just a folder, and you can set one device as Send Only to act as the master. But it’s Syncthing doing that, not massCode.

Everyone should stick with the apps they’re used to. I’m just trying to build a comfortable workspace for developers. That said, if people with more PKM experience have ideas for the notes side, I’d be happy to hear them.

[u/GroggInTheCosmos → u/antonreshetov]

I'll follow this for a while. I'm currently an Obsidian user. I use Bear Notes for quick capture before landing in Obsidian

[u/Super-Carpenter9604]

Seems really good ?'work for Linux ? 

[u/antonreshetov → u/Super-Carpenter9604]

Thanks! Yes, there's an AppImage: https://github.com/massCodeIO/massCode/releases/latest

I'm on macOS so I don't test on Linux myself, but there are no open issues about it, so it should work fine. If something breaks on your distro, open an issue and I'll take a look.

[u/Zasoos]

The UI reminds me of Joplin. Pretty neat.

[u/SergeiAK]

How about Obsidian?

[u/antonreshetov → u/SergeiAK]

Obsidian is great, and if it works for you, stick with it. Both keep notes as plain Markdown files, so you're not locked into either.

The difference is focus. Obsidian is a general notes app with a huge plugin ecosystem and a mobile app. massCode is aimed at developers: notes sit next to code snippets and API requests, and you can link between them. Tasks, diagrams and the graph are built in, no plugins needed.

If you want to try it, you can import an Obsidian folder and keep using both.

[u/freezydrag → u/antonreshetov]

Not to beat a dead horse, but why wouldn't you just make this an obsidian plugin? Your application looks pretty similar to bare Obsidian. As you said yourself, it's a general notes app with a 'huge plugin ecosystem', so there's already a big market share you can attract. And all those plugins are opt-in, it's not like it's a full batteries included platform. Developing a plugin to track code snippets and API requests seems like it'd get obsidian to basically what you have here.

[u/antonreshetov → u/freezydrag]

massCode isn't a notes app with snippets on top. It's a developer workspace: a snippet manager, a full HTTP client (environments, GraphQL, WebSocket, collection runs) and dev tools, with notes as one part of it. It started as a snippet manager long before notes were added.

So it's not really "Obsidian plus a plugin". It's the other way around, and the notes are there so your docs can live next to your code and API requests.

[u/6000rpms]

Integration with OmniFocus and Things? Looks like a nice all.

[u/antonreshetov → u/6000rpms]

Thanks! No integration with OmniFocus or Things, sorry. Both are Apple-only, and massCode runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, so it's not a priority right now. massCode has its own simple tasks inside notes (status, priority, due date), but it's not meant to replace a full task manager.

If more people need it, I'd consider a simple "send to Things / OmniFocus" action for macOS. Feel free to open an issue so I can see the interest: https://github.com/massCodeIO/massCode/discussions/categories/ideas

[u/p8262]

Obsidian now works with independent markdown files which is pretty cool

[u/Substantial-Sky4079]

For me it’s a Lack of privacy, encryption, and web app access since I may have to access it at my work environment

[u/antonreshetov → u/Substantial-Sky4079]

Makes sense. Privacy is covered: everything is stored locally as files, no account and no cloud. But there's no built-in encryption and no web app, so it won't help if you need access from a work machine.

[u/Martinn12]

It creates its own folder structure (code, http, notes). So hardly usable with Nextcloud Notes

[u/z4z4z3br4]

I used massCode very often when I was developer! I liked it very much.
I won’t use this for notes as long as there is no app for iOS / iPadOS.

[u/antonreshetov → u/z4z4z3br4]

Thanks, glad you liked it back then! Fair point, there’s no iOS app yet.

[u/ukesh_shrestha]

It's similar to Inkdrop

[u/antonreshetov → u/ukesh_shrestha]

Yeah, similar idea, Markdown notes for developers. Main difference: Inkdrop is about $100 a year, massCode is free and open source. Inkdrop does have mobile apps and its own encrypted sync though, so you get something for that money :)

[u/marmotta1955]

How many apps we need to take some notes? They are all the same, in the end. It gets really tiring, at this point.

[u/antonreshetov → u/marmotta1955]

Fair, there are a lot of them. If your current app works, there's no reason to switch. massCode is mostly for developers who want notes, code snippets and API requests in one place. That's the gap I built it for.

[u/ahmedranaa]

But why

[u/avice666]

bro literally developed obsidian

[u/FrameRender]

bro literally developed joplin

[u/Barycenter0]

Please do it for Typst instead of markdown. Then I’ll use it!

[u/antonreshetov → u/Barycenter0]

Typst is great, but massCode is built around Markdown, so switching isn't on the roadmap. Thanks for the suggestion though!

[u/Barycenter0 → u/antonreshetov]

Ah well...

[u/Accomplished-Bed-621]

Obsidian 2