A local-first notebook for Apple devices

Your notes. Your files. Your thinking.

Best Notes is a calm desk that follows you between devices. Capture quickly, think deeply, and keep the durable result as ordinary Markdown in your own vault.

In TestFlight Early foundation build. The broader product shown here is planned.
Product direction Best Notes product direction across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, showing capture, handwritten thinking, and vault organization.
A north-star composition, not a screenshot of the current TestFlight build.

Why it is different

Your vault is the product.

Best Notes is designed around files you can inspect, move, search, and open without Best Notes. The interface helps you work. It does not become the only place your work can live.

Morning walk.md Saved locally 
---
type: note
created: 2026-07-31 07:42
source: quick-capture
---

# Morning walk

The simplest capture should become
durable before anything else happens.

Durability before enrichment

The file lands first. Processing, linking, and future AI work come after the source is safe.

Plain files, visible boundaries

Markdown, media, and explicit links stay understandable outside the app.

AI proposes. You decide.

Planned intelligence is reviewable, provenance-aware, and unable to silently rewrite your source.

One vault, native roles

Each device does what it does best.

The product direction is deliberately asymmetric. It is not one web interface stretched across three screens.

iPhone

Capture at the edge.

Quick text, voice, scans, shared links, and an inbox for anything that still needs a decision.

iPad

Think with your hands.

Ink and typed text share one note, with room to select, connect, annotate, and revisit.

Mac

See the structure.

Organize properties, people, sources, views, backlinks, and the underlying file evidence.

An honest build line

What is real today. What is planned next.

The product vision is broad. The current build is intentionally narrow while the local file foundation is proven.

Available in TestFlight
  • Native application shellBest Notes is registered, signed, and available to internal testers.
  • Early foundation buildThe current build proves the delivery path and app foundation. It is not the full product shown above.

Availability does not imply that capture, AI, ink, media, or cross-device workflows are shipping yet.

Planned
  • Capture and DailyDurable text capture, manual triage, and a calm daily launch surface.
  • Ink and knowledge viewsHandwriting, people, sources, projects, backlinks, and fixed computed views.
  • Reviewable intelligenceAI proposals with Accept, Edit, Dismiss, provenance, and undo.
  • Media as knowledgeRSS, articles, podcasts, transcripts, clips, and annotations built on the same vault boundary.

The path forward

Build the trustworthy center first.

The sequence starts with the smallest complete promise: type a note, save a real file, and know exactly where it went.

01

Capture kernel Planned

One journaled write path that makes the source durable before enrichment or network work begins.

02

Thinking surfaces Planned

Daily, Inbox, ink, and fixed knowledge views built on the same stable file vocabulary.

03

Earned intelligence Planned

AI and media workflows arrive only after the vault boundary, review model, and provenance rules are trustworthy.

Best Notes

A notebook that leaves your thinking in your hands.

Native where it matters. Plain files where it counts. Ambitious about helping, careful about ownership.

Best NotesBuilding locally, one durable promise at a time.