Notes and research, kept as plain files you own.
Knotbook is a desktop app for writing linked notes, reading PDFs and collecting sources. Pages, databases, files, comments and AI history live in one portable .knotb file on your computer, with every note inside it kept as Markdown. You don't need an account to use it.
Free to use. Knotbook Pro is a one-time purchase of ₹2,999.
Write in Markdown and link one note to another
Links are ordinary [[wikilinks]]. Type [[ and Knotbook suggests pages as you go, including headings and aliases. Every note has a backlinks panel that lists the notes pointing at it, so an idea you wrote down in March turns up again when you need it. Notes are ordinary .md inside your workspace, so they open in any other editor too.
- Editor
- Headings, tables, callouts, math and Mermaid diagrams
- Organise
- Tags, properties, daily notes and templates
- Other views
- Canvas, outliner, database views over a folder, and a tasks panel
- History
- Every save is kept as a local version you can restore
Pages, databases and files in one workspace file
Relations, rollups, synced blocks and KnotAI autofill need Pro
Your whole workspace, including pages, databases, files, comments and KnotAI history, lives in one portable .knotb file on your device. Pages nest inside other pages, with breadcrumbs above the title, and each one can have an icon and a cover. Lay blocks out in columns, mention a page, date or person with @, and embed a web page or save it as a bookmark card. Embeds and bookmark previews are stored inside the workspace file, so they still show when you are offline.
- Pages
- Nested pages, breadcrumbs, icons and covers
- Blocks
- Columns, block references, table of contents, buttons and dividers
- Layout
- Up to four panes side by side
- Databases
- Relations and rollups between databases (Pro)
- Synced blocks
- Edit a block in one place and it changes everywhere it appears (Pro)
- KnotAI
- Fill a database column with summaries, tags or a classification per row (Pro)
Keep PDFs next to the notes you write about them
Importing and annotating PDFs needs Pro
PDFs open inside the workspace, and their text is added to the search index, so a sentence on page 40 turns up alongside your own notes. With Pro you can import PDFs, highlight and comment, correct text, and export an annotated copy.
- Search
- Text from every PDF is searchable with your notes
- Annotate
- Highlights, comments and image stamps (Pro)
- Export
- Save a flattened PDF, or export any page as a PDF (Pro)
One search box for notes and PDFs
Press ⌘ P (Ctrl P on Windows and Linux) and start typing. Results come from note titles, headings, body text and the text inside your PDFs, and update as you type. With Pro, the Everywhere scope also finds mail, calendar events, tasks and KnotAI memories, and each result opens where it lives. ⌘ K opens the command palette for everything else.
- Index
- Kept on your computer and rebuilt from your files at any time
- Everywhere
- Notes, PDFs, mail, events, tasks and memories in one list (Pro)
- Navigate
- Command palette, quick switcher and tag explorer
- Import
- Open an existing markdown folder as it is
Clip pages and follow feeds without leaving your notes
The browser extension sends pages you clip to an inbox in Knotbook. You go through the inbox and decide what becomes a note; nothing is written without you accepting it. Articles from the RSS feeds you add are saved as Markdown notes in a folder of their own, so you can search them and link to them like anything you wrote.
- Web clipper
- A Chrome extension that talks to the app on your own machine
- Feeds
- RSS, fetched only from the addresses you add
- Quick capture
- Add a thought to today's daily note from anywhere in the app
Read and answer email next to your notes
Free: 2 accounts · Pro: 10
Add Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, Fastmail, Zoho or any other IMAP and SMTP account with an app password. One-click sign-in with Google and Microsoft is coming in a later update. The inbox, drafts, sent, archive, spam and trash folders appear in the sidebar. You can write, reply and forward, search your mail, and save any email as a note. Mail is stored on your computer and the app connects directly to your provider.
- Providers
- Any IMAP and SMTP account with an app password
- Folders
- Inbox, drafts, sent, archive, spam and trash
- Notes
- Save any email as a note in your workspace
- Follow up
- Set a reminder about an email for later (Pro)
- Credentials
- Encrypted with a key in your operating system's keychain, or a local key file where no keychain is available, which Settings tells you about
See tasks, daily notes and events by date
Creating events and reminders needs Pro
The calendar shows your tasks and daily notes on their dates, and one command writes today's events and open tasks into your daily note. With Pro you can create events and set reminders from the command palette or an email, and reminders arrive as system notifications. Two-way sync with Google Calendar and Outlook calendar is coming in a later update. Calendar data is stored on your computer.
- Reminders
- Set, snooze and dismiss; delivered as notifications on your computer (Pro)
- Agenda
- Insert today's events and open tasks into your daily note
- Overlays
- Tasks and daily notes on the days they belong to
- Events
- Create events on the local calendar (Pro)
- Sync
- Google Calendar and Outlook calendar, coming in a later update (Pro)
An assistant that answers from your work, on your computer
Pro
KnotAI runs a language model on your machine after a one-time download. It answers from your notes, PDFs, canvases, images, databases, tasks, emails and calendar, and cites the passages it used. It remembers facts you tell it and summaries of past conversations and agent tasks, and you can view, edit or delete all of it in Settings. On a page it can suggest a title, icon, tags and related links, or translate the page. The agent can create pages, set database properties, draft email replies, and create events and reminders. It sends an email only after you confirm. Web results are off unless you switch them on for a message.
- Model
- Downloaded once when you set it up, then runs offline
- Answers
- Numbered citations link back to the notes they came from
- Memory
- Stored on your computer; view, edit or delete it in Settings
- Pages
- Suggests a title, icon, tags and related links, and translates a page
- Databases
- Fills a column with summaries, tags or a classification for each row
- Images
- Captions and text are read from images on your computer
- Drafts replies; sends only after you confirm
- Web
- Off by default; turned on per message
Edit a note with other people, live
Sessions of up to 5 people on Free, 10 on Pro
Start a live session on any note and share the six-digit code. People who join edit the same note with you, connecting directly to your computer, and the note's content is end-to-end encrypted. Everyone in the session can add, edit and resolve comments as you work. Switch the session to read-only when you only want to present.
- Joining
- A six-digit code on your network, or a ticket over the internet
- Privacy
- Note content and comments are end-to-end encrypted
- Your devices
- Built-in sync is not in the beta yet. The workspace is a single file, so the sync service you already use works
Your files stay yours
A Knotbook workspace is a folder of Markdown files that you choose. The search index, backlinks and graph are built from those files and can be rebuilt at any time, so deleting the index costs you nothing but a reindex.
There is no Knotbook cloud that holds a copy. Back the folder up, sync it with a service you already use, or put it under version control.
| What | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| Notes, search, backlinks, PDF text | Never leave your computer |
| Update check | Reads the public list of releases. You choose on first run and can turn it off in Settings |
| KnotAI model | Downloaded from Hugging Face or GitHub when you start KnotAI setup |
| KnotAI answers | Computed on your computer |
| KnotAI web results | DuckDuckGo, only for messages where you switch it on |
| Email and calendar | Directly to Google, Microsoft or your mail provider, for accounts you add |
| RSS | Only the feeds you add |
| Pro licence | Our licence server, only if you buy Pro |
| Analytics and telemetry | None in the app |
The full list is in the privacy policy.