A file-based notes manager for Windows — your folders are the database.
Windows 10/11 · .NET 8 · WPF · MVVM
Notty manages plain‑text and Markdown notes the simplest way possible: as ordinary files on disk.
- Notes are files —
.mdand.txt, nothing else. - Categories are folders — the filesystem is the hierarchy.
- No database, no cloud, no account, no lock‑in. Close the app, open the folder in Explorer, and everything is right there.
- Fully offline, lightweight, no browser runtime.
A workspace is just a folder you pick. Notty scans it and builds the tree.
Notes/
├─ Work/
│ ├─ Meeting Notes.md
│ └─ Sprint Plan.md
├─ Personal/
│ ├─ Journal.md
│ └─ Shopping List.txt
└─ Learning/
└─ Networking.md
- Open or create a workspace (any folder); the choice is remembered between launches.
- Folder tree with expand/collapse, breadcrumbs, and a depth cap — deeper folders become "doors" that re‑root the tree when clicked.
- Right‑click to create Markdown/text documents and categories, rename, duplicate, delete (to the Recycle Bin), and reveal in Explorer.
- Optionally show unsupported file types in the tree (with a neutral "?" icon).
- Recent‑documents tracking (most recent 20).
- Fast code editor powered by AvalonEdit: word wrap, line numbers, configurable tab width, current‑line highlight, font family/size.
- Smart Markdown list editing —
Entercontinues a list (and renumbers the next ordered item),Enteron an empty item outdents or exits the list,Tab/Shift+Tabindent/outdent the item. - Slash commands — type
/to insert elements. The menu adapts to the file type (Markdown vs. plain text). Interactive commands prompt for input (table size, image picker). - Quality‑of‑life cursor moves —
Downon the last line jumps to end‑of‑line;Upon the first line jumps to start‑of‑line.
Toggle Preview in the status bar to render formatting in place while keeping the text fully editable. Supports a broad slice of GitHub‑Flavored Markdown:
- Headings, bold, italic, bold‑italic,
strikethrough,inline code - Bulleted / numbered / task lists, blockquotes, tables, horizontal rules
- Links, images, autolinks
- Fenced code blocks with a full‑width background
- GitHub alerts —
> [!NOTE],> [!TIP],> [!IMPORTANT],> [!WARNING],> [!CAUTION]rendered as colored callout boxes
- Auto‑save (optional, on by default) writes changes ~500 ms after you stop typing.
- Manual save with Ctrl+S; changes are always flushed when switching files or closing.
- Live save indicator in the status bar: Unsaved changes → Saving… → Saved just now / 2 mins ago.
- Light and Dark themes built in; add your own by dropping a JSON palette into the themes folder (no rebuild).
- Settings UI for theme, fonts, formatting, saving, and file visibility.
- Sidebar icons are swappable SVGs.
Grab the latest build from the Releases page — a single self-contained Notty.exe that runs on Windows 10/11 (64-bit) with no .NET install required.
Prerequisites
- Windows 10 or 11
- .NET 8 SDK
# from the repository root
dotnet run --project src/Notty.AppOr build a binary:
dotnet build Notty.sln -c Release
# output: src/Notty.App/bin/Release/net8.0-windows/Notty.App.exedotnet test- On first launch, choose Create New Workspace (or Open Existing Workspace) and pick a folder.
- Use the tree (or right‑click a folder) to create notes and categories.
- Select a note to edit it. Type
/for the insert menu; toggle Preview in the status bar for Markdown rendering.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl + N |
New Markdown document |
Ctrl + Shift + N |
New category |
Ctrl + S |
Save now |
/ |
Open the slash‑command menu (Markdown/text) |
Enter |
Continue / exit a Markdown list |
Tab / Shift + Tab |
Indent / outdent the current list item |
Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Y |
Undo / redo |
Settings and themes live under %AppData%\Notty\ — separate from your notes.
- Settings:
%AppData%\Notty\settings.json(workspace path, theme, editor options, recent documents). - Themes:
%AppData%\Notty\Themes\*.json—light.jsonanddark.jsonare seeded on first run. Drop in another palette to add a theme; it appears in the menu automatically.
A theme palette looks like:
{
"name": "Solarized",
"base": "dark",
"colors": {
"Accent": "#268BD2",
"Window": "#002B36",
"Panel": "#073642",
"Border": "#0B3A47",
"Text": "#EEE8D5",
"MutedText": "#93A1A1",
"Hover": "#0B3A47",
"CodeBg": "#073642",
"CodeText": "#2AA198"
}
}Sidebar icons are SVGs under src/Notty.App/Assets/Icons/ (folders/, files/, ui/). Replace a file and rebuild to change an icon.
Notty/
├─ Notty.sln
├─ src/
│ ├─ Notty.Core/ # Platform-agnostic domain logic (no WPF)
│ │ ├─ Models/ # AppSettings, ThemePalette, WorkspaceNode, RecentDocument
│ │ └─ Services/ # Notes, workspace scanning, settings, themes
│ └─ Notty.App/ # WPF application (MVVM)
│ ├─ ViewModels/ # MainViewModel, EditorViewModel, SettingsViewModel, …
│ ├─ Views/ # SettingsWindow, AboutWindow, InputDialog
│ ├─ Editor/ # Markdown colorizer, renderers, slash commands, list editing
│ ├─ Services/ # Dialogs, theming, shell operations
│ ├─ Themes/ # Control styles
│ └─ Assets/ # Icons + branding
├─ tests/
│ └─ Notty.Core.Tests/ # Unit tests for the core services
└─ docs/ # Specification & feature list
- Language: C# (.NET 8)
- UI: WPF, MVVM
- Editor: AvalonEdit
- SVG rendering: SharpVectors
- Settings/themes: JSON on the local filesystem
Planned, not yet implemented:
- Global search across the workspace (file names + contents)
- Find & replace in the current document
- Formatting toolbar and app‑wide zoom (
Ctrl +/Ctrl -) - Emoji insertion via
:shortcode:autocomplete - Inline image embeds in preview mode
See docs/Featurelist.md for the full list.
Notty is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 — see LICENSE.
Copyright © 2026 Gray Lining
You are free to use, study, share, and modify Notty. If you distribute a modified version, you must also release your source code under the GPL — so Notty and any forks of it stay open source.