Envy

Envy is a note-taking app built around a single conviction: your thoughts belong to you and nobody else. Everything lives locally on your device in plain Markdown files stored in a folder you control. There's no cloud sync, no database, no proprietary format that locks your content into the application. If you delete Envy tomorrow, your notes remain as readable text files that any text editor, code editor, or future note app can open without conversion. This isn't a feature buried in advanced settings or a premium export option. It's the entire design philosophy that shapes every decision the app makes.

The interface centers on what Envy calls one box search. Start typing and your notes filter in real-time. No folder hierarchy to navigate first, no tags to remember, no need to recall where you filed something three months ago. Just a single input field that surfaces whatever you're looking for across your entire library. This approach works especially well for people who accumulate hundreds or thousands of notes over time and need instant retrieval without organizational overhead. The search indexes everything including note titles, full content, and metadata, so obscure phrases from buried paragraphs surface just as easily as recent work.

Tags and folders exist if you prefer visual organization alongside flat search. Tags can be colorized so different projects or contexts stand out visually when scanning your library. Folders provide traditional hierarchy for people who think spatially about their notes. But neither system is required. You can use one, both, or neither depending on how your brain prefers to organize information. The flexibility accommodates different working styles rather than forcing a single methodology.

Wiki-style linking connects notes using double bracket syntax familiar from tools like Obsidian or Roam. Type the name of another note in brackets and Envy creates a clickable reference. Click it to jump directly to that note. If you rename the linked note later, every reference updates automatically across your entire library. This eliminates broken links and manual maintenance as your collection evolves. There's also an embed syntax that pulls the content of one note directly inline into another, which is useful for assembling documents from reusable blocks, maintaining a single source of truth that appears in multiple contexts, or building indexes that summarize information scattered across many files.

Task management integrates directly into the Markdown format rather than living in a separate system. Checkboxes work using standard Markdown syntax. Date notation lets you attach due dates to individual items so tasks have temporal context. The fleeting notes inbox captures quick thoughts without forcing you to decide where they belong in the moment. You can sort and file them later when you have more context about what they mean and where they fit. This reduces friction when you're in capture mode and want to get something out of your head quickly without interrupting your flow.

Floating note windows let you work on multiple notes simultaneously by popping them out into separate windows you can arrange across your screen. A global keyboard shortcut summons the app from anywhere on your system, which makes quick captures possible without switching contexts from whatever you're working on. These workflow features add up to an experience that stays out of your way while remaining accessible whenever you need it.

The privacy stance goes beyond just local storage. Envy makes specific commitments that most applications never bother to mention. Zero telemetry means no usage data leaves your machine. No AI features means your writing isn't processed by language models, analyzed for patterns, or used to train anything. No network calls by default means the app works entirely offline, including in airgapped environments where network access doesn't exist by policy. The codebase is open source on GitHub if you want to verify any of these claims yourself rather than trusting marketing copy. Image handling supports drag and drop or paste from clipboard. Attachments store as portable files alongside your Markdown rather than encoded into a database blob you can't easily extract.

Envy runs on macOS 14 and newer with a signed and notarized build that installs without security warnings or Gatekeeper friction. The download weighs around 3.5 megabytes, which is refreshingly small for a modern desktop app. A Windows beta exists for those on Microsoft's platform, though macOS is the primary development target for now. The app is completely free with no subscription, no account requirement, no premium tier waiting to gate features later, and no plans to change that model. For writers, researchers, developers, and knowledge workers who've grown skeptical of note apps that treat their content as product data or vendor lock-in opportunities, Envy offers an alternative where ownership is a structural guarantee rather than a marketing claim.