Tagdown Editor

A fast, local-first desktop editor for Tagdown notes — Markdown plus rich semantic blocks, tags, links, live queries, math, and diagrams.

Tagdown Editor is a macOS-focused Tauri app for writing structured notes without giving up plain-text ownership. Notes are ordinary Markdown files on disk. They render instantly in a polished preview, link to each other, and can be exported, presented as slides, published as a website, or handed to an AI assistant.

Plain text in. Beautiful documents out.
Local vaults · Wikilinks · Live queries · Full-text search · Slides · Publishing · MCP

Read the documentation →

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What is Tagdown?

Tagdown is a note format built on Markdown with extra structure for knowledge work:

• familiar Markdown for headings, lists, links, quotes, tables, and code
• #tags (nested with /) and [[wikilinks]] between notes
• document components such as callouts, tabs, grids, collapsible details, asides, figures, quotes, and keyboard hints
• technical writing with KaTeX math and Mermaid diagrams
• live <query /> blocks that list notes or tasks from across the vault

# Atlas launch plan

The plan for shipping **Atlas** this quarter. #project/atlas

::: tip Goal
Public beta by **November 14**.
:::

<query tag:project show:tasks />

See the syntax guide for everything Tagdown adds.

Features

Writing

• Source, split, and preview modes (⌘1 / ⌘2 / ⌘3), and edit in place by clicking any block in the preview.
• Slash commands: type / to turn a line into a heading, list, or task, or to insert any component, a note link, or a date.
• Outliner lists: ↩ continues bullets, numbers, and tasks; Tab and ⇧Tab nest and un-nest items with their children.
• Drag to reorder blocks in the preview by their grip, or move the block you're editing with ⌘⇧↑ / ⌘⇧↓. Headings bring their whole section along (a setting you can turn off).
• Formatting toolbar with one-click templates for every Tagdown component.
• Command palette (⌘K) to jump to any note, search, or run any action.
• Focus mode (⌘\) hides everything but the note.
• Light and dark themes (⌘⇧D), or follow the system, with sixteen accent colours to tint the app and an optional paper grain.

Organizing

• Local-first vault of plain .md files in ~/Documents/Tagdown, with nested folders and an archive.
• Tags from the note body or frontmatter, shown as a colour-coded tree.
• Wikilinks with autocomplete. Links follow renames automatically and show up as Linked mentions under the target note.
• Journal (⌘⇧J): a page for every day with a calendar, [[2026-10-13]] date links, and a template for new days.
• Full-text search backed by Tantivy, with tag:, title:, "phrases", and -exclusions.
• Live queries such as <query tag:project show:tasks />; tick tasks right in the list. ⌘⇧T shows every open task.
• Outside edits from other editors, git, or sync services are picked up while the app runs.

Safety

• Autosave with version history (⌘⇧H). Earlier versions are kept locally, thinned out over time, and can be restored with one click.

Sharing

• Export a note as a self-contained HTML file (⌘⇧E) or print / save as PDF (⌘P).
• Present as slides (⌥⌘P): each --- starts a new slide, scaled to fit any screen.
• Publish as a website: all notes, a folder, or a tag become static pages with working links, backlinks, tag filters, and search. Links to unpublished notes become plain text.

AI-ready

• The tagdown CLI searches, reads, creates, and appends to notes from the terminal.
• tagdown mcp is an MCP server, so assistants like Claude can search, read, and write rich Tagdown notes in your vault.

Download

Grab the latest .dmg from Releases. It's a universal build for Apple silicon and Intel Macs. Open it and drag Tagdown Editor into Applications.

Opening the app the first time

The app isn't signed with an Apple Developer ID yet, so macOS blocks the first launch with a message like "Apple could not verify 'Tagdown Editor' is free of malware". To open it anyway:

1. Try to open Tagdown Editor once and dismiss the warning.
2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the Tagdown Editor message.
3. Confirm with Open. macOS remembers the choice, so later launches just work.

If macOS instead says the app "is damaged and can't be opened", remove the download quarantine flag in Terminal:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Tagdown Editor.app"

Prefer to check the code first? Build it yourself as described below.

Building from source

You need Node.js 20+, Rust stable, and the Tauri prerequisites for macOS.

npm install
npm run tauri:dev

Build a release with:

npm run build
npm run tauri:build

On first launch the app creates a vault at ~/Documents/Tagdown with a few starter notes. More in Getting started.

Command line and AI assistants

cargo install --path src-tauri/core

tagdown search "tag:project budget"
tagdown new "Meeting notes" "Agenda for [[Project Atlas]]"
tagdown append "Meeting notes" "- [ ] Send recap"
tagdown tasks

Connect Claude Code to your vault:

claude mcp add tagdown -- tagdown mcp

Claude Desktop setup, every command, and the full list of MCP tools are in Command line and AI assistants.

Documentation

The guides below are also published at sthix.github.io/tagdown.

Tech stack

Validation

npm run build
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml --workspace
cargo check --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml --workspace
node --test tests/*.mjs

Current status

Tagdown Editor is an active early-stage desktop app (v0.1.0). The writing workspace (with slash commands, outliner lists, and drag-to-reorder blocks), vault, full-text search, wikilinks and backlinks, the daily journal, live queries, version history, file watching, HTML/PDF export, slides, website publishing, and the CLI/MCP server are in place. Still to come: drag-and-drop Markdown import, more settings, and a full native menu bar.

See PROJECT_PLAN.md for the roadmap.

Why this exists

Most note apps force a tradeoff: beautiful rendered documents, or durable plain-text files. Tagdown aims for both. You write in a format that stays readable and portable, while the editor turns it into structured, presentation-quality notes.