Every note is a plain Markdown file on your own computer.

Link notes with double brackets, search across titles, tags and bodies, and keep your place on a board that stays out of the way. Git sync is there when you want history, and it is never required. There is no account and no service in the middle: the folder of files is the product, and the index beside it can be deleted at any moment.

Download the latest release How to install

Free and MIT licensed. Builds for macOS, Windows, and Linux. The macOS and Windows builds are not notarized or code-signed yet, so the first launch needs one extra confirmation.

The Monos board: recent notes as cards, each with its category, tags, a snippet, and the date it was last changed.

Your notes are plain files.

Each note is a Markdown file in a folder on your computer. Open it in any editor, keep it under version control, or copy the whole folder somewhere else. Monos reads the same file you would.

The file is the only copy.

The search index is a cache, and it can be rebuilt at any time.
Attachments stay with your notes.

Images and files go to an _attachments folder beside them.
Everything can leave.

Export a ZIP backup, or print the whole folder as one PDF.

A note on disk, as Monos stores it. Sample content.

---
title: Reading list
tags: [books, 2026]
category: Personal
---

# Reading list

- [x] The Pragmatic Programmer
- [ ] Thinking, Fast and Slow, see [[Ideas]]

Write in one place, and link as you go.

A rich editor with Markdown underneath. Link another note with double brackets, and the note you link to lists the link back as a backlink. The outline shows the headings of the open note, and it folds away on desktop when you want the full width.

The editor open on a note called Launch Plan, with its category and tags, a formatting toolbar, the note text, and the outline on the right. — The editor with its outline. Category, tags, and the due date sit above the text.

Templates for the notes you write again and again.

Start from a built-in template, hide the ones you never use, or save your own. Placeholders such as {{title}} and {{date}} are filled in when you create the note.

The templates manager with a custom template at the top and the built-in library below it. — Your templates first, then the built-in library.

Find a note by what you remember.

Search titles, tags, and note bodies from the header. Open any note by its title with Cmd or Ctrl and O, and narrow the list with filters such as tag: and path:.

Search results for the word sync, with the matching word highlighted in each note. — Search highlights the words that matched.

The quick switcher with the word launch typed in, listing the Launch Plan note and matching templates. — The quick switcher lists notes and templates as you type.

When two copies disagree, you choose.

Git sync is optional. If the same note changes on two devices, Monos shows both versions and asks which one to keep. Deleted notes wait in the trash until you restore them, and an archive can be merged into your notes without overwriting what is already there.

The conflict dialog comparing the local and the remote version of one note side by side, with a choice to keep each. — Both versions side by side. You choose what to keep.

Light or dark, English or Russian, and a layout for narrow windows.

Six color palettes come in light and dark variants. Both languages are complete, with no fallback between them. On a narrow window the board becomes a compact list of cards that you can still search and create notes from.

The settings screen with backup, language, and theme choices, including the six color themes. — Theme, language, and typography live in Settings.

The board in a phone-sized window, with cards in two columns. — The board on a narrow window.

Install

Download the installer for your system from the latest release. The notes stay in the app data folder, and they are kept when a new version is installed over an older one.

Platform	Artefact	First launch
macOS	`.dmg`, Apple silicon and Intel	The app is not notarized, so macOS asks once.
Windows	NSIS installer, `.exe`	SmartScreen asks once.
Linux	`.AppImage` and `.deb`	Nothing to confirm.

On macOS, try to open Monos, close the warning, then open System Settings, Privacy and Security, and click Open Anyway next to the message about Monos. Confirm with your password and later launches open normally. The same thing from a terminal:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Monos.app

On Windows, click More info and then Run anyway.

What you get, and where it lives.

Platforms	macOS on Apple Silicon and Intel, Windows, and Linux as an AppImage or a `.deb` package.
Where notes live	A notes folder plus a rebuildable index, both inside your operating system's application data folder.
Git sync	Optional. It uses a repository you choose, and it never touches the Monos source code.
Languages	English and Russian.
Licence	MIT. Read the source, report a problem, or build it yourself.