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Zennotes

Zennotes is a free, open-source notes and writing app for Windows, macOS and Linux. Keyboard-first local Markdown notes with Vim motions, diagrams, and MCP integration. It has 2,560 GitHub stars and is released under the MIT license. Its source code is on GitHub at ZenNotes/zennotes.

github.com/ZenNotes/zennotes (opens in a new tab)

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About Zennotes

ZenNotes is a keyboard-first Markdown notes app with a shared product core and multiple runtimes: ZenNotes keeps your notes as ordinary Markdown files on disk. It adds Vim-friendly editing, split and preview workflows, tasks, tags, archive/trash, diagrams, search, daily notes, CSV databases (Notion-style Table + Board views over plain.csv files), and MCP integration on top of the files you already own. On macOS, the first-party zen CLI also powers launcher workflows such as the Raycast extension.

Install Zennotes

Package names found in the project's README. Each links to its package page so you can check the publisher first.

Homebrew (macOS)
brew install --cask zennotes

Package page (opens in a new tab)

AUR (Arch Linux)

zennotes-bin on the AUR (opens in a new tab)

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FAQ

Zennotes FAQ

Still curious? Email info@appsgit.com.

Is Zennotes free and open source?

Yes. Zennotes's source code is public on GitHub under the MIT license, which is OSI-approved or FSF-free, so you can use, copy and change it for free.

How do I install Zennotes?

Homebrew: brew install --cask zennotes and the AUR package zennotes-bin. The commands are on this page. Installers are also on its GitHub Releases page (latest: v2.78.0).

Is Zennotes still maintained?

The repository's most recent commit was on Oct 27, 2026. appsgit only lists apps whose repository had a commit in the last six months.