Rotli

A calm, local-first workspace for your Mac. One folder is your vault, the Librarian keeps it organized, and every note stays a plain file you own.

Download for Mac  ·  rotli.co  ·  macOS on Apple Silicon · signed and notarized

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Meet Rotli

Most apps want your attention. Rotli stays out of the way.

Press ⌥Space and it is there; press it again and it is gone. Write what is on your mind, then get back to your day. There are no badges, no streaks, and no pings.

Everything you write is yours: plain Markdown in one folder you choose. Open it in any editor, back it up however you like, and keep it long after you stop using Rotli. Rotli is a window onto your files, never their owner.

One folder is your vault

your vault/                 one folder, openable in any editor
  wiki/                     the Library: People · Projects · Research …
  wiki/_secure/             secure notes, kept away from remote AI
  chats/                    your conversations
  storage/                  documents, boards, images, and files
  .rotli/                   Rotli's own state; delete it and lose only a rebuild

You capture. The Librarian files each note into an area of the Library, adds a summary and tags, and records what it did with a guarded undo. It uses an on-device model by default, or a Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini client you have already signed in to. It changes a note's location and metadata only, never the words you wrote. Prefer no AI at all? Choose a raw vault, and the Librarian never runs.

Already have an Obsidian, ZenNotes, or plain Markdown folder? First run can inspect it without writing anything, then open it in place or import a copy.

Work in a view, however you like

• Main is your own shelf: the notes you reach for, arranged by hand. The Library underneath stays tidy, and a note in Main is the same file on disk, not a copy.
• Named views give a project or client its own focused Main. New notes follow the view you are in.
• Remove from Main takes a note out of view; the file stays in your vault.
• Delete moves it to Trash inside the vault. Nothing leaves your disk until you choose Empty Trash.
• Files, at the foot of the sidebar, browses the vault folder the way Finder does, so there is nothing new to learn.

Secure notes stay secure

Mark a note secure and Rotli moves it to wiki/_secure/ and keeps it away from remote models and web lookups; the Librarian leaves it alone. Rotli also recognizes common secret shapes (API keys, private keys, card and identity numbers) and treats them the same way. Remote models never see secure content; on-device models can, unless you turn that off.

What's inside

• The editor. Hybrid Markdown shows raw syntax only on the line you are editing. Lists, checkboxes, choices, switches, tables, wikilinks ([[), and Mermaid diagrams render in place. Choose Aa → Raw markdown to see the text underneath.
• Chat that knows your notes. On-device by default, or through an official Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor client already installed on your Mac. Rotli never shows a provider login or reads provider credentials. Flip the globe for a web lookup.
• Documents and boards. Word documents (.docx) and Excalidraw boards open and save in their own formats, alongside your notes.
• Quick capture with ⌥C from anywhere; the thought lands in Captures and gets filed later.
• ⌘K finds every note, file, chat, and action. ⌘T starts a note and ⌘N chooses what a new tab becomes.
• Panes and tabs split with ⌘D and ⌘⇧D; every hotkey can be rebound.
• The Welcome folder holds three short lessons, plus a guided tour of the real controls. Settings → General → Show me around runs it again.

Spreadsheets (XLSX and CSV) and Word documents are in Beta: they work and save in their own formats, and are still being finished. Mermaid diagram tabs and read-aloud are coming soon and are not in this release.

Seven families, light and dark

The titlebar sun switches between paired light and dark environments in seven families: Rotli · Paper & Charcoal · Ocean · Grove · Iris · Blossom · Midnight (Settings → Appearance can make it walk your own picks, or all fourteen). Every first run starts in Rotli Light; below is one environment from each family.

Rotli Dark	Charcoal	Ocean Light
Grove Dark	Iris Light	Midnight

Your data stays yours

• Plain Markdown files on your Mac, readable by any editor, forever.
• No account. Rotli works fully offline. Connected models, web research, and updates use the network only when you choose them.
• Secure notes and secret-shaped text never reach a remote model or the web.
• The Librarian changes location and metadata only, and a raw vault turns AI off entirely.

See PRIVACY.md for the full data boundary.

Use your workspace from the shell

The installed app is also a JSON CLI that follows the same rules as the app: new notes enter intake and appear in Main, secure notes stay unavailable to agents, locked notes refuse edits, and every update needs a fresh revision.

/Applications/rotli.app/Contents/MacOS/rotli notes list
/Applications/rotli.app/Contents/MacOS/rotli notes search "launch plan"
/Applications/rotli.app/Contents/MacOS/rotli notes query 'area:projects updated:>=2026-07-01'
/Applications/rotli.app/Contents/MacOS/rotli notes create --title "Launch plan" --body "First draft"

The MCP server, rotli agent … commands, and remote agents are development builds only for now. The agent workspace contract has the details.

Build it

bun install --frozen-lockfile
bun run dev:app     # the native app in development, with live vault switching
bun run dev         # the frontend alone, in a browser with an in-memory demo vault
bun run verify      # CI's local twin: checks, builds, Playwright, clippy, cargo test

Contributing, or working with an AI coding tool? Start with CONTRIBUTING.md, AGENTS.md, and the documentation map. Repository skills for every agent live in .agents/skills/. Report security issues through SECURITY.md. Rotli is released under the MIT license.

Stack: Tauri 2 · React · Vite · TypeScript (strict) · Bun · Rust · plain CSS from the in-repo brand kit (src/brand/).

Where it's going

✅	1.0: the editor, panes and tabs, ⌘K, six environment families
✅	The Librarian files your notes, with an activity record and guarded undo
✅	Chat on-device or through your own connected clients, grounded in your notes
✅	Secure notes kept away from remote AI and the web
✅	Documents and boards saved in their own formats
✅	Spreadsheets in Beta, saved as real XLSX and CSV
⏳	Email Inbox · mobile and tablet · handwriting (roadmap)

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Calm, local, and yours.