Jotter v0.5.3

Added

• Ask your vault. Enable it in Settings → AI, choose an embedding provider and model, then open AI: Ask Your Vault from the command palette. Indexing sends notes to the embedding provider; answering sends matching passages to the chat provider and returns source links. OpenAI-compatible endpoints and Ollama support embeddings. The index stays outside the vault and can be deleted from Settings.
• Shared context for AI assistants. The CLI commands context and set-context, and the MCP tools get_context and update_context, share _context/Context.md across assistants. Updates preserve the previous text in version history; read-only clients cannot write it.

Fixed

• Recheck Ask consent before sending passages to chat and between embedding batches. Exclude changed and deleted notes from answers, including deletions while a question is pending.
• Bind cached embeddings to their provider, endpoint, and model. Stop an operation if its embedding settings change. Existing indexes need rebuilding.
• Split long paragraphs and code blocks into bounded passages without breaking Unicode or source line references. Escape prompt content and attributes so note text cannot forge passage or question delimiters.
• Offer index cleanup when only notes have been deleted. Keep Ask and Settings dialogs separate and restore interface and accessibility test coverage.
• Keep backup settings readable after choosing a folder, including long paths and narrow windows. Shorten Vault descriptions in English and Spanish.

Windows installers come in x64 and ARM64 builds, each as an .exe (per-user setup) and an .msi. Linux ships an x86_64 AppImage and a .deb.

Jotter v0.5.2

Added

• Automatic updates. Jotter checks GitHub for a newer release shortly after it starts and once a day, and an Update button appears in the status bar when one exists. It opens the release notes with Install and restart, which saves your open notes, downloads the update, verifies its signature against the key built into the app, installs it, and restarts. Nothing installs without your confirmation. Settings → About turns the daily check off and checks on demand, and the command palette has Check for Updates. A Linux .deb install cannot replace itself and points to the release page instead. The AppImage and the Windows installers update in place.
• Calendar sync (CalDAV). Settings → Task calendar can push open tasks with due dates to a CalDAV calendar such as Nextcloud, Fastmail, iCloud, or Radicale. Jotter sends changes one way, never reads the calendar, and deletes the events it created when a task is completed or removed. Use a calendar that holds only Jotter's events. The password stays in the system credential store.
• Scheduled vault backups. Settings can zip the whole vault into a folder you choose every 6 hours, daily, or weekly, and keep the newest copies you set. Back up now runs one on demand, and Settings shows the time of the last backup. Backups continue while Jotter sits in the tray. Each vault gets its own backup subfolder, and repeated copies use unique names. Existing flat backups stay untouched. Symlinks are skipped, and so is the backup folder when it sits inside the vault.
• jotter command-line tool and MCP server. Search, read, create, append to, rename, and delete notes, and read backlinks, tags, tasks, vault health, and version history, from a terminal or an AI agent, with JSON answers. jotter mcp serves the same operations to MCP clients. Writes keep the replaced text in the note's version history, deletes go to the Recycle Bin, and --read-only refuses every write. See the README for build steps.
• Release notes. A GitHub release's body is now the version's section of this changelog, so the same text appears on GitHub and inside the update dialog.

Fixed

• Pause autosave when a dirty note changes externally until the user chooses which copy to keep. Keeping local edits resumes saving; reloading preserves the external copy.
• Keep CLI version history in the same vault folder as the app, including Windows short paths and macOS path aliases. Carry history through note and folder renames, and rewrite links to moved notes and attachments.
• Separate the desktop and CLI executables so workspace builds cannot overwrite either program.
• Isolate backups by vault, use unique temporary and archive names, and serialize manual and scheduled runs. Keep the displayed backup status current.
• Stop CalDAV deletes after an authorization failure and retain unsent events for retry.
• Serialize release uploads to preserve every platform in the update feed. Install only the update version confirmed in the dialog, handle Escape and shortcuts consistently, and translate updater errors.

Windows installers come in x64 and ARM64 builds, each as an .exe (per-user setup) and an .msi. Linux ships an x86_64 AppImage and a .deb.

Jotter v0.5.1

Added

• Split view: edit two notes side by side with independent scrolling, or show a rendered preview. Open it with Ctrl+Shift+, the title-bar button, or Open on the right.
• Version history: browse local snapshots, review a restore diff, and recover earlier note text. Restoring preserves the text it replaces.
• Linux packages: x86_64 AppImage and Debian .deb builds join the Windows x64 and ARM64 installers.
• Accessibility improvements: named editor controls, keyboard-operated dividers, focus containment, improved contrast, and automated audits across all three themes.

Fixes

• Prevent duplicate editors for one note and route save, close, history, navigation, and printing to the appropriate pane.
• Validate vault containment before history reads; preserve unsaved edits when saving fails; stop restores that cannot create a safety snapshot.
• Retain histories across renames and timestamp collisions, and measure missing-note retention from the first detected absence.
• Correct restore-diff direction, external-change controls, keyboard shortcuts, and focus-based word counts.

Downloads

• Windows x64 / ARM64: choose the matching architecture, then use the per-user .exe installer or .msi.
• Linux x86_64: AppImage or .deb.

Validation and remaining checks

Frontend, Rust, browser/accessibility, and 20 native Windows release-app checks pass. GitHub CI also passes native tests on Windows, macOS, and Linux; the Linux desktop clipboard test requires an interactive session and is excluded from headless CI.

Linux packages are built in CI. Installation and desktop smoke tests, NVDA/VoiceOver, and real Windows forced-colors validation remain pending. Native Wayland clipboard support depends on compositor data-control support; global shortcuts require X11.

Full changes: v0.5.0...v0.5.1

Jotter v0.5.0

Jotter 0.5.0

Jotter is a local-first Markdown notes app for Windows. Your notes are plain .md files in a folder you choose, and that folder opens as an Obsidian vault too. Nothing needs an account, and nothing leaves your computer unless you turn on an AI provider.

This is the first public release.

Copy that keeps its shape

Text copied out of Jotter keeps its line breaks, blank lines, and indentation when you paste it into Google Chat, Slack, Gmail, Word, or a plain-text editor. Ctrl+Shift+V pastes as plain text, and Ctrl+V saves a pasted image into the vault.

Writing

• Live Preview formats Markdown as you type: headings, lists, tasks, images, tables, math (KaTeX), Mermaid diagrams, callouts, and footnotes.
• A line ending in = shows its arithmetic result, and calc blocks support variables and totals.
• A form in the note header edits YAML properties.
• The outliner moves list items with Alt+↑/↓, nests them with Tab, and folds and zooms into them.
• Templates start new notes with the date, time, title, and values you fill in. Ctrl+Shift+D opens today's daily note.
• Find and replace, spell check in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Italian, and optional line numbers.

Organizing

• Wikilinks and backlinks, nested tags, pinned notes, and an outline of the open note.
• Renaming or moving a note offers to update every link that points to it, and one command undoes the update.
• The vault health report lists broken links, unused attachments, empty notes, and duplicate titles.
• Typo-tolerant full-text search, a quick switcher (Ctrl+O), a calendar of notes, and a home page of recent and rediscovered notes.
• Checklist items can carry due dates. Jotter shows a reminder when a task comes due and can keep an .ics calendar file current.
• Notes you delete go to the Recycle Bin, and the Recently deleted view restores them.

Always at hand

• A global hotkey (Ctrl+Alt+J) shows or hides Jotter from any app, and Jotter can stay in the tray.
• Quick capture (Ctrl+Alt+N) opens a small window that adds a thought to your inbox note without opening the main window.

Optional AI

Connect your own OpenAI-compatible endpoint, Anthropic key, or local Ollama model to summarize, rewrite, translate, or polish text. AI is off by default, and keys stay in the Windows credential store.

More

• English and Spanish interface.
• Vaults inside Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, or iCloud Drive work, and Jotter lists their conflict copies.
• CSS snippets to restyle the app.
• Settings export and import.
• MIT licensed.

Install

Your PC	Download
Most Windows PCs (Intel or AMD)	Jotter_0.5.0_x64-setup.exe
Windows on ARM (Snapdragon, Surface Pro X)	Jotter_0.5.0_arm64-setup.exe

The .exe installs for your user account and needs no administrator rights. The .msi files suit managed installs. Jotter needs Microsoft Edge WebView2, which the installer downloads if it is missing.

The installers are not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may warn the first time you run one. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

See CHANGELOG.md for the full list of changes.