Forge

Forge is a local-first Markdown knowledge base for macOS. It is built for people and AI agents who want to work with plain files instead of a closed notes database.

Forge is open source under the MIT License.

What Forge Can Do

• Open any folder as a Markdown vault.
• Create, edit, rename, move, and organize notes and folders.
• Autosave notes as plain .md files.
• Use wikilinks, backlinks, tags, outlines, and a graph view.
• Search notes, titles, aliases, tags, and frontmatter properties.
• Create daily notes and reusable notes from Markdown templates with variables.
• Show unlinked mentions to help connect related notes.
• Play local audio attachments from voice notes.
• Pair with Forge Buddy, the iOS companion recorder.
• Expose a local CLI and MCP server for Codex, Claude, and other agent tools.
• Publish a vault to static HTML.
• Manage bundled extensions through an early local marketplace.
• Check and install app updates from GitHub releases.

Current Status

Forge is early software. The core local notes workflow works, and the agent/CLI/MCP surface is usable, but many features are still being shaped.

Implemented foundations:

• Desktop Markdown editor and reader.
• Vault file tree and tabs.
• Wikilinks, backlinks, tags, outlines, graph view, and search.
• Frontmatter properties and aliases.
• Daily notes and templates.
• Template picker plus CLI/MCP template tools with variable filling.
• Local agent CLI.
• MCP server for agent tools.
• Static HTML publisher.
• Forge Buddy pairing/ingest support.
• Local declarative extension marketplace foundation.
• In-app update checks and release notes.

Planned or in progress:

• A safer public extension/plugin system.
• Better publishing workflows.
• More graph and backlink organization tools.
• Stronger import/export flows.
• More polish around Forge Buddy sync and offline capture.
• Broader documentation for contributors.

Development

npm install
npm run dev
npm run typecheck

Useful local commands:

npm run agent -- --vault /path/to/vault analyze --json
npm run mcp
npm run publish:vault -- --vault /path/to/vault --out /path/to/site --clean

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.