A fast, keyboard-first Markdown notes app built with Tauri (Rust backend) and React frontend. I built Kyte because I was frustrated with the default Windows notepad experience and didn’t want something bloated like Obsidian. The goal was to build a notes app I actually enjoy using every day.
Kyte keeps your notes local, plain-text, and easy to manage while still feeling fast and native.
You can download the latest release from the Releases page. This release is currently only available for Windows (x64) with plans for macOS and Linux in the future.
- Live Markdown editing
- Built-in full-notes search (Ctrl+Shift+F) powered by a native Rust inverted index
- Performant, lightweight, and local-first
- Keyboard-first workflows with extensive shortcuts
- Distraction free UI
Kyte stores notes as regular Markdown files in your local app-data notes directory. The frontend (React + TypeScript) handles editing and keyboard-driven UI, while the Tauri Rust backend manages file operations, native window behavior, and search indexing.
For search, Kyte uses a Rust-based inverted index (Tantivy) so global note search stays near-instant even with large note collections. The indexing thread runs in the background to ensure that the user facing part of the app is never slowed down. Because of this, search results are always available in less than 15ms as you type.
- Desktop Runtime: Tauri v2
- Backend: Rust
tauri,notify,walkdir,tantivy,window-vibrancy
- Frontend: React + TypeScript + Vite
@mdxeditor/editortailwindcss
- Node.js 20+
- npm
- Rust (developed using 1.93.1)
- Tauri prerequisites for your OS (WebView2 on Windows, etc.)
For Tauri setup details, see the official docs: https://v2.tauri.app/start/prerequisites/
npm installnpm run tauri devnpm run tauri buildKyte stores notes in:
%appdata%/com.kyte.app/notes(Windows)
The app also creates and maintains a local search index in app data, along with other metadata.
I built Kyte for myself first.
I wanted something simple, fast, and focused that doesn’t fight me while writing notes. If other people enjoy using it too, that’s awesome, but the original goal was to make something I actually wanted to use every day.
- Editor customizability
- Storing additional note metadata
- Additional quality of life shortcuts and commands
- Performance and stability improvements
Feel free to open a pull request or fork this with extended features. If you run into an issue while using Kyte, feel free to open an issue on GitHub. However, there is no guaranteeing when I will get to reviewing the issues.
MIT License