A local-first PARA workspace — notes, tasks, projects, a light CRM, and a calendar, all on your own device.
DANO is a free, open-source, offline-first "second brain" desktop app that organizes your work and life with the PARA method (Projects · Areas · Resources · Archive). No accounts, no cloud, no tracking — your data stays in a local SQLite file you fully own.
DANO is a privacy-first productivity app that unifies the tools you normally juggle across five apps — a note-taking app, a to-do list, a project tracker, a contacts/CRM, and a calendar — into one fast, keyboard-driven desktop workspace.
It's built around Tiago Forte's PARA method, a simple system for organizing everything you're working on:
- Projects — things with a goal and a finish line (e.g. "Website redesign").
- Areas — ongoing parts of your life with no end date (e.g. "Health", "Finance").
- Resources — notes and reference material, written in Markdown.
- Archive — anything finished or inactive, out of the way but never lost.
- Inbox — a quick-capture space for thoughts you'll sort later.
Everything runs 100% offline. Your data lives in a local SQLite database on your machine — there's no server, no sign-up, and nothing leaves your device unless you export it yourself.
- PARA organization — Areas hold Projects, Projects hold Tasks; notes link to anything, or stay in the Inbox.
- Dashboard — a home screen with quick capture, stats, recent activity, and what needs attention.
- Markdown notes — a clean CodeMirror editor, with tags and links to projects, areas, and contacts.
- Tasks — checklists inside projects, with due dates and drag-to-reorder.
- Light CRM — keep contacts with notes and recurring dates (birthdays, anniversaries) that surface on your calendar.
- Calendar — month, week, and agenda views for events, deadlines, and contact dates.
- Pin & favorite — keep important projects and notes at the top.
- Filter & sort — slice projects by status, area, priority, or deadline; filter notes by area or tag.
- Backup & restore — export and import your content and settings as JSON, to a location you choose.
- Appearance — light / dark / system theme, adjustable zoom, and four UI fonts.
- Keyboard-first — quick shortcuts for navigation, capture, and search.
- Yours, forever — local-first, open-source, no telemetry, no lock-in.
Grab the latest build for your platform from the Releases page:
| Platform | File |
|---|---|
| macOS (Apple Silicon / Intel) | .dmg |
| Windows | .msi or .exe |
| Linux | .AppImage or .deb |
DANO is currently in beta and not yet code-signed. On macOS, right-click the app → Open the first time (or run
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/DANO.app). On Windows, choose More info → Run anyway at the SmartScreen prompt.
Coming soon.
- Tauri v2 — a lightweight, secure desktop shell (Rust + system webview), far smaller than Electron.
- Svelte 5 + SvelteKit (static SPA) — reactive UI with runes.
- SQLite via
tauri-plugin-sql— native, reliable, local-only storage. - CodeMirror 6 — the Markdown note editor.
- TypeScript throughout.
You'll need Rust, Node.js, and the Tauri prerequisites for your OS (full list here).
On Arch-based distros, the Linux prerequisites are roughly:
webkit2gtk-4.1 base-devel curl wget file openssl librsvg
Then:
git clone https://github.com/xUniti/dano.git
cd dano
npm install
npm run tauri dev # run in development
npm run tauri build # produce a release bundle- PARA workspace (Areas, Projects, Tasks, Resources, Archive, Inbox)
- Dashboard, calendar, and a light CRM
- Settings, theming, and JSON backup / restore
- Pin, tags, drag-to-reorder
- End-to-end encrypted sync (CRDT-based, offline-first)
- Mobile apps (iOS / Android via Tauri)
- Calendar sync (CalDAV)