Hackable, Local, AI-powered notes
Shelv is a scriptable, plain text notes app with integrated AI features for macOS, written in Rust by the way ™
Hack It, Make It Yours
Settings in Shelv is just a note, where you can create custom commands with KDL and JavaScript, assign and tweak keyboard shortcuts, all with live reload.
The origin story: at the time I used Bear, which had 4 different formats of dates, but I wanted YYYY/mmm/dd, and I kept thinking: "if only I could define what I want". Well, with Shelv you can.
Markdown essentials and more
- Markdown Support
Full CommonMark with extensions, including TODOs - Code Syntax Highlighting
A lot of languages are supported - Live JavaScript Blocks
Execute JS code directly in notes - Slash Menu
Quick access to all commands and features - Keyboard optimized
Everything is available via shortcuts
Frequently Asked Questions
I hope not, my opinions toward AI (or rather LLMs) are mixed. My current position can be roughly outlined as:
- AI is not a "higher-level abstraction" like programming languages over assembly. For a simple reason: it is not deterministic.
- Using AI may and likely will cause skill degradation if used as a solo replacement for typing code or writing prose (like "vibe coding").
- I think the best use of it (at the moment) is if you can expertly assess the output. So the UX I'm leaning towards will try to emphasize that idea.
- Luckily, working with text, adding small scripts, etc. qualifies as such.
- But moreover, I think it can be used as a discovery tool - try asking with a quick prompt, "What are the current keybindings?"
I hope I've convinced you to give Shelv a try.
Yes, but with time (and perhaps your help). Shelv is written in Rust + egui, which has some cross-platform support.
I don't. I worked on Shelv for over 2 years, and I had a dream to start company (still do), but as of now, it's a labor of love. In the future, there may be a way to purchase AI tokens. Currently, Shelv uses my personal token with a cap, but you can always configure your own provider (including Ollama.
Not yet, I'm a local first movement fan, and wanted to use Automerge since forever, ideally with e2e encryption with a pure Rust server. This is something that's being worked on right now, but e2e encrypted scalable sync ain't easy both technically and from a product perspective.
Shelv is licensed under the Komorebi License 2.0.0. The overall structure is inspired by the komorebi project.
Summary:
- You can fork Shelv for the intended purpose of contributing features upstream or for non-commercial use only
- You can use the Mac App Store version for personal use at work or home freely
- In the future, there might be a team license available for purchase separately
I am a Helix user myself, but markdown and text are a bit different from code. That said, I would love to support modal editing in the future. Perhaps some features can be added for "insert" mode (which is the only mode at the moment) that can enhance editing, for example: jump to a word, press any buttons with a label(vimium style), expand + shrink semantic selection etc. I need to work on Shelv full-time to justify adding vim or helix motions to egui TextEdit, vote with your money I guess, oh wait, I don't have a way to actually recieve money...
Not at the moment (besides crash reporting), but I'm not fundamentally opposed to collecting statistics, because it is hard to know if a feature is even used without some observability. I do think it can be done with privacy in mind (at least anonymizing and being mindful of where the data is stored). Probably in the future, however, when and if I add monetization, I'll likely start collecting emails associated with a purchase and/or install
Roadmap
- Barebones editing with 4 notes
- Optimized for quick capture
- No Shelv API exposed to JS scripts
- Workspace folder with notes inside
- Import from Obsidian
- File tree + workspace viewer
- Tools/MCP that allow to search/move/create/edit notes
- UI for having agentic workflows, probably just a chat that is going to be just another file
- Files that define custom workflows, similar to Claude Code
- Semantic selection: expand and shrink cursor selection with markdown AST nodes
- Jump to an element, jump to any word on the screen with a couple of keystrokes (similar to Vimium and Helix)
- Search, Redo etc
- Sharing code among notes
- I plan to use Automerge for personal syncing, which can be also used for collaboration
- Dump to git, e.g. backup all the notes to git, potentially with AI-generated change summary
- Mobile (including web) version is TBD
- Share a note via link (co-editing on the web)
- Share workspace, that is, co-ownership of a collection of folder+notes