Liminal Notes

Liminal Notes is a local-first, Markdown-based note-taking app that treats your data as the source of truth. Built with Tauri, React, and Rust, it is designed to be fast, private, and extensible, with future support for local AI and plugins.

Features

• Local-First Vaults: Your notes live in a standard folder on your disk. No proprietary databases.
• Markdown Editor: Write in standard Markdown with instant preview.
• Wikilinks & Backlinks: Connect thoughts using [[wikilinks]]. See what links to the current note in the Backlinks panel.
• Search & Quick Open: Instantly find notes by title or content.
• Graph View: Visualize the connections between your notes.
• Plugin Ready: (In Progress) Built-in plugin host and AI Assistant scaffolding.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Save Note	Ctrl / Cmd + S
Search / Quick Open	Ctrl / Cmd + Shift + F
Toggle Graph View	(Sidebar Button)
Toggle AI Sidebar	(Toolbar Button, if enabled)

Running in Development

We recommend using the VS Code Dev Container for a zero-config setup.

1. Install Dependencies:

   pnpm install

2. Run Development Mode:

   pnpm tauri dev

See CONTRIBUTING.md for more details.

Marketing Site

• Static files live in apps/site/public.
• Shared branding assets live in assets/branding. Run pnpm site:prepare to copy them into apps/site/public before serving or deploying.
• Preview locally with pnpm dlx serve apps/site/public.

Building a Release

To create an installable package for your platform (Linux .deb/.AppImage, Windows .msi, macOS .app/.dmg):

Note: Tauri builds rely on the host OS. To build for Windows, run this command on Windows. To build for macOS, run on macOS.

pnpm build:desktop

The built artifacts will be available in apps/desktop/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Artifacts created:

• Linux: .deb (Debian/Ubuntu installer), .AppImage (portable executable), .rpm (Fedora/RHEL installer).
  • To install .deb: sudo dpkg -i <path-to-deb>
  • To run .AppImage: chmod +x <path>; ./<path>
• Windows: .msi installer.
• macOS: .app bundle, .dmg disk image.

Note: Binaries are currently unsigned. You may see OS warnings when installing.

Windows Installation

Windows may show a SmartScreen warning because the installer is not currently code-signed.

1. Select More info.
2. Select Run anyway.

Before running the installer, verify its SHA256 hash against the release checksum assets (checksums-windows-x64.txt or checksums-windows-arm64.txt).

Get-FileHash .\liminal-notes_<version>_x64_en-US.msi -Algorithm SHA256

Linux AppImage (portable format)

To fix EGL_BAD_PARAMETER blank-screen failures on Arch/Fedora/Steam Deck, build with Tauri’s experimental portable AppImage runtime:

# install the experimental CLI once per machine
cargo install tauri-cli \
  --git https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri \
  --branch feat/truly-portable-appimage \
  --force

export TAURI_BUNDLER_NEW_APPIMAGE_FORMAT="true"
cd apps/desktop
cargo tauri build --bundles appimage

# or just build the AppImage via pnpm using the installed cargo CLI
cd /workspaces/liminal-notes
pnpm build:appimage:portable

The AppImage will be in apps/desktop/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/appimage/. This matches the CI configuration until the upstream runtime merges and becomes the default.

Status & Roadmap

Current Version: 0.1.0 (Milestone 8 - Polish & Packaging)

• Core Note Editing & Linking
• Search & Graph View
• Basic Theming
• Advanced Plugin System
• Local AI Assistant Features

See docs/ for detailed architecture and specs.