Bear

Promptfree, for everyone, and the only version there is

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Build me a notes app that replaces Bear — and know why this is ALMOST.

The tagging and search are straightforward. Two things are not: **an editor that renders Markdown as you type without ever showing the syntax**, which is genuinely difficult to make feel effortless, and **sync that works quietly across a phone, a tablet and a laptop**. Bear costs a few euros a year, so nothing is saved in money — build it because you want the notes in plain files you own.

STACK
- CodeMirror 6 as the editing engine, with decorations doing the rendering. Do not write a text editor
- A PWA that works offline, or native if the platform integrations matter
- SQLite on device, with FTS5
- An optional sync server: Node 20+ with Fastify, storing ciphertext only

THE EDITOR, WHICH IS THE PRODUCT
- Markdown rendered in place: a heading is large, bold is bold, and the syntax marks are hidden except on the line the cursor is on. That last clause is the entire trick
- Implemented as a decoration layer over the plain text — line decorations for blocks, mark decorations for inline, widget decorations for images and maths. The document is always plain Markdown, with no separate model to keep in sync
- Lists continue, checkboxes toggle by click, code blocks highlight and contain no Markdown rendering, tables edit as a grid with Tab between cells
- Typing must never stutter. Parse incrementally, never re-render the whole document on a keystroke

TAGS INSTEAD OF FOLDERS
- Tags written inline in the note itself, nested with slashes, so the structure lives in the text rather than in a database
- The sidebar is a tree derived from the tags, and renaming a tag rewrites it in every note — as one recorded operation that can be undone
- A note can have many tags, which is why this beats folders, and the whole reason to prefer it
- Search across content, tags and titles with FTS5, instant at tens of thousands of notes

THE FILES
- One Markdown file per note on disk, with front matter for the metadata. If this application disappears, every note is still readable in any editor. That property outranks every feature
- The database is an index, rebuildable from the files. Write the rebuild command and test it
- Attachments stored beside the notes in a predictable directory

SYNC
- End-to-end encrypted: the client encrypts content and file paths, the server stores ciphertext and can decrypt nothing
- A change feed ordered by a server counter, never by a device clock
- Conflicts keep both versions as a conflict copy and say so. Never merge, never pick a winner silently — a sync that chooses will eventually eat a paragraph and you will notice a month later
- Works entirely without it

THE REST
- Backlinks between notes by title link, resolved at save
- Export a note or everything as Markdown, HTML or PDF, in one command
- Themes as CSS files, dark and light, both measured for contrast
- No analytics. A notes application knows what you are thinking about and that is nobody's business

OPERATIONS
- If there is a server: .env with DATABASE_PATH, STORAGE_PATH, BASE_URL, SESSION_SECRET; migrations on boot; nightly backup of ciphertext

WHAT MATTERS MOST
The reveal-on-cursor rule and conflict copies. Build the decoration layer and live in it for a week, then edit the same note on two offline devices and bring them back together.