A small, fast Electron desktop app for tag-keyword note-taking against a plain-text vault. Built as a GUI companion to TILES, the Emacs package — TESS reads and writes the same on-disk format, so a single vault directory works seamlessly between the two tools.
Each note (a "tile") is a single paragraph stored in its own file, organized
by tags and bold keywords rather than folders. Notes are stitched together by
filtering on tags and *bold* keywords, never by hierarchy.
TESS notes mimic the Emacs Org-mode format — the same shape TILES uses, so the two tools share a vault directly.
- Filename:
T<YYYYMMDDHHMMSS>.<ext>— the letterTfollowed by a UTC timestamp down to the second. Extensions:.org(default),.md, or.txt. - Body: free-form Org-flavored text.
*bold*words become searchable keywords;/italic/and[[https://…][label]]links are recognized; lines starting with&&are treated as private/metadata. - Tags: optional final non-empty line, slash-delimited
(
work/project/idea).
Requires Node.js (with npm). The repo intentionally ships source only: no build artifacts and no binaries.
npm install
npm startOn first run, use File → Open Vault… to choose your notes directory.
npm run dist # macOS arm64 .dmg
npm run dist:win # Windows portable .exeBuild outputs land in dist/, which is gitignored.
TESS can use either fonts you drop into the local fonts/ folder or
fonts installed on your system — toggle between the two in Settings. The
fonts/ directory is gitignored, so anything you put there stays local.
| TESS | TILES | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Electron desktop (macOS / Windows) | Emacs package |
| Vault format | identical | identical |
| Filename pattern | T<UTC-timestamp>.org|md|txt |
T<timestamp>.org |
| Tag line | last non-empty line, /-separated |
same |
| Keywords | *bold* words |
same |
| Private lines | && prefix |
same |
A vault edited by one tool is immediately usable in the other. Pick whichever feels right for the moment.
GPL-3.0. See LICENSE.