Noir Note

Desktop-first local workspace in the spirit of Notion: strict, minimal, offline-first, and built for serious writing and knowledge work.

Overview

Noir Note is a native desktop knowledge workspace with a custom Tauri shell, a block editor, nested pages, local SQLite persistence, and a structure that can grow toward sync, accounts, collaboration, exports, and plugins.

The current implementation is optimized for:

• fast local startup;
• keyboard-first editing;
• low visual noise;
• predictable persistence;
• clear separation between shell, UI, editor logic, and data layer.

Stack

• Tauri 2
• React 19
• TypeScript
• SQLite via rusqlite

Product scope

• Native desktop window for macOS, Windows, and Linux via Tauri
• Custom title bar and local-first workflow
• Sidebar with nested pages, search, and recent documents
• Block editor with slash commands, drag and drop, undo/redo, and autosave
• SQLite storage with migrations and repository-style data access
• Window state persistence and last-opened document restore

Features

• Custom desktop shell and title bar
• Nested pages and recent documents
• Search-first sidebar with title, path, and content matches
• Block editor with slash commands
• Drag and drop blocks
• Undo and redo
• Local SQLite persistence with migrations
• Last opened page persistence
• Native window state persistence

Architecture

Frontend:

• src/components: desktop UI, editor, sidebar, and empty states
• src/hooks: workspace orchestration, hotkeys, and window state persistence
• src/services: pure logic for page tree, editor history, slash catalog, and Tauri bridge
• src/types: strict domain models
• src/utils: editor and block helpers

Desktop and persistence:

• src-tauri/src/lib.rs: Tauri bootstrap and command registration
• src-tauri/src/db: SQLite migrations and repository layer
• src-tauri/migrations: schema migrations for pages, blocks, and settings

This split is intentional: UI remains replaceable, editor logic stays mostly pure, and the data layer is already shaped for future sync and account-backed storage.

Project structure

.
├── src
│   ├── components
│   ├── hooks
│   ├── services
│   ├── types
│   └── utils
├── src-tauri
│   ├── migrations
│   └── src
│       └── db
├── tests
└── .github/workflows

Development

Install dependencies:

npm install

Run the frontend only:

npm run dev

Run the desktop app:

npm run tauri:dev

Quality checks

Typecheck, tests, and production frontend build:

npm run check

Run local quality checks:

cargo fmt --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml --check

Production build

npm run tauri:build

Windows installers from a Windows machine:

npm run tauri:build:windows

Windows NSIS installer only:

npm run tauri:build:windows:nsis

CI runs:

• npm run check
• cargo fmt --check
• cargo check

Release automation:

• .github/workflows/windows-build.yml: validates that the app bundles on Windows
• .github/workflows/windows-release.yml: creates draft Windows releases from v* tags

Keyboard UX

• Ctrl/Cmd + K: focus page search
• Ctrl/Cmd + N: create page
• Ctrl/Cmd + Z: undo
• Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Z: redo
• Type /: open block command flow
• Alt + ArrowUp/ArrowDown: move block

Data model

SQLite tables:

• pages: tree structure, order, timestamps
• blocks: page-scoped ordered content blocks
• settings: recent pages, last opened page, and app-level state

This keeps the local model simple while leaving room for:

• authentication and remote identities;
• cloud sync;
• real-time collaboration;
• permissions;
• exports to Markdown/PDF;
• plugin hooks;
• database-style views.

Linux prerequisites

Tauri on Linux needs system packages for GTK/WebKit and pkg-config. Typical Debian/Ubuntu setup:

sudo apt install pkg-config libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev librsvg2-dev patchelf

Roadmap

• page tree reordering and structural drag and drop
• markdown and PDF export
• sync engine and account layer
• collaboration-ready document operations
• plugin and command extension points

Windows distribution notes

• The repository is configured to ship Windows installers via both NSIS (-setup.exe) and WiX (.msi).
• NSIS is configured for currentUser installs to reduce elevation friction.
• WiX uses a fixed upgradeCode, so future releases upgrade in place instead of installing as a separate app.
• WebView2 is bundled via the embedded bootstrapper mode, which avoids a hard dependency on a live internet connection during install while keeping installer size reasonable.