Free Open source · for macOS
Notes & Goals keeps what you're doing, writing and working toward as plain files in a folder you choose. No accounts, no cloud, and no daily page to copy forward.
The idea
Most task apps make you rebuild today from yesterday. Notes & Goals has no daily page at all — Today is a live view of every task you haven't finished.
Mark something done or dropped and it's gone. Leave it open and it keeps showing up, quietly getting older, until you deal with it. Carry-forward is automatic; there's no migration step, ever.
Some days need more than a queue. Commit up to five tasks to today's slate, office and personal mixed as you like, and finish them. That's the day's only finish line — no points, no streaks, no penalties.
What's inside
A slate for the tasks that matter today, a real editor for the thinking around them, and goals that keep score for you.
Today
Commit up to five tasks to today's slate. Finish them all and the day is complete — then close the laptop.
Scratchpad ⌘J
A floating brain-dump pad that opens over whatever you're doing. Drag it anywhere, resize it, and keep separate scraps in tabs.
Notes
Headings, lists, checklists, quotes and dividers as you type — saved as a .md file any editor can open.
Longer-term aims whose progress comes from the tasks you link. Nothing to update by hand.
Find tasks, goals, notebooks and words inside notes, then jump straight there.
Look back at what you created and finished on any day. No journaling required.
Your data
Everything you write lands in a folder you choose, as files you can read without the app — Markdown for notes, JSON for tasks and goals. Point at a line on either side to find its twin.
Base is solid — now it's about the long run.
Don't chase race pace before mile 15.
---id: 5f0c2a9e-7d41-4b8e-9a3c-2e6f1d8b4c07title: Half marathon training plancontext: personalgoalId: 8d2a4e1b-3c5f-4a7d-b9e0-6f1c2d3a4b5enotebookId: 51c09f3e-2b8a-4d6c-a1e7-9f0b3c4d5e6acreated: 2026-07-06T08:12:31Zupdated: 2026-09-12T19:40:05Zattachments: []---## Weeks 9–12 Base is solid — now it's about the long run. - Tue: easy 6 km + strides- Thu: tempo 8 km - [x] Book physio for the shin niggle- [ ] Sun: long run, 18 km > Don't chase race pace before mile 15.
Notes & Goals/ ├─ tasks/<id>.json one file per task ├─ notes/<id>.md frontmatter + Markdown ├─ goals/<id>.json one file per goal ├─ notebooks/<id>.json one file per notebook └─ .atlas/trash/ deleted, never destroyed
Install
One universal build that runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
Open the disk image and drag Notes & Goals.app into Applications.
Double-click the app. macOS asks once whether to open an app downloaded from the internet — click Open.
Pick where your tasks, notes and goals live. Change it later in Settings ⌘,.
On your phone
The phone app is the same Notes & Goals, made for a small screen. Add it to your Home Screen and it opens full screen like any other app, then syncs with your Dropbox.
Scan with your phone's camera to open it there.
No Dropbox account yet? Choose the free Dropbox Basic plan when you sign up: 2 GB of space and no payment needed. Tasks and notes are small text files, so that goes a long way.
It's your Dropbox, not ours. Your notes travel straight between your devices and the Apps/Notes & Goals folder in your own Dropbox. There's no Notes & Goals server in between, so we never see, store or hold any of your data.
FAQ
Yes. Notes & Goals is MIT-licensed open source — no paid tier, no trial, and no account.
Put your data folder in iCloud Drive, Dropbox or a git repo and choose it on each Mac. The app picks up changes when you switch back to its window. It doesn't merge edits itself, so avoid changing the same item on two Macs at once.
On that Mac only, inside the app — never in your data folder. It's for scraps in flight, so it doesn't sync.
Nothing. Tasks and goals are JSON files and notes are Markdown, all in your folder. Open them in any editor, or point another tool at them.
No. Sync works with the free Dropbox Basic plan: pick it when you sign up and you get 2 GB without paying anything. Tasks and notes are small text files, so it goes a long way. Sync is optional too; the Mac app works fully without it.
Yes for phones: the phone app installs from the browser on iPhone and Android and syncs with your own Dropbox. There's no Windows version yet; the source is on GitHub if you'd like to follow along.
Free, open source, and your files stay yours.
Tauri 2 and React on top, Rust underneath owning every file write. Needs Rust, Node 18+ and the Xcode Command Line Tools.
$ git clone https://github.com/Ashishjain608/notes-goals-app.git $ cd notes-goals-app && npm install $ npm run tauri:dev