Stik is a free, open-source quick-capture note app for macOS. Press ⌘⇧S from anywhere on your Mac, and a floating post-it appears instantly. Type your thought, press Escape, and you're back to work in under 3 seconds. Notes are saved as plain markdown files in ~/Documents/Stik/. Built with Tauri and Rust for native performance.

Yes, Stik is completely free. It is also open source under the MIT license. There are no premium tiers, no subscriptions, and no in-app purchases. You can view and contribute to the source code on GitHub.

Does Stik require an account or cloud service?

No. Stik requires no account, no cloud service, and no sync setup. It works entirely offline and stores everything locally on your Mac. Your notes never leave your machine unless you choose to share a folder via git.

Where are Stik notes stored?

Notes are stored as plain markdown (.md) files in ~/Documents/Stik/ on your Mac. Each folder in Stik corresponds to a real folder on disk. You can open, edit, move, or back up your notes with any tool — they're just files.

What format are Stik notes saved in?

Stik saves all notes as plain Markdown (.md) files. This means your notes are future-proof, portable, and compatible with any text editor. There is no proprietary format or database lock-in.

Does Stik have AI features?

Yes. Stik features on-device AI for semantic search (find notes by meaning, not just keywords) and smart folder suggestions (automatically suggests the right folder as you type). All AI processing runs locally on your Mac using Apple's NaturalLanguage framework — zero data is sent to any server.

How fast is Stik for capturing notes?

Stik is designed for sub-3-second capture. Press ⌘⇧S, type your thought, press Escape to close. The app launches instantly thanks to its native Rust/Tauri architecture — no Electron overhead, no web app loading times. It's one of the fastest note capture experiences on macOS.

Yes, Stik is fully open source under the MIT license. The source code is available on GitHub at github.com/0xMassi/stik_app. Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome.

What is the keyboard shortcut to capture a note in Stik?

The global keyboard shortcut is ⌘⇧S (Command + Shift + S). This works from any application — a floating post-it window appears instantly. Other shortcuts include ⌘⇧M for folder selection, ⌘⇧P for search, and ⌘⇧1-9 for jumping directly to assigned folders.

How does Stik compare to SideNotes, Apple Quick Note, and Drafts?

Unlike SideNotes ($9.99) and Drafts ($4.99/mo), Stik is completely free and open source. Unlike Apple Quick Note and Drafts, Stik saves notes as plain markdown files you fully own. Unlike all three, Stik includes on-device AI semantic search and stores everything locally with no cloud dependency. Stik is the only open-source option with git-based sharing for team collaboration.

What's next

Name: Stik
Availability: InStock
Author: Massi

3 phases shipped. 2 to go. Every feature built in the open.

Phase 1

Core Capture

Shippedv0.1.0

Global shortcut to summon floating post-it window
Type, close, note saved as markdown in ~/Documents/Stik/
Folder organization (Inbox, Work, Ideas, Personal, Projects)
Search modal with highlighted matches
Manager modal (browse, delete, rename, move notes)
Pin notes as floating sticky notes on desktop
Configurable shortcuts for every action
Rich text editing with markdown support (Tiptap)
System tray with quick actions

Phase 2

Stability & Security

Shippedv0.2.0

In-memory note index for fast search
On-demand content loading (lightweight IPC)
Versioned JSON storage with auto-migration
Path traversal validation
Content Security Policy for webview
Scoped filesystem permissions
Atomic file writes (prevent data corruption)
Mutex recovery (prevent crashes)
Architecture refactor (split main.rs into focused modules)

Phase 3

On-Device AI & Sharing

Shippedv0.3.0

DarwinKit sidecar — Swift CLI exposing Apple NaturalLanguage framework
Semantic search (hybrid text + vector similarity with badges)
AI folder suggestions based on note content
Language-aware embeddings (per-language vector spaces)
Git-based folder sharing (background auto-sync)
Capture streak (consecutive-day counter)
“On This Day” resurfacing (daily notification from past years)
Share as clipboard (rich text, markdown, or image)
Settings redesign (Raycast-style tab layout)

Phase 4

Voice & Vision

In progress

Voice capture via global shortcut (push-to-talk, on-device transcription)
Screenshot OCR capture (select region, extract text, save as note)
Daily digest notification (summary of captured thoughts)
Raycast extension (capture to Stik from Raycast)

Phase 5

Ecosystem

Upcoming

PKM integration (folder aliasing to Obsidian vaults, Logseq, etc.)
Apple Foundation Models integration (on-device LLM for summarization, auto-tagging, note cleanup)
Export rules (trigger-based actions on note save)
iOS companion app (read-only, via iCloud)

How we build

Local-first

Your notes are markdown files on your machine. No cloud required.

Privacy by design

All AI runs on-device via Apple frameworks. Nothing leaves your Mac.

Open source

Every line of code is auditable. MIT licensed.

Fast and simple

Sub-second capture. Keyboard-driven. Stay out of the way.