zk
I have finally found a note taking tool that I feel like is working with me and not creating more friction. I have tried most of the popular notes apps out there, but none of them have really clicked for me. I have tried several of the popular notes apps, but none of them really clicked for me. Logseq was interesting, but is now moving in a new direction focused on collaborative learning and a database backend, Obsidian has a problematic license, and most other notes apps are cloud hosted. I don’t want my notes locked up in proprietary storage formats, governed by proprietary licenses, or data-mined to train somebodies AI model.
My ideal notes app would have the following features:
- Local first/self hosted
- Licensed under a Free Software/Open Source license
- Stores data in Markdown text files
- Uses my favorite text editors for writing notes
- Works with git for version control
- Supports links and backlinks between notes
- Produces nice visualizations of my notes graph
A couple months ago I stumbled onto a notes app, zk, that checks all the boxes on my feature list. zk is a CLI tool that is used to create and manage notes files. It supports custom templates, frontmatter metadata, search, and can be used to create notes through scripts and other programs. This isn’t a notes app for most people as the text interface isn’t the most user-friendly, but for power users I think it has a lot to offer. For me, I like that it is a standalone tool and that I can use my favorite tools like Neovim, VS Code, and git to author my notes. There are plugins for both of my favorite editors that provide additional integration with the zk tool. It also integrates nicely with Emanote, the framework I use to generate this blog site.
If you have tried several notes apps and none of them seem to fit right, and you’re not intimidated by the CLI interface, I would recommend giving zk a try.
