Filesystem as truth
Your notes stay as plain Markdown on disk.
No proprietary container. No migration trap. Mai works with the folders you already own.
Native Markdown library for macOS
Manage your Markdown collection without replacing your editor.
Mai keeps your notes in plain files, watches them in real time, and turns large Markdown folders into a fast, structured library.
Editor agnostic
Keep writing in Typora, VS Code, or any editor you already prefer.
Mai handles browsing, metadata, and discovery while your preferred editor stays in charge of writing.
Swift native app
Written in Swift for macOS, not wrapped in a browser shell.
Fast startup, responsive lists, and real desktop behavior across large note libraries.
What Mai does well
A library view for serious Markdown collections.
Real-time sync
Watches file changes from Finder and external editors so the app stays aligned with the disk.
Metadata-driven organization
Supports YAML and comment front matter for categories, tags, titles, summaries, and more.
Fast full-text search
Search across large Markdown libraries without forcing a new note format or storage model.
No invented syntax
Respects standard Markdown and front matter workflows without introducing proprietary syntax for features like backlinks.
Logical over physical structure
Categories and tags come from metadata, so your file paths do not dictate how the library is organized.
Privacy-first foundation
Your Markdown lives locally, and Mai can also work with local LLMs through Ollama when you want AI features without handing your library to a hosted service.
AI agent
Not just chat. A file-aware agent built into your Markdown library.
Mai ships with an integrated agent powered by SwiftAgentCore. It can inspect your local notes, follow links, read front matter, search the library, and perform editing actions with confirmation for mutating operations.
The goal is not generic AI chatter. The goal is practical work on your real Markdown collection.
Library-aware retrieval
Search note bodies and front matter, list categories and tags, inspect backlinks, and follow outgoing links.
Structured note operations
Create, edit, append, move, and validate Markdown files with host-side confirmation for risky actions.
Flexible model backends
Works with OpenAI Codex, Claude, Gemini, MiniMax, Ollama, and OpenAI-compatible providers depending on your setup.
Product view
Readable in the day, focused at night.
How it fits
Built to sit between your files and your writing tools.
Write anywhere
Keep drafting in the Markdown editor that already matches your taste and workflow.
Annotate lightly
Add front matter only when it helps. Mai still provides useful fallbacks if metadata is missing.
Browse as a collection
Search, filter, and navigate thousands of local notes as one coherent library.
Download
Install the latest Mai build from GitHub Releases.
Mai is distributed through GitHub Releases. The page shows the newest public build here and falls back to the releases page if metadata cannot be loaded.