Show HN: Set, offline Markdown note-taking app with device-to-device sync

app.writewithset.com

11 points by aavshr 3 days ago

Hi HN. I am an avid user of Notion (https://notion.so) and really like the ergonomics of its block-based editor, but with how the product is evolving I felt I was missing a simple "single-player" experience of just taking notes and jotting down my thoughts. Hence, Set exists. It's in beta and all feedback is appreciated.

You can use the app in the browser but notes are saved only to that browser session. The device-to-device sync and local dictation is desktop only. All notes are saved as markdown files in a folder you choose on the desktop app.

Source: https://github.com/rootstring/set

Releases are available for macOS, Windows (x64), and Linux (x64 only for now): https://writewithset.com?download=true

alibosworth 16 hours ago

"The desktop app syncs your notes between your devices. There's no server and no account, so your notes are never stored anywhere but on your devices."

Can you tell me more about this? Cross device sync without an account is not intuitive to me. I'm about to download it to try it out, but I think it might be useful to update the docs to help people understand how that might work!

  • aavshr 5 hours ago

    Hi thanks for trying it out.

    The sync is built on top of iroh (https://docs.iroh.computer/what-is-iroh#how-iroh-works).

    There is also docs here outlining what Set is doing on top of iroh: https://github.com/rootstring/set/blob/main/docs/sync.md

    But yes, I should explain more (or least link to this doc) on the welcome pages. I intend to write a blog post soon as well about how the sync works.

    For the current version, the UX is inconvenient, you have to manually paste the pairing code between the devices. I'll add at least discovery soon, where you can automatically discover devices.

hide_ishikawa 1 day ago

Tried both the browser version and the desktop app on a Mac. Setup was straightforward, no errors, and I was writing within a minute.

What I liked most is that it is simple, so it is clear what it is for. The "single-player Notion" idea came through for me.

I'll keep using it for a bit and come back with questions if anything comes up.

  • aavshr 1 day ago

    thanks for trying it out!