NoteDiscovery/documentation/FEATURES.md

✨ Features

📝 Note Management

Create & Edit

• Rich markdown editor with live preview
• Three view modes: Edit, Split, Preview
• Auto-save - Never lose your work
• Resume where you left off - Editor scroll position is remembered per note within the session, so switching back to a long note returns you to the same spot
• Undo/Redo - Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y support
• Note templates - Create notes from templates with dynamic placeholders
• Quick-create - Set the + / New button to skip the type chooser and create your most common item (note, folder, template, or drawing) in one click; Shift+click always shows the full chooser. Optionally pre-fill new note titles with a yyyymmddHHMMSS timestamp.
• Syntax highlighting for code blocks (50+ languages)
• Copy code blocks - One-click copy button on hover
• LaTeX/Math rendering - Beautiful mathematical equations with MathJax (see MATHJAX.md)
• Mermaid diagrams - Create flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and more (see MERMAID.md)
• Public Sharing - Share notes via token-based URLs with optional QR code for mobile (see SHARING.md)

Media Support

• Drawing editor — In-app drawing-*.png sketches next to your notes (overview); full guide: DRAWING.md
• Drag & drop upload - Drop files from your file system directly into the editor
• Clipboard paste - Paste images from clipboard with Ctrl+V
• Images - JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP (default max 10MB, configurable)
• Audio - MP3, WAV, OGG, M4A (default max 50MB, configurable)
• Video - MP4, WebM, MOV, AVI (default max 100MB, configurable)
• Documents - PDF (default max 20MB, configurable)
• In-app viewing - View all media types directly in the sidebar
• Inline preview - Audio/video players and PDF viewer embedded in notes
• Relative media paths - For ![alt](path), paths resolve from the note’s folder

Organization

• Folder hierarchy - Organize notes in nested folders
• Drag & drop - Move notes and folders effortlessly
• Flexible sorting - Sort notes by name (A-Z, Z-A), date (newest, oldest), or size (largest, smallest)
• Rename anything - Files and folders, instantly
• Visual tree view - Expandable/collapsible navigation
• Hide system folders - Toggle to hide _attachments, _templates and other underscore-prefixed folders from sidebar
• Tab inserts tab - Toggle so Tab inserts a literal tab in the editor instead of changing focus; when this is on, Shift+Tab outdents (one leading tab or up to four leading spaces per line in the selection), and if nothing is removed, Shift+Tab still moves focus backward
• List & quote continuation (Enter) - At the end of a line, Enter continues blockquotes (>), bullets (- / * / +), ordered lists (1. / 1)), and task lists (- [ ] / - [x]); pressing Enter again on an empty continued line exits the list or quote. Disabled inside fenced code blocks and when using Shift+Enter (plain newline)

Export & Print

• HTML Export - Download notes as standalone HTML files with all styling, images, diagrams, and math embedded
• Print Preview - Open note in new tab with Print/Close buttons for easy printing
• Self-contained - Exported files work offline with no dependencies
• Theme-aware - Export uses your current theme for consistent appearance
• Full rendering - MathJax equations, Mermaid diagrams, and syntax highlighting included

✏️ Drawing editor

Sketch beside your notes without leaving NoteDiscovery. + New → New drawing creates a drawing-{timestamp}.png next to your markdown files; those open in the drawing viewer, other images open as usual.

• Tools — Pencil, lines, rectangles, ellipses, eraser, eyedropper, paint bucket, text labels, clear; color and stroke width on the toolbar; undo/redo while you work.
• Saving — Autosave and Ctrl+S / Cmd+S like the rest of the app.
• Files — Plain PNGs in your vault—link them in notes and back them up with everything else.

For file naming, API notes, and more: DRAWING.md

🔗 Linking & Discovery

Graph View

• Interactive graph - Visualize all your notes and their connections
• Navigate with mouse - Drag to pan, scroll to zoom, double-click nodes to open notes
• Multiple link types - See wikilinks and markdown links distinguished by color
• Theme-aware - Graph colors adapt to your current theme

Internal Links

• Wikilinks - [[Note Name]] Obsidian-style syntax for quick linking
• Wikilinks with display text - [[Note Name|Click here]] to customize link text
• Section anchors - [[Note Name#heading]] to link directly to a heading
• Same-page anchors - [[#heading]] to link within the current note
• Broken link detection - Non-existent note links shown dimmed
• Markdown links - [text](note.md) standard syntax also supported
• Markdown section links - [text](note.md#heading) for heading anchors
• Drag to link - Drag notes or images into the editor to insert links
• Click to navigate - Jump between notes seamlessly
• External links - Open in new tabs automatically
• URI protocols - Supports mailto:, tel:, ssh:, ftp:, slack:, discord:, teams:, zoom:, whatsapp:, telegram:, signal:, spotify:, steam:, magnet:, and more

Outline Panel

• Table of Contents - View all headings (H1-H6) in sidebar
• Click to navigate - Jump to any heading in edit or preview mode
• Real-time updates - Outline updates as you type
• Hierarchical view - Indentation shows heading structure
• Heading count badge - Quick indicator of document structure

Backlinks

• Reverse link discovery - See which notes link TO the current note
• Context snippets - Preview the surrounding text where links appear
• Line numbers - Know exactly where each reference is located
• Link type detection - Distinguishes wikilinks from markdown links
• API access - Query backlinks programmatically via REST API
• MCP integration - AI assistants can discover note relationships

Section Link Syntax

To link to a heading, convert the heading text to a slug: lowercase, spaces → dashes, remove special chars.

Heading	Slug	Link Example
## Getting Started	getting-started	[[note#getting-started]]
### API Reference	api-reference	[API](note#api-reference)
## What's New?	whats-new	[[#whats-new]] (same page)

Direct URLs

• Deep linking - Open specific notes via URL (e.g., /folder/note)
• Search highlighting - Add ?search=term to highlight specific content
• Browser history - Back/forward buttons navigate between notes
• Shareable links - Bookmark or share direct links to notes with highlighted terms
• Refresh safe - Page reload keeps you on the same note with search context
• Copy link button - One-click copy of note URL to clipboard
• Last edited indicator - Shows relative time since last edit (e.g., "Edited 2h ago")
• Favorites - Star notes for quick access; displayed at top of sidebar

🎨 Customization

Themes

• Several built-in themes - Multiple light and dark options out of the box (see Settings → Theme or the themes/ directory)
• Theme persistence - Remembers your choice
• Custom themes - Create your own CSS themes
• Instant switching - No reload required

Layout

• Resizable sidebar - Drag to adjust width
• Collapsible sidebar panel - Show/hide the sidebar contents while keeping the icon rail in place
• View mode memory - Remembers Edit/Split/Preview preference
• Responsive design - Works on all screen sizes

📊 Note Statistics

Built-in Plugin

• Word count - Track document length
• Character count - Including and excluding spaces
• Reading time - Estimated minutes to read
• Line count - Total lines in note
• Image count - Track embedded images
• Link count - Internal and external links (includes wikilinks)
• Wikilink count - Separate count for [[wikilinks]]
• Expandable panel - Toggle stats visibility

🔌 Plugin System

Extensibility

• Easy installation - Drop Python files in plugins/ folder
• Hot reload - Plugins detected on app restart
• Toggle on/off - Enable/disable without deleting
• Event hooks - React to note saves, deletes, searches
• API access - Full access to backend functionality

🏷️ Tags

Organize notes with tags defined in YAML frontmatter. See TAGS.md for complete guide.

Quick Start

---
tags: [python, tutorial, backend]
---

# Your Note Content

Features

• Click to filter - Select tags to show matching notes
• Multiple tags - Combine tags (AND logic - all must match)
• Tag counts - See how many notes use each tag
• Collapsible panel - Saves state across sessions
• Auto-sync - Updates after saving notes

⚙️ Note Properties Panel

View and interact with YAML frontmatter metadata directly in the preview.

Features

• Collapsible panel - Compact bar at the top of preview, expands on click
• Auto-hides - Only appears when note has frontmatter
• Clickable tags - Filter notes by clicking any tag
• Smart formatting - Dates formatted nicely, booleans shown as ✓/✗
• URL detection - Links in metadata are clickable
• Real-time updates - Changes as you edit frontmatter
• Performance optimized - Cached parsing, no re-parse if unchanged

Collapsed View

Shows tags as pills plus up to 3 priority fields (date, author, status, etc.)

Expanded View

Click to expand and see all metadata fields in a clean grid layout.

Supported Formats

---
tags: [project, important]     # Inline array
date: 2024-01-15               # Formatted as "Jan 15, 2024"
author: John Doe               # String value
status: draft                  # String value
priority: high                 # String value
source: https://example.com    # Clickable link
draft: true                    # Shows as "✓ Yes"
custom-field: any value        # Keys with hyphens supported
items:                         # YAML list format
  - item 1
  - item 2
---

🔍 Search & Filtering

Text Search

• Content-only - Searches note contents (not file/folder names)
• Real-time results - As you type
• Highlight matches - See context in results
• In-note highlighting - Search terms highlighted in open notes
• Live highlighting - Highlights update as you type or edit

Combined Filtering

• Tags + Search - Combine text search with tag filters
• Smart display - Shows flat list when filtering, tree view when browsing
• Empty states - Clear "no matches" message with quick actions

🧮 Math & LaTeX Support

Mathematical Notation

• Inline math - Use $...$ or \(...\) for equations within text
• Display math - Use $$...$$ or \[...\] for centered equations
• Full LaTeX support - Powered by MathJax 3
• Greek letters - \alpha, \beta, \Gamma, etc.
• Matrices - \begin{bmatrix}...\end{bmatrix}
• Calculus - Integrals, derivatives, limits
• Symbols - All standard mathematical symbols
• Theme-aware - Math colors adapt to your theme

Example

Einstein's equation: $E = mc^2$

The quadratic formula:
$$
x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}
$$

Einstein's equation: E = mc^2

The quadratic formula:

x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}

📄 See the MATHJAX note for more examples and syntax reference.

📊 Mermaid Diagrams

Visual Diagrams

• Flowcharts - Process flows and decision trees
• Sequence diagrams - System interactions over time
• Class diagrams - UML class relationships
• State diagrams - State machines and transitions
• Gantt charts - Project timelines
• Pie charts - Data visualization
• Git graphs - Branch and commit history
• Theme support - Adapts to your theme

Example

```mermaid
graph TD
    A[Start] --> B{Is it working?}
    B -->|Yes| C[Great!]
    B -->|No| D[Debug]
    D --> B
```

📄 See the MERMAID note for diagram examples and syntax reference.

💬 Callouts / Admonitions

GitHub-style callouts highlight important information in your notes. They render as colored, bordered blocks in the preview pane and are fully compatible with notes imported from GitHub or Obsidian.

Syntax

Start a blockquote with > [!TYPE] on its own line, then continue with the body:

> [!NOTE]
> Useful information that users should know, even when skimming.

> [!TIP] Custom title
> Helpful advice for doing things better or more easily.

The first line can include an optional custom title after the type. Inner markdown (bold, links, lists, code) is fully parsed.

Supported Types

• [!NOTE] - General information (blue)
• [!TIP] - Helpful advice (green)
• [!IMPORTANT] - Crucial information (purple)
• [!WARNING] - Urgent caution required (amber)
• [!CAUTION] - Negative consequences if ignored (red)

Unknown types fall through to a normal blockquote, so existing notes are never broken.

📄 Note Templates

Create notes from reusable templates with dynamic placeholder replacement.

Creating Templates

1. Create markdown files in data/_templates/ folder
2. Use placeholders for dynamic content
3. Templates appear in the "New from Template" menu

Available Placeholders

• {{date}} - Current date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• {{time}} - Current time (HH:MM:SS)
• {{datetime}} - Current date and time
• {{timestamp}} - Unix timestamp
• {{year}} - Current year (YYYY)
• {{month}} - Current month (MM)
• {{day}} - Current day (DD)
• {{title}} - Note name (without extension)
• {{folder}} - Parent folder name
• {{date:FORMAT}} / {{time:FORMAT}} / {{datetime:FORMAT}} - Custom format using any Python strftime() string, e.g. {{datetime:%Y%m%d%H%M%S}} → 20251126143045. See Templates for the full recipe list.

Example Template

---
tags: [meeting]
date: {{date}}
---

# {{title}}

**Created:** {{datetime}}

## Notes

Using Templates

1. Click the "New" dropdown button
2. Select "New from Template"
3. Choose a template and enter a note name
4. The new note will be created with placeholders replaced

Built-in Templates

• meeting-notes - Template for meeting notes
• daily-journal - Daily journal with morning goals and evening reflection
• project-plan - Project planning template with objectives and timeline

📚 See TEMPLATES.md for detailed documentation and example templates you can copy to your instance.

⚡ Keyboard Shortcuts

General

Windows/Linux	Mac	Action
Ctrl+Alt+P	Cmd+Option+P	Quick Switcher (jump to any note)
Ctrl+S	Cmd+S	Save note (or save drawing PNG when a drawing-*.png is open)
Ctrl+Alt+N	Cmd+Option+N	New note
Ctrl+Alt+F	Cmd+Option+F	New folder
Ctrl+Z	Cmd+Z	Undo (note edits, or drawing strokes when a drawing is open)
Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z	Cmd+Y or Cmd+Shift+Z	Redo (note edits, or drawing strokes when a drawing is open)
Ctrl+Alt+Z	Cmd+Option+Z	Toggle Zen Mode
Esc	Esc	Exit Zen Mode
F3	F3	Next search match
Shift+F3	Shift+F3	Previous search match

Note for Mac users: Some Option-based shortcuts (Cmd+Option+N/F/T) may conflict with browser shortcuts in Chrome/Brave. Safari has better compatibility. If shortcuts don't work, try using Ctrl instead of Cmd, or use the UI buttons.

Markdown Formatting

Windows/Linux	Mac	Action	Result
Ctrl+B	Cmd+B	Bold	**text**
Ctrl+I	Cmd+I	Italic	*text*
Ctrl+K	Cmd+K	Insert link (in editor)	[text](url)
Ctrl+Alt+T	Cmd+Option+T	Insert table	3x3 table placeholder

Tip: Use Ctrl+Alt+P to quickly jump to any note from anywhere in the app.

🧘 Zen Mode

Full immersive distraction-free writing experience:

• Full screen - Uses browser Fullscreen API for true immersion
• Hidden UI - Sidebar, toolbar, and stats bar disappear
• Centered editor - Comfortable width for optimal reading
• Larger text - 18px font size with relaxed line spacing
• Quick access - Button in toolbar or Ctrl+Alt+Z / Cmd+Option+Z shortcut
• Easy exit - Press Esc, click exit button, or use shortcut again
• State preserved - Returns to your previous view mode on exit

📱 Progressive Web App (PWA)

NoteDiscovery can be installed as a standalone app on your device:

• Install as app - Add to home screen on mobile, or install via browser on desktop
• Standalone mode - Runs without browser chrome for a native app feel

How to Install

• Desktop (Chrome/Edge): Click the install icon in the address bar, or Menu → "Install NoteDiscovery"
• Android: Chrome Menu → "Add to Home Screen"
• iOS: Safari Share → "Add to Home Screen"

🌍 Internationalization

• Multiple interface languages - Bundled locale files under locales/; pick one in Settings → Language
• Easy to add - Drop JSON files in locales/ folder
• Instant switch - Change language in Settings without reload
• Community translations - Contributions welcome!

🔐 Authentication

• Password protection - Single-user login system
• Session-based auth - Secure cookie-based sessions (7 days default)
• API key support - Bearer token or X-API-Key header for external integrations
• Environment overrides - Configure via env vars for Docker deployments

📄 See AUTHENTICATION.md for setup guide.

🤖 AI Integration (MCP)

Built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for AI assistant integration:

• Search notes - AI can search through your knowledge base
• Read content - AI can read and understand your notes
• Browse tags - AI understands your organization
• Create notes - AI can save summaries and insights
• Knowledge graph - AI can explore note relationships
• Discover backlinks - AI can find what notes reference a specific note
• Zero setup - Works with Docker or Python, just add config to Cursor/Claude

Quick Setup (Docker)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notediscovery": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "ghcr.io/gamosoft/notediscovery:latest", "python", "-m", "mcp_server"],
      "env": { "NOTEDISCOVERY_URL": "http://host.docker.internal:8000" }
    }
  }
}

📄 See MCP.md for complete setup guide.

🚀 Performance

• Instant loading - No lag, no loading spinners
• Efficient caching - Smart local storage
• Minimal resources - Runs on modest hardware
• No bloat - Focused on what matters
• Lightweight - No heavy frameworks

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💡 Tip: Explore the interface! Most features are discoverable through intuitive drag & drop and hover menus.