A calm, local-first desktop workspace for your projects, notes and tasks.
Built with Electron, React and TypeScript — no account, no server, no telemetry. Just your work, stored on your machine.
Built and maintained by Faceindo Developer Team · github.com/wafarifki/Notely
The dashboard — projects, tasks, notes and recent activity in one view.
| Fresh install | Notes editor |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Notes | Tasks |
|---|---|
 |
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| Project view | Dark dashboard |
|---|---|
 |
 |
The guided tour spotlights one thing at a time, across pages.
Theme, accent presets and custom colors — all stored locally.
Desktop, tablet and phone widths — the dashboard reflows, nothing overflows.
A fresh install starts completely empty — no demo projects, notes, tasks or activity. You get:
- A welcome card that explains the three building blocks and offers Create your first project, Write a note and Take a quick tour.
- The default profile Notely · user@user.com, editable any time in Settings.
- A guided 8-step tour that walks you through your profile, creating a project, search, the dashboard, the autosaving note editor, task filters, appearance settings and the project credits.
The tour only shows when you ask for it (welcome card, Take the tour in the sidebar, or Settings → Appearance → Replay the tour). Your progress is remembered.
Most note apps want your email, your cloud and a subscription. Notely is the opposite: one Windows app that opens instantly, works on a plane, and keeps everything in a local database you control.
- Local-first. Projects, notes, tasks, tags, settings and activity live in IndexedDB on this device.
- Offline by design. No network calls at runtime, no accounts, no analytics, no ads.
- Yours to move. Export everything to JSON, import it back, or reset the workspace at any time.
| Create, rename, recolor and describe projects | Archive and restore without deleting anything |
| Drag folder cards to reorder; order is saved | Move up / Move down in the card menu for keyboard users |
| Sidebar list and dashboard cards share one source of truth | Deleting asks: move items to Unassigned or delete them |
Autosave with Saving… / Saved / Unable to save |
Tags, pinning, favorites and project assignment |
| Search across titles, bodies, project names and tags | Filter by project, tag, pinned or favorites |
| Sort by updated, created or title | Reorder by dragging |
Live due labels: 3 hours left, 1 hour overdue, 1 day left |
Priority, project and free-form details |
| Filters: All, Active, Completed, Overdue, Favorites | Checkbox and star stay in sync on every page |
| Drag to reorder | Every change is written to Recent activity |
- Light, Dark or Auto (follows the Windows setting in real time).
- Six accent presets — Lavender, Ocean, Mint, Sunset, Rose and Teal.
- Custom hex colors for the accent and for the pastel backdrop, with color pickers.
- Optional animated backdrop; all motion respects
prefers-reduced-motion. - Every color lives in CSS tokens, so the whole UI (sidebar, cards, tags, dialogs, menus) switches together.
- Search (
Ctrl + K) across the whole workspace, grouped by type, with arrow-key navigation. - Recent activity for every create, edit, complete, move and delete.
- Import / export: validated JSON backup with preview, conflict count and merge/replace.
- Settings: profile, appearance, data management and product tour replay.
- Support, What's new and Privacy Policy pages are written, not dead links.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl + K |
Open search |
Ctrl + N |
New note |
Esc |
Close dialog, menu, search or tour |
→ / ←, Enter |
Move through the tour or search results |
Grab the latest .exe from the Releases page.
| File | Use it if you want… |
|---|---|
Notely Setup <version>.exe |
A normal install with Start Menu and desktop shortcuts, plus an uninstaller |
Notely-<version>-x64-portable.exe |
A single file you can run from anywhere, no install |
Builds are unsigned, so Windows SmartScreen may warn you. Choose More info → Run anyway.
git clone https://github.com/wafarifki/Notely.git
cd Notely
npm ci
npm run devnpm run dev builds the Electron main process, starts Vite and opens the desktop window.
| Layer | Choice |
|---|---|
| Runtime | Electron 38 (x64, frameless window with custom controls) |
| UI | React 19 + TypeScript, CSS design tokens, Lucide icons, bundled Inter |
| Build | Vite 7, electron-builder (NSIS + portable) |
| Storage | IndexedDB via Dexie 4 (schema v2) — no backend, no native database |
| Tests | Vitest, React Testing Library, fake-indexeddb |
src/main/ Electron main process — window, single instance lock, window-control IPC
src/preload/ Narrow contextBridge API (minimize / maximize / close)
src/renderer/
app/ Data store (live Dexie queries), hash router, app shell, workflows
components/ Shared primitives — modal, popover, toasts, avatar, color picker
db/ Dexie schema, default profile, repositories, backup/restore
data/service.ts Business actions: CRUD + activity logging + import/export
features/tour/ Guided product tour (spotlight overlay)
features/ projects, notes, tasks, activity, search, settings, info pages, dashboard
theme/ Accent presets, theme resolution and CSS variable application
styles/ Design tokens (light + dark), shell, components, pages, motion
assets/ App icon (.ico / .png) and local avatar illustrations
docs/screenshots/ Images used in this README
scripts/ Dev runner, build, packaging, asset generator, screenshots, app verifier
tests/ Vitest suites
UI components never touch Dexie directly. They call createNotesService, which wraps the repositories and
records activity — the ESLint config enforces that boundary.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
npm run dev |
Desktop development: Vite + Electron |
npm run dev:web |
Renderer only in a browser at http://localhost:5391 |
npm run lint |
ESLint (TypeScript + React hooks) |
npm run test |
Vitest + React Testing Library |
npm run typecheck |
TypeScript for renderer and Electron main/preload |
npm run build |
Typecheck, then bundle renderer and main process |
npm run dist:win |
Build and package the NSIS installer |
npm run dist:portable |
Build and package the portable .exe |
npm run dist:all |
Both Windows targets |
npm run verify:exe |
Launch the packaged app, check the dashboard renders, screenshot it |
npm run screenshots |
Capture the dashboard at 1504×1128, 1024×768 and 390×844 |
npm run assets |
Regenerate the local app icon and avatars |
npm run clean |
Stop leftover Notely/Electron processes and remove build output |
npm run reinstall |
clean, then npm ci (fixes EPERM when a dev server is still running) |
Build output lands in release/:
release/
└── Notely Setup 1.0.1.exe # NSIS installer
That usually means a dev server is still running (npm run dev or npm run dev:web in another terminal or a
stale process). Windows keeps Rollup's native binary locked while Vite is loaded, so npm ci cannot replace it.
Stop the dev server, or run:
npm run reinstallreclaim.mjs (also run automatically as predev/postdev) stops only Node processes whose command line points at
this project's Vite/dev script, and clean.mjs stops Notely.exe/electron.exe too. Both skip unrelated Node
processes on the machine.
scripts/package-win.mjs pre-extracts the Electron runtime and keeps electron-builder's tool cache under
%LOCALAPPDATA%\NotelyBuildCache. This sidesteps a Windows folder-rename (EPERM) failure that happens on some
non-system drives. If packaging still fails, close any running Notely.exe / electron.exe, delete release/
and rerun.
%APPDATA%\Notely\IndexedDB\
The installer only writes to the install folder; uninstalling Notely leaves your data untouched. To move to another machine, use Settings → Your data → Export JSON. Reset workspace deletes projects, notes, tasks and activity after a confirmation but keeps your profile and appearance settings.
Upgrading from the earlier “Notes” build? The database moved to notely, so old demo data is left behind in the
legacy folder and the app starts clean.
npm testCovered: empty fresh-install state and stable default profile, workspace reset keeping appearance, project/note/task CRUD, checkbox and favorite persistence, search across title/content/project/tags, due-label formatting, export/import validation (including invalid theme and color values), merge and replace imports, persistence across reopened database connections, and deleting a project without silently losing notes and tasks. UI tests cover the empty welcome state, task checkbox persistence, search, dark-mode switching and invalid custom colors.
.github/workflows/build-windows.yml runs on windows-latest: install from the lockfile, typecheck, lint, test,
build, package the NSIS installer and portable .exe, launch the packaged app to confirm it renders, then upload
both executables as artifacts.
The dashboard follows a centered, pastel-framed panel with a 226 px sidebar, folder-tab project cards, a compact
task panel and a two-column notes grid. Motion is intentionally quiet: a slow ambient backdrop, staggered card
entrances, a checkmark pop, and a spotlight tour — all disabled under prefers-reduced-motion.
- Dialogs trap focus, close on
Esc, and return focus when closed. - Icon buttons have accessible names; color is never the only status signal.
- Contrast was checked in both themes (muted text ≥ 4.5:1 on dark surfaces).
Made by Faceindo Developer Team — github.com/wafarifki/Notely
Released under the MIT License. Use it, fork it, build on it — just keep the copyright notice.