NoteNest — a lightweight native macOS notes app

Screenshots

NoteNest showing the sidebar, tab bar, and a note open in the editor

Features

Sidebar list with an optional Sublime-style tab bar
The first line of a note is its title
Silent autosave + save-on-quit — never lose a thought
Dark "Andromeda" theme, JetBrains Mono
Instant delete, quick new-note (⌘N)
Plain .md files in ~/Notes — yours forever

Why I built it

I wanted a lightweight notes app I fully control — fast, native, no clutter, and storing plain Markdown files I own. So I built one. It started as a Python/PySide6 prototype, then I rebuilt it natively in Swift and SwiftUI for a true Mac feel and instant launch.

Build & run

NoteNest is built from source on macOS (requires the Xcode toolchain):

git clone https://github.com/bryantbarzola/Notes.git
cd Notes
./scripts/build-app.sh

That builds a release app bundle and opens it. Drag NoteNest.app to your Applications folder to keep it.