Axion Notes is an open source sticky notes app for macOS, Windows, and the web, built by SolisWare. It combines a React web app with an Electron desktop client so you can create, format, organize, and save digital sticky notes locally on your device.
SolisWare Axion Notes is currently pre-1.0 software. Features, storage formats, settings, and app behavior may change between releases, and backward compatibility is not guaranteed until a stable 1.0 release.
When updating between early releases, locally stored notes or settings may not always migrate cleanly. Please keep a backup of anything important before installing a new version.
Axion Notes is a simple, flexible workspace for capturing ideas before they slip away. Use it as a desktop sticky notes app on macOS or Windows, or run it as a browser-based notes app with the same familiar sticky-note workflow.
The app is designed for quick personal notes, reminders, lightweight planning, and visual organization. Notes and settings are stored locally, so Axion Notes works well for users who want a fast private notes board without needing an online account.
Key features:
- Color-coded notes
- Grid and list layouts
- Foldable and pinned notes
- Drag-and-drop reordering
- Rich-text formatting
- Checklists and list formatting
- Note selection mode
- Separate note windows
- Smart sorting
- Light, dark, and system themes
- Local storage and auto-save
- Desktop and web apps
Use note colors, sorting, pinning, duplication, batch selection, and drag-and-drop reordering to shape your notes board around the way you think. The desktop app also includes a list layout for browsing notes as a compact vertical stack with folded and expanded notes.
Notes auto-save as you type and support rich-text formatting, including bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, font face, font size, bullet lists, dashed lists, numbered lists, and checklists. Formatting is available through menus, keyboard shortcuts, and note formatting toolbars.
Desktop users can open a note in its own dedicated window with live synchronization back to the main notes view. Browser users can open a focused full-note dialog instead, keeping the web app workflow close to the desktop experience.
Axion Notes includes settings for theme, note size, title and content fonts, default font sizes, default note color, title visibility, footer visibility, sorting, editor mode, and layout. The desktop app also supports always-on-top mode.
Axion Notes can choose supported language, date, and time defaults from the OS or browser on first launch, then keeps those settings until you change them. English is the source locale, with Estonian, Polish, and Spanish translations currently available.
Common note, selection, and formatting actions are available from the keyboard. The Shortcuts settings page groups commands by General, Note selection, Text formatting, and Lists so you can quickly check what is available.
Some useful features being considered for future releases include note search, archiving, deleted-note recovery, import/export backups, note templates, keyboard navigation between notes, and reminders.
Download the latest prebuilt release for your platform from the Releases page.
macOS users: If you see a "Axion Notes is damaged and can't be opened" warning after downloading, this is macOS Gatekeeper blocking the app because it is not yet signed with an Apple Developer certificate. The app itself is fine. Run the following command in Terminal to fix it:
xattr -cr "/Applications/Axion Notes.app"Windows users: If you see a "Windows protected your PC" warning after downloading, this is Microsoft Defender SmartScreen blocking the installer because it is new or not yet widely recognized. The app itself is fine. Click More info, then click Run anyway to continue the installation.
| Platform | App type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| macOS | Electron desktop app | Apple Silicon and Intel builds |
| Windows | Electron desktop app | 64-bit and 32-bit installers |
| Web | React web app | Runs in a modern browser with local storage |
Contributions are welcome — whether that's bug fixes, new features, documentation improvements, or raising issues and feature requests.
Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue and describe it clearly. For feature requests, explain the use case and why it would be valuable.
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch from
develop:git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name
- Make your changes and commit with clear, descriptive messages
- Push your branch and open a Pull Request against
developbranch
Want to add a language to Axion Notes?
See the full translation contribution guide for translation status, workflow details, and review tips.
All pull requests must be reviewed and approved by the SolisWare team before merging. We aim to review PRs promptly. Please be patient — we appreciate your effort.
Axion Notes is built with React, TypeScript, Electron, Material UI, and Tiptap. The desktop client and web app share the same note-taking interface while using storage, menus, settings, and app window features that fit each platform.
These are required for development only. The distributed app bundles its own runtime — end users do not need Node.js installed.
- Node.js v18 or higher
- npm v9 or higher
git clone git@github.com:SolisWare/axion-notes.git
cd axion-notes
npm installnpm run electron:devThis starts the React dev server and Electron concurrently. The app will reload automatically on code changes.
Note: Changes to any files inside
electrondirectory require a full restart of the dev process to take effect.
axion-notes/
├── electron/ # Electron main process, preload, and menu
├── src/ # React renderer (components, pages, theme, models)
├── assets/ # App icons and installer assets
├── docs/ # Project documentation and README images
├── build/ # Compiled output (generated, do not edit or commit)
├── dist/ # Distribution packages (generated, do not edit or commit)
└── public/ # Static assets for the React app
Version metadata is managed in app-version-config.json.
After changing any release value, run:
npm run version-numbersThis updates:
package.jsonpackage-lock.json- the version badge in
README.md
Accepted app-version-config.json values:
| Value | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
majorVersion |
number |
Required major version number. Example: 1 in 1.2.0. |
minorVersion |
number |
Required minor version number. Example: 2 in 1.2.0. |
patchVersion |
number |
Required patch version number. Example: 0 in 1.2.0. |
preReleaseVersion |
string |
Optional prerelease suffix appended as -<value>. Example: beta.1 -> 0.1.0-beta.1. |
buildVersion |
string |
Optional build suffix appended as -b<value>. Example: 123 -> 0.1.0-b123. |
releaseCodename |
string |
Optional label shown in the app About dialog. This does not change the package version number. |
Example:
{
"majorVersion": 0,
"minorVersion": 1,
"patchVersion": 0,
"preReleaseVersion": "beta.1",
"buildVersion": "123",
"releaseCodename": "Unreleased Milestone"
}With the example above, the generated app version becomes 0.1.0-beta.1-b123.
Build version precedence:
GITHUB_RUN_NUMBERenvironment variable if presentbuildVersionfromapp-version-config.json- no build suffix if neither is present
Build the app:
npm run buildImportant: Run
npm run buildmanually before running anydisttarget. The distribution commands do not build the app for you.
npm run dist-mac-arm64Output: dist/ — produces a .dmg installer.
npm run dist-mac-x64Output: dist/ — produces a .dmg installer.
npm run dist-windows-x64Output: dist/ — produces an NSIS .exe installer.
npm run dist-windows-x86Output: dist/ — produces an NSIS .exe installer.
App icons must be drawn with padding around the artwork. Do not fill the entire canvas with the icon shape. The artwork should be centered both horizontally and vertically so the icon has even breathing room on every side.
Use the SVG icon as the primary source wherever possible. SVG scales cleanly and is widely used across the app and web-facing metadata. Fixed PNG files are mainly generated outputs for places that require raster icons, such as favicons, web app manifest icons, installer metadata, and platform packaging.
Use these canvas and artwork sizes:
| Canvas size | Icon artwork size | Total padding | Padding per side | Artwork ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
192 x 192 |
143 x 143 |
49 px |
24.5 px |
74.5% |
512 x 512 |
433 x 433 |
79 px |
39.5 px |
84.6% |
1024 x 1024 |
865 x 865 |
159 px |
79.5 px |
84.5% |
For the larger icons, use an artwork-to-canvas ratio of about 0.845. In other words:
artwork size = canvas size * 0.845
padding per side = (canvas size - artwork size) / 2
The platform app icon formats are:
| Platform | Required icon format |
|---|---|
| macOS | .icns |
| Windows | .ico |
These platform icon files should be generated from the padded 1024 x 1024 source artwork using an icon generator such as ConvertICO. App icons and generated icon files used by the application should stay in public/ or assets/, depending on how they are consumed by the build.
Axion Notes is open source software licensed under the MIT License.
You are free to use, modify, and distribute this software. Attribution is not required but is greatly appreciated — if you use our code in your project, a mention or a link back to this repository means a lot to us.
Axion Notes is an open source digital sticky notes app for desktop and web. It is designed for quick notes, reminders, lightweight planning, and visual organization.
See more: App Overview.
Yes. Axion Notes stores notes locally on your device, so the desktop app and browser app can keep your notes without requiring an online account.
Axion Notes stores notes locally on the device or browser where you create them. The app does not require an account or remote service to save your notes.
Not currently. Desktop and web notes are stored locally for now, so notes do not automatically sync between devices or browsers.
Yes. Axion Notes includes a Rich Text Editor setting. Turning it off uses the Plain Text Editor instead. Existing formatted notes keep their rich content unless you edit them while the Plain Text Editor is active, which converts that note to plain text.
Yes. The desktop app can open notes in dedicated note windows, and the web app uses a focused note dialog. Edits stay synchronized with the main note grid or list.
Axion Notes supports macOS, Windows, and web browsers. The desktop version is built with Electron, and the web version is built with React.
See more: Supported Platforms.
Axion Notes is not yet signed with an Apple Developer certificate or widely recognized by Microsoft Defender SmartScreen. The app itself is fine, but your operating system may show a warning before opening a new unsigned app.
See more: Download & Install.
Axion Notes is being built with language support so the app can grow beyond English over time. English is the source locale, with Estonian, Polish, and Spanish translations currently available. Additional languages can be added through community translation contributions. If you want Axion Notes in your language, we would love your help translating the app and improving its language support.
See more: Translation Contribution Guide.
Linux support is planned for the future. Axion Notes is being built with cross-platform technologies, and we want to expand platform support carefully as the app matures. Until then, we recommend using the Axion Notes web app on platforms without a dedicated desktop build.
See more: Supported Platforms.