Sidebar Notes

A lightweight macOS menu bar notes app that slides in from the right side of your screen. Works over fullscreen apps.

Built with Tauri, React, and CodeMirror 6.

Features

• Menu bar app — lives in the system tray, no dock icon
• Fullscreen overlay — works over fullscreen apps via NSPanel
• Global hotkey — toggle with Alt+. (configurable)
• Live markdown — inline rendering of headings, bold, italic, links, code blocks, checkboxes, images
• Task management — Cmd+Enter to toggle checkboxes, auto-continue lists
• Hide completed tasks — dim or completely hide checked-off tasks (Cmd+Shift+H)
• Move completed to bottom — checked tasks automatically sort to the end of their list
• Collapsible dividers — click --- to collapse content below; === super dividers collapse everything to end of note
• Toggle markdown rendering — switch between live preview and raw text (Cmd+Alt+P)
• Font size control — Cmd+= / Cmd+- to increase/decrease, Cmd+0 to reset
• Lint — Cmd+L to clean up consecutive blank lines
• Quick switcher — Cmd+P to jump to any note
• 14 color schemes — Dark, Light, Catppuccin, Nord, Dracula, Solarized, Gruvbox, One Dark, Tokyo Night, Rosé Pine
• Pin mode — keep the sidebar visible when clicking away
• File-based — plain .md files, works with Dropbox/iCloud/Syncthing
• Auto-reload — detects external edits and reloads content automatically
• Sync conflict detection — surfaces Dropbox and Syncthing conflicts

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Alt+.	Toggle sidebar
Escape	Back to note list
Cmd+N	New note
Cmd+P	Quick switcher
Cmd+K	Color scheme switcher
Cmd+F	Focus search
Cmd+R	Rename note
Cmd+D	Duplicate note
Cmd+Backspace	Delete note
Cmd+Shift+P	Toggle pin
Cmd+W	Hide sidebar
Cmd+Z	Undo close (on list)
Cmd+B	Bold
Cmd+I	Italic
Cmd+Enter	Toggle task checkbox
Cmd+Shift+H	Toggle hide completed tasks
Cmd+Alt+P	Toggle markdown rendering
Cmd+/	Help overlay
Cmd+= / Cmd+-	Increase/decrease font size
Cmd+0	Reset font size
Cmd+L	Lint note
Cmd+Alt+Up/Down	Cycle through notes
Alt+Up/Down	Move line(s) up/down
Shift+Alt+Up/Down	Move line(s) up/down
Tab / Shift+Tab	Indent/outdent lists
Cmd+,	Settings

Development

Requires Node.js and Rust.

git clone https://github.com/kyleyoungblom/sidebar-notes
cd sidebar-notes
npm install
npm run tauri dev

Build

npm run tauri build

The release binary will be in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.