March 7, 2026
Ghostty or ghosted?
Ghostmd: Ghostty but for Markdown Notes
Minimalist note app sparks Ghostty name drama and an Obsidian showdown
TLDR: Ghostmd is a super-minimal notes app that saves plain text files and won’t show images or previews. The community is split: Obsidian users ask why switch, the Ghostty creator questions the tagline, and others call the branding ‘vibe coded’ while purists say ‘just use the terminal’.
Ghostmd dropped with big indie energy: plain text notes saved as simple files, no images, no themes, no plugins, and zero fluff. You read Markdown raw—think lightweight formatting in plain text—while its AI pitches in with titles and search, not glitter. The devs brag it’s lightning-fast on Mac and “your files, your rules” forever. But the comments quickly turned the launch into a reality show.
Obsidian fans rode in first asking, “Why switch?” with johnfn pushing for a clear difference between Ghostmd and the popular “notes-as-files” app. Then came the spicy bit: the “Ghostty but for notes” tagline. Mitchellh, the actual creator of Ghostty, showed up confused and a little miffed, saying the app isn’t using his architecture and isn’t truly native Mac UI—cue eyebrows. Others called the slogan mysterious and even disingenuous, with one commenter dubbing the project “vibe coded,” which instantly became the thread’s meme of the day. Minimalists cheered the rules—no previews, date-based diaries, quit without asking—while practical folks rolled their eyes: if you want the Ghostty spirit, why not just use the terminal? The launch promised monastic focus, but the community delivered chaos, memes, and a branding intervention.
Key Points
- •Ghostmd stores notes as plain Markdown files in ~/Documents/ghostmd, with no database or server sync.
- •The app displays raw Markdown without rendering or preview and does not support images.
- •There are no config files, themes, or plugins; features are intentionally limited to reduce distraction.
- •Diary entries are auto-organized by date into paths like diary/YYYY/month/DD/.
- •AI assists with titles, search, and suggestions; the app is native to macOS and GPU‑accelerated via Metal.