April 23, 2026
Second brain, first brawl
Show HN: Tolaria – open-source macOS app to manage Markdown knowledge bases
Fans cheer a clean, private notes app while skeptics cry “Obsidian clone”
TLDR: Tolaria is a new open‑source Mac notes app that stores everything as simple files you own and works offline. The community is split: fans love the clean, private, Git‑backed approach, while skeptics call it an Obsidian look‑alike and predict a short life, with dark‑mode requests and popcorn-worthy drama.
Tolaria just hit the stage as a new open‑source Mac app for managing your notes “second brain” in simple text files called Markdown. It goes hard on privacy and control: your notes live as files you own, with Git (a “time machine” for files) tracking changes, all working offline. No accounts, no subscriptions, and it’s under the AGPL open‑source license. Creator Luca claims it powers his 10,000+‑note life, with speed, keyboard shortcuts, and optional AI helpers as a bonus. Sounds dreamy… but the comments said, “hold my coffee.”
The crowd split fast. One newsletter writer was intrigued but not ready to switch. Then a heckler stormed in with the hottest take: it’s “disposable,” does less than others, and will die in two years — cue the thread turning into a “doom clock” meme. Another asked the obvious: “Doesn’t Obsidian already do this?” and the “clone vs craft” fight kicked off. On the love side, a Logseq user praised the clean look and the Git‑backed setup, begging for dark mode. Someone else said it’s better than what they planned to build and vowed to share it. Verdict: the “own your notes” faithful are excited, the “another notes app” skeptics are unimpressed, and everyone’s picking their second‑brain fighter with popcorn in hand.
Key Points
- •Tolaria is an open-source macOS app for managing Markdown-based knowledge bases with a files-first, git-first design.
- •Notes are plain Markdown files with YAML frontmatter; each vault is a git repository and works fully offline with no accounts or cloud dependencies.
- •The app supports AI agents (e.g., Claude Code, Codex CLI) and includes an AGENTS file to guide agent usage.
- •Built with Tauri, React, and TypeScript; local dev requires Node.js 20+, pnpm 8+, Rust stable, and macOS.
- •Documentation includes architecture and abstractions guides, a getting started vault, and the project is licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later with a trademark policy for name and logo.