Welcome to Edna

Edna is a note taking app with super powers.

Integrated AI chat, blocks, markdown, syntax highlighting for 40+ languages (JavaScript, Python, C++, Go, Java, C#, Ruby and more), command palette, programmability.

Keyboard shortcuts

Ctrl + K               Open, create or delete a note
Ctrl + P               
Ctrl + O               
Ctrl + H               Open recent note (from history)
Ctrl + Shift + P       Command Palette
Ctrl + Shift + K       
Ctrl + Shift + O       
Ctrl + L               Change block language
Ctrl + B               Navigate to a block
Alt + N                Create a new scratch note
Ctrl + Enter           Add new block below the current block
Alt + Enter            Add new block before the current block
Ctrl + Shift + Enter   Add new block at the end of the buffer
Alt + Shift + Enter    Add new block at the start of the buffer
Ctrl + Alt + Enter     Split the current block at cursor position
Ctrl + Down            Goto next block
Ctrl + Up              Goto previous block
Ctrl + Shift + [       Fold code
Ctrl + Shift + ]       Unfold code
Ctrl + Alt + [         Fold block
Ctrl + Alt + ]         Unfold block
Ctrl + Alt + .         Toggle block fold
Ctrl + A               Select all text in a note block
                       Press again to select the whole buffer
Ctrl + Alt + Up/Down   Add additional cursor above/below
Alt + Shift + F        Format block content
                       Supports Go, JSON, JavaScript, HTML, CSS and Markdown
Ctrl + E               Smart Code Run
Alt + Shift + R        Run function with block content
                       Supports Go
Ctrl + F               Search / replace within a note
Ctrl + Shift + F       Search in all notes

Why Edna?

Notes and blocks

In Edna a note is divided into blocks. Each block has a type: markdown, plain text, math block, JavaScript code, Go code etc.

Use:

Use keyboard shortcuts to create blocks, move between blocks.

Navigating between blocks with Ctrl + B:

Navigate between blocks

Changing block language with Ctrl + L:

Change block language

No installation required

Edna is a web-based application but can store notes on disk, like a desktop app (when using Chrome or Edge).

You can use it offline (without network connection) and for desktop-like experince you can install a desktop shortcut.

Lots of functionality, minimalist UI

UI is optimized for writing. Editor uses most of the space.

To acess more functionality:

Command palette

Open command palette with Ctrl + Shift + K:

Command Palette

Quickly access all the functionality, find commands with partial name match.

Speed

Edna is optimized for speed of writing, creating new notes, switching between notes.

Like in Notational Velocity, you can switch between notes, create and delete notes in the same note switcher UI.

Press Ctrl + K for note switcher and:

Note switcher with Ctrl + K:

Note switcher

Multiple tabs

We support multiple tabs:

Tabs

To open a note in a new tab, press Ctrl when opening a note.

Minimize top navigation bar

You can minimize / maxmize top navigation bar by pressing an icon in top right corner:

Minimize navigation bar

When minimized, navigation bar is hidden by default and only shows when you move mouse or hover it over the bar.

It also uses only as much space as needed for tabs and UI elements, not the whole width of window.

The intent is to maximize amount of space dedicated to the editor.

Context menu

Press right mouse button for context menu.

Context menu with mouse right click:

Context menu

For native context menu do Ctrl + right-click. This is useful when spell checking to correct mis-spellings.

Alternatively mouse over menu icon in top right corner.

Context menu

Quick access shortcut

You can assign Alt + 1 to Alt + 9 for quickly accessing notes:

Default shortcuts are:

Notes with quick access shortcut are shown at the top of note selector (Ctrl + K) and quick access UI (Ctrl + H)

Quick access shortcuts

Open starred, recent notes

Use Ctrl + H:

History of opened files

Alternatively mouse over ⏷ in top navigation bar:

History of opened files

Drop-down list has:

To open last note: Ctrl + H, Enter.

When triggering the list with Ctrl + H, last 10 recently opened notes get a shortcut 0 to 9.

You can Ctrl + H and then press 0 to 9 to re-open recent note just using the keyboard.

To open in new tab: hold Ctrl key when clicking.

Syntax highlighting of blocks

Blocks are syntax highlighted based on their type.

Formatting of blocks

You can format current block using:

We support formatting of Go, JSON, JavaScript, HTML, CSS and Markdown blocks.

Multiple notes

Open another note

or:

Create a new note

Or: context menu: Create New note.

Create a new scratch note

Alt + N to create temporary scratch note. We'll pick a unique name scratch-<n>

Archive and unarchive note

To keep the note but put it aside, archive it.

Context menu: This note / Archive.

Command Archive note in command palette (Ctrl + Shift + K).

Open note selector with Ctrl + K, click archive icon:

Archive in note selector

To open archive note, click show archived link in note selector:

Show archived

Archived notes show at the top. You can unarchive with an icon or open the note and use context menu This note / Un-archive or Un-archive note command.

Delete a note

Context menu: This Note / Delete or:

A scratch note cannot be deleted.

Rename a note

Context menu: This Note / Rename

Rename current note in command palette (Ctrl + Shift + K).

Rename note

Sidebar

Click icon in top left corner to show / hide sidebar:

Sidebar

Default notes

At first run we create 3 default notes:

You can delete them (except the scratch note).

scratch note is meant for temporary notes.

inbox for storing things to process later e.g. links to YouTube videos to watch later or web pages to read later.

daily journal is for daily notes. We auto-create a block for each day.

Search and replace

Press Ctrl + F for search / replace UI:

Search in note

We support:

Search across notes

To invoke full-text search in notes:

Search in notes

The search algorightm is:

Ask AI

Edna has a basic AI chat functionality. You can ask AI a question and get a response.

It's optimized for the following workflow:

To invoke AI chat:

The question is pre-populated with the content of selection or current block.

Ask AI

You can edit your question then click Ask AI button to send the question and receive the response.

Once you receive the response, you can insert it as new block.

Ask AI Response

API keys

But first, you'll need to provide an API key.

We don't charge for AI but AI providers do.

Ask AI enter key

We support:

We recommend creating a unique API key for Edna.

If you provide both xAI/OpenAI API key and OpenRouter API key, we'll use xAI/OpenAI.

AI Model Picker

We support 169 AI models. You can pick the model using picker in upper right corner.

Ask AI models

We don't charge for AI but AI providers do.

Different models have different prices charged by API providers.

They charge per usage, not as a subscription. If you don't use the API, you are not charged.

There's a fee for the size of your question (input tokens) and size of the response (output tokens).

Token is pretty much a word so think "number of words in the question or response".

We show the prices per million input tokens and million output tokens on the right side of the model picker.

Free models

Some OpenRouter models are free. They show 0 for the price. You can also type free in model picker to see free models.

Ask AI free models

You still need an OpenRouter API key and setup billing to use free models.

Getting OpenAI API key

To use OpenAI models you need to obtain API key from OpenAI.

You need to create an account and setup billing. OpenAI charges for usage of API calls so you don't pay if you don't use the API.

They charge per input tokens and output tokens. A token is more or less a word.

To make it easier to compare prices, we show the price for million input tokens and a million output tokens in AI model picker.

API keys are separate from ChatGPT subscription. Confusing, I know, but I didn't make the rules.

You can also use OpenRouter API key (they charge ~5% on top of OpenAI prices).

Getting xAI (Grok) API Key

To use xAI models you need to obtain API key from xAI, click API Keys section in left sidebar

You need to create an account and setup billing. xAI charges for usage of API calls so you don't pay if you don't use the API.

They charge per input tokens and output tokens. A token is more or less a word.

To make it easier to compare prices, we show the price for million input tokens and a million output tokens in AI model picker.

API keys are separate from Grok subscription. Confusing, I know, but I didn't make the rules.

You can also use OpenRouter API key (they charge ~5% on top of xAI prices).

Getting OpenRouter API Key

All models can be used via OpenRouter. You need to obtain API key from OpenRouter.

You need to create an account and setup billing. OpenRouter charges for usage of API calls so you don't pay if you don't use the API.

They charge per input tokens and output tokens. A token is more or less a word.

To make it easier to compare prices, we show the price for million input tokens and a million output tokens in AI model picker.

OpenRouter provides a unified interface for accessing models from many providers.

They charge the provider's price plus around 5%.

OpenRouter provides free models but you still need to have an API key.

Storing notes on disk

By default notes are stored in the browser (localStorage).

If your browser supports file system access (currently Chrome and Edge) you can store notes on disk.

You can do one time export from localStorage to a directory on disk:

You can have multiple directories with notes. Think of each directory with notes as a separate Workspace.

Use context menu Notes storage / Switch to notes in directory to switch to notes in a different directory. If it's an empty directory, without existing notes, we'll create default scratch note.

You can go back to storing notes in the browser with context menu Notes storage / Switch to browser (localStorage). Unlike going from browser => directory, it doesn't import the notes from directory.

Accessing notes on multiple computers

If you pick a directory managed by Dropbox or One Drive or Google Drive etc. then you'll be able to access notes on multiple computers.

On the first computer export notes from browser to disk:

On other computers:

Please note that that the last written version wins. If you switch really quickly between computers, before the directory with notes has been replicated, you might over-write previous content.

Encryption

When storing notes on disk, you can encrypt them with a password.

The password is only stored in your browser (in local storage). It never leaves your computer.

Encryption and decryption takes place on your computer.

If you lose the password, you'll lose access to your notes.

Don't lose the password.

Notes are encrypted with ChaCha20-Poly1305 algorithm via kiss-crypto library.

Picking good password

Good password is:

We recommend passwords that are long, memorable phrases.

Example: Blue bear attacked a tiny dog.

Such passwords are easier to type and remember than typical "8a$7y!glo" passwords.

Running code

Run code blocks

If current block is Go or JavaScript block, you can run it:

The output of execution will be shown in a new block created below the executed block.

For Go:

A starting point:

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	fmt.Println("Hello, 世界")
}

For JavaScript:

Examples of JavaScript code and its output.

"foo";

Last expression is string "foo" so the output will be foo.

let a = [1, 2, 3];

There is no last expression so the output will be undefined

let a = [1, 2, 3];
a;

Last expression is an array a so output is 1,2,3.

let a = [1, 2, 3];
JSON.stringify(a);

Last expression is an array formatted as json so output is [1,2,3].

We also capture console.log(), console.warn(), console.debug(), console.error() calls.

console.log("hello");

Output is:

undefined
console output:
hello

async function main() {
  return "foo";
}
main();

The last expression is return value of main() function, so output is foo.

We handle async functions.

Run JavaScript functions over content

You can run JavaScript functions with the content of a current block or a selection.

The function gets the content as argument, can traform it, and we show the output in a block below.

For example a function can sort the lines in a block, calculate md5 hash or transform it to upper case. The possibilities are literally limitless.

To run a JavasScript function with content of block:

To run a JavasScript function with selection:

If you want to see all built-in functions use:

You can see what built-in functions are available, how they are implemented and use them as an example of how to write your own functions.

This functionality is inspired by https://boop.okat.best/ so our built-in functions come from Boop.

Write your own functions

You can write custom JavaScript functions that operate on text (content of the block or a selection), transform it in some way to create an output block.

For example you can write a function that sorts lines of text.

To write custom functions create a special edna: my functions note:

Each JavaScript block is a function.

The code must be implemented as function main(input) { ... your code }.

We use the same format as https://boop.okat.best/.

input is an object:

{
  text: string,
  fullText: string,
  postInfo: (message: string) => void,
  postError: (message: string) => void,
}

To return value you assign it to input.text and input.fullText. postInfo() and postError() functions show a notification message.

We show input.text or input.fullText as output block if, after execution, it differs from the original value.

Why text and fullText? I have no idea, I just copied Boop and that's how their API works.

In my implementation text and fullText are the same.

You also need to provide metadata at the top in the format:

/**
{
  "api":1,
  "name":"Add Slashes",
  "description":"Escapes your text.",
  "author":"Ivan",
  "icon":"quote",
  "tags":"add,slashes,escape"
}
**/

Don't get cute and reformat it any way or change /** and **/ to something else. Best to copy it and change values.

Currently the important fields are name, and description because they are shown in function selection dialog.

In future I might add more api versions, but at the moment there's just 1.

Here's the simplest function that returns foo as a result:

/**
{
  "api":1,
  "name":"Show foo",
  "description":"Returns string 'foo'",
  "author":"Chris",
  "icon":"quote",
  "tags":""
}
**/

async function main(input) {
  input.text = "foo";
}

As you can see, we support async functions.

Using external libraries

You can use any JavaScript library available via https://esm.sh or https://www.jsdelivr.com/ (or similar).

Here's an example function that uses camelCase functio from lodash package imported from https://esm.sh

async function main(input) {
  let lodash = (await import("https://esm.sh/[email protected]")).default;
  input.text = lodash.camelCase(input.text);
}

Debugging tip: sometimes module exports functions direct, sometimes as default.

To figure this out for a library, in browser's dev tools console do:

let m = (await import("https://esm.sh/[email protected]"))

then inspect the m object in console to see available functions.

Share your JavaScript functions with others

Share your functions with other via https://github.com/kjk/edna/discussions/categories/share-javascript-functions

Smart Run

Ctrl + E is a shortcut for smart run, which has the following logic:

Use Alt + Shift + R to force Run function with block content command.

Exporting notes to a .zip file

Edna files are just text files with .edna.txt extension.

You can export all the notes to a .zip file.

Context menu: Export notes to zip file menu.

We pack all the notes into a .zip file and initiate auto-download as edna.notes.export-YYYY-MM-DD.zip file to browser's downloads directory.

You can then e.g. restore the notes by unzipping it to a directory and opening that directory in Edna with Notes storage / Switch to notes in a directory context menu.

Lists with TODO items

In Markdown blocks, lists with [x] and [ ] are rendered as checkboxes:

// code blocks
// Edna is great for storing code snippets
// this is a javascript block
// change type of block with `Mod + L`
// or `Block: Change Language` command in command palette (`Mod + Shift + K`)
// you can format it with `Alt + Shift + F`
let x = 5
console.log("x is", x)

Privacy and security

Your notes are private and secure.

Notes are stored on your computer: in the browser (local storage) or on disk.

For additional security, you can encrypt notes with a password.

The code is open source so you can audit it.

No lock in

The notes are stored in plain text files on disk (or in localStorage under note:${name} key)

Blocks are marked with \n∞∞∞${type}\n e.g. \n∞∞∞markdown\n marks the beginning of markdown block.

You can edit the notes in any text editor (just be mindful of the above block markers).

You can back them up, store in git repositories, write scripts to process them.

They are not locked in a proprietary Edna format.

Super-powers

What makes Edna different from other note taking applications?

Blocks

Notes can be sub-divided into blocks.

Each block has a type (markdown, text, JavaScript and 40+ programming languages) which dictates syntax highlighting.

Blocks can be folded so that you an focus on the block you're currently editing.

You can quickly navigate between blocks with Ctrl + B.

Scratch note

Scratch note is one of 3 special notes.

It's meant for things that are not permanent.

Quickly switch to Scratch note with Alt + 1, jot your temporary note, delete when no longer needed.

Lots of features yet minimalistic UI

Writing is Edna's core functionality so I strive to use maxium of screen space for the editor.

At the same time Edna is packed with functionality accessible via several paths:

Fast to use

I use Edna daily and efficiency is important to me.

Switching between notes, executing commands etc. are accessible via keyboard shortcuts or mouse.

Quick access shortcut

For the fastest way to switch between notes, you can assign quick access shortcut (Alt + <n>) to notes you work on frequently.

Keyboard shortcuts

Lots of keyboard shortcuts.

Command Palette

Command palette allows quick access to all functionality (Ctrl + Shift + K).

AI chat built in

You're already in the editor. It's silly to switch to a different app just to send a question to AI.

Ask AI chat UI pre-populates question from selection or current block and allows to insert the response as a new block.

We support virtually any AI provider.

We aim to support 80% of AI use cases, not replicate the advanced features of specilized AI apps.

Programmability

You can write and run JavaScript functions that take content, transform it and insert the result back into the note.

Daily journal

The intent of daily journal note (Alt + 2) is to record things you do. We auto-create a new markdown block for each day.

Inbox

The intent of inbox note (Alt + 3) is to jot things you want to process in short term future, like a link to an article you want to read or a link to a video you want to watch.

Encryption

You can encrypt notes with a password. Even Mossad agents won't be able to crack them.

How I use Edna

Edna is flexible and you will find your own way of using it.

I use Edna daily::

Open source

Edna is open source: https://github.com/kjk/edna

To report a bug or request a feature: https://github.com/kjk/edna/issues

Contact

You can contact me via https://blog.kowalczyk.info/contactme

You can find more software by me on https://arslexis.io

Credits

Edna is a fork of Heynote with the following differences:

There's a spirit of Notational Velocity and Simplenote in Edna in how it allows quickly creating notes and switching between them.

Edna is built on CodeMirror, Svelte 5, Math.js, Prettier.