Notes Classic

Notes Classic is a local-first note manager inspired by the 2015 Evernote era. It runs as a Tauri desktop app with a rich editor, tagging, OCR search, and import/export pipelines. All data is stored locally by default and can be moved to any folder via Settings.

This README is intentionally detailed so the project can be built and shipped without internal docs.

Core Capabilities

• Two-level organization: Stacks + Notebooks
• Tags: Nested tags with drag/drop sorting
• Rich editor (Jodit):
  • Callouts, code blocks, todo lists
  • Attachments (download / view / delete)
  • Image insertion and resizing
• Encrypted blocks (view-only decrypt)
• OCR indexing for images (searchable text)
• Note links and back/forward history
• Trash with restore and bulk clean
• Importers:
  • Evernote local database
  • Notes Classic export package
  • Markdown (.md)
  • HTML
  • Text (.txt)
• Exporters:
  • Notes Classic export package
  • Markdown (.md)
  • HTML
  • Text (.txt)
  • PDF (native, wkhtmltopdf)

Data Model Overview

Notes Classic uses a SQLite database (notes.db) plus a files/ directory for binary assets:

• notes and notebooks store metadata and hierarchy
• note_text stores HTML content
• note_files lists image and attachment files referenced in notes
• ocr_files and ocr_text store OCR indexing state

Assets are not shared between notes even if bytes are identical. This keeps imports deterministic and avoids ambiguous ownership during deletion.

Storage Layout

By default, runtime data lives in:

• data/ (database + files + OCR state)
• settings/ (user settings)

Both folders are created at runtime and are intentionally ignored by git. The storage path can be changed in Settings. The app copies or switches storage according to the selected path.

Build Requirements

• Node.js 18+ and npm
• Rust (stable) + Cargo
• Tauri prerequisites by OS (WebView + native deps)

Environment Setup

Windows

1. Install Node.js 18+ and Rust (stable).
2. Install WebView2 Runtime (required by Tauri).
3. Install MSVC build tools if not already present.

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint)

Install core build deps and WebKit/GTK:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y \
  build-essential \
  pkg-config \
  libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev \
  libgtk-3-dev \
  libayatana-appindicator3-dev \
  librsvg2-dev

macOS

1. Install Xcode Command Line Tools:

xcode-select --install

2. Install Node.js 18+ and Rust (stable).

Development (All Platforms)

npm install
npm run tauri dev

Release Build (All Platforms)

npm run tauri build

Artifacts are written to src-tauri/target/release (platform-specific).

Platform-Specific Build Notes

Windows

• Output: .exe and installer artifacts in src-tauri/target/release.
• PDF export relies on wkhtmltopdf binaries (not committed to git):
  • src-tauri/resources/pdf/win/wkhtmltopdf.exe
  • src-tauri/resources/pdf/win/wkhtmltox.dll

Linux

• Output: native bundle in src-tauri/target/release.
• PDF export relies on wkhtmltopdf binaries (not committed to git):
  • src-tauri/resources/pdf/linux/wkhtmltopdf
  • src-tauri/resources/pdf/linux/libwkhtmltox.so.0.12.6

macOS

• Output: .app bundle in src-tauri/target/release.
• PDF export uses src-tauri/resources/pdf/mac/wkhtmltopdf.pkg (not committed to git).

PDF Export Binaries (wkhtmltopdf)

PDF export requires wkhtmltopdf binaries to be present in:

src-tauri/resources/pdf/win/
src-tauri/resources/pdf/linux/
src-tauri/resources/pdf/mac/

These files are intentionally excluded from git. Download a wkhtmltopdf build for each target OS and place the binaries in the paths above before running npm run tauri build.

Download source: https://wkhtmltopdf.org/downloads.html

OCR Resources

OCR is powered by tesseract.js and bundled resources:

• resources/ocr/worker.min.js
• resources/ocr/tesseract-core.wasm(.js)
• resources/ocr/tessdata/eng.traineddata.gz
• resources/ocr/tessdata/rus.traineddata.gz

These must remain in place for OCR to work in packaged builds.

Import / Export

Notes Classic supports multiple import/export formats. All exports are designed to round-trip without losing structure or assets.

Notes Classic Export

Produces a folder containing:

• manifest.json
• notes/ (HTML + per-note metadata)
• files/ and attachments/

Markdown / HTML / Text Exports

Produces a folder with:

• Note files in the chosen format
• attachments/ folder for images and files

Evernote Import

Requires selecting the local Evernote data directory. The importer scans the DB and resource cache, then rebuilds Notes Classic storage.

Encrypted Blocks

Encrypted blocks store their data inside a protected container. Decrypting is read-only. Removal of encryption restores the original content and asset links.

Note Links

Internal links use note://<uuid> and open the target note directly.

Releasing / Publishing Checklist

• Confirm npm run tauri build passes on target OS
• Ensure resources/ocr and resources/pdf are bundled
• Verify import/export round-trips on example datasets
• Remove all local data (data/, settings/)
• Update version in package.json and tauri.conf.json
• Add LICENSE and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md