Lanternote

[Lanternote in 20 seconds: quick open, full-text search over 139,000 notes, the Command Center, the galaxy and the link graph]
_{20 seconds on a made-up folder of 139,434 notes: quick open · full-text search · Command Center · galaxy · link graph}

Why Lanternote

• Built for size. Tested on a real library of 190,000+ notes and 2.5 million links: it reopens in 1–2 seconds and searches in milliseconds.
• Runs on any PC. The link graph and the galaxy are drawn without a graphics card. Portable: one .exe, no installation, no admin rights.
• Your files stay yours. Plain .md files in a folder you choose. Nothing is uploaded, nothing phones home, everything works offline.
• More than a reader. Live queries, task lists, calendars, Kanban boards, canvases and a Command Center page — all stored as ordinary Markdown.
• Works with your AI assistant. Claude and other MCP assistants can search and, if you allow it, edit your notes — every AI change keeps the old text.

Features

Also included: wiki links with headings, blocks and aliases · footnotes · folding of headings, lists and code in the editor · embeds (![[note]], images, audio, video) · backlinks and outline · front-matter properties · tags and nested tags · callouts · highlights and comments · Mermaid diagrams · note templates · daily notes · image viewer · command palette · print to PDF · light and dark themes.

[Light theme]

Performance

Measured on a real-world library of 190,522 notes, 2.49 million links (728 MB), and on a made-up 139,000-note folder used for all pictures in this README.

Download

Get the file for your system from the latest release:

Then click Open a folder and choose your notes. Next time Lanternote reopens the same folder and note.

Only want your AI assistant to read your notes? Download lanternote-<version>.mcpb from the same release and double-click it: Claude Desktop installs the extension and asks for your notes folder. It is read-only unless you turn on Let the AI edit notes, and it works on Windows, macOS and Linux.

[!NOTE] The app is not code-signed yet, so your system may warn you the first time:

• Windows SmartScreen: More info → Run anyway.
• macOS: right-click Lanternote.app → Open → Open. If macOS says the app "is damaged", run xattr -cr /Applications/Lanternote.app once.
• Linux: on Ubuntu 24.04 and later, if the AppImage does not start, run it with --no-sandbox.

The macOS and Linux builds are new: every feature is tested on both systems by CI, but please report anything that looks wrong. Settings, the index cache and recovery copies are kept on each computer (%APPDATA%\Lanternote on Windows).

Press F1 in the app for the built-in guide, or read the illustrated user guide.

Privacy

Lanternote reads and writes only the folder you open and its own settings folder. It has no account, no telemetry and no update check; all libraries are bundled, so it runs without a network connection. Pictures linked from the internet (![](https://…)) are not fetched unless you click one or turn on Settings → Files & links → Load pictures from the internet, since fetching them tells the web server when a note is opened. Pictures a note links on this PC outside the folder (![](file:///…)) are shown, and links to documents there (PDF, picture, text) open in their own app; only those file types are read or opened that way, never a program, and Settings → Files & links can turn it off.

The only exception is one you turn on yourself: when you connect an AI assistant, the notes it reads are sent to that assistant's provider. You can make the connection read-only and limit it to chosen folders.

Build from source

Requires Node.js 22 or later and Git. Build outside folders synced by OneDrive or Dropbox — node_modules and the builds are large.

git clone https://github.com/ericthai-labs/lanternote.git
cd lanternote
npm ci          # installs dependencies and bundles the editor into src/vendor
npm start       # run from source
npm run dist:win   # portable .exe and .zip in dist/

node tests/mcp.js                                    # AI connection, 35 checks
node scripts/drive.js <test-folder> tests/editing.js # UI scenarios — see tests/README.md
node scripts/bench-index.js <folder> <words>         # index and search timings
npm run media -- <work-folder>                        # rebuild guide, adverts and README pictures

Contributing

Bug reports and suggestions are welcome in Issues. Pull requests are welcome too; contributions are accepted under the Apache License 2.0.

License

Lanternote is open source under the Apache License 2.0:

• ✅ Free for any use — personal, education, nonprofit and commercial, including internal use at a company.
• ✅ You may change the code and redistribute it, as long as you keep the licence and the NOTICE file and mark the files you changed.

Versions up to 1.18.0 were released under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0; from 1.18.1 on, Lanternote is Apache 2.0.

Bundled open-source libraries keep their own licences, listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt.

Acknowledgements

Lanternote stands on excellent open-source work, including Electron, CodeMirror, cosmos.gl, marked, DOMPurify and Mermaid.