Sketchback

An idea notebook where the atom isn't a paragraph — it's a block, and a block can be ink, a photo, a voice memo, or a file.

Obsidian-shaped, but a note is a stack of blocks rather than a markdown file. Project boards are a view over the link graph, not a separate thing. It's a local-first desktop app for one person, written in Tauri and React, with sync to a home server as an option rather than a requirement.

The point

Ink inside a note.
An infinite-canvas sketch layer as just another block — zoom forever, tiny files, feels right with a pen.
Media that doesn't fall over.
Drop 400 phone photos into an idea and the app keeps up. Content-addressed storage, thumbnails, no memory blow-up.
Boards that are your ideas.
A kanban whose cards are the ideas. Drag a card and the idea moves with it.

One rule keeps all three cheap: everything is a blob or a block. Blocks are addressable, and links are rows. A sketch is a block. A photo is a block plus blobs. Nothing gets a bespoke way of being saved.

Where it is right now

This is an early build — week 2 of a 12-week plan. It is being written in the open, and the plan itself is in the repository. Here is the honest split.

Working today

Ideas: create, rename, delete, reopen — they survive a restart
Text blocks: one editor per block, markdown shortcuts going in and markdown coming out
A command palette on Ctrl+K with every markdown element
A slash menu — type / to insert
Day, night and system themes, plus a custom accent colour
Export an idea as a folder of linked .md files, ready for Obsidian

Not built yet — in plan order

Sketching and the ink canvas
Photos, voice memos and file attachments
Boards
Links, backlinks and search
Undo history and sync

Source on GitHub Read the build plan

How to join

Sketchback is built in the open and still in early development. There’s no public chat yet — the best ways to get involved:

Build from source. Clone the repo and follow the setup in the README.
Watch for builds. Packaged releases (Windows portable exe and Linux AppImage) will land on GitHub Releases as they’re tagged.
Talk about it. Open an issue or start a discussion on GitHub — bugs, ideas, and feedback are all welcome.

Demo

In the works

Demo video — in the works.

Screenshots

An idea open in the editor: a heading, a bulleted list, a numbered list and an indented quote. — An idea is a stack of blocks — headings, lists, a quote.

The note that describes the app, open in the editor, showing headings, bullets and a link. — Blocks are markdown in and out. This is the note that describes the app.

The sidebar, listing six ideas. — The sidebar is the index: every idea, one line each.