Show HN: Ephe – A minimalist open-source Markdown paper for today
53 comments
·June 3, 2025rpastuszak
It looks really nice! (tested on Safari/Mac).
Have you considered adding a small popup encouraging people to set it as their home page? I use Ensō (https://enso.sonnet.io) in that manner occasionally.
Also, the "system" button disappears during writing (good), but it's hard to get it back unless I click outside of the editor. In Ensō, I re-enable it on any pointer move - I would suggesting doing something similar.
PS I work on somewhat similar tools (like the one mentioned above), esp. for loose, stream-of-consciousness style of writing https://untested.sonnet.io/notes/stream-of-consciousness-mor... then copy paste the text into obsidian.
If you ever fancy chatting about privacy-friendly, idiosyncratic/home-cooked software hit me up on sonnet.io/posts/hi !
unvalley
Thank you! I checked you app Ensō, it's awesome. I really like this kind of app. Yeah I need to polish the "system" button. Currently, it should appear after writing texts within 1 sec. I’d love to chat and will reach out!
Lyngbakr
I'm excited to give this a try, as I think I'm the target audience. I tried using Helix[0] (my editor of choice) with mpls[1], but it didn't quite scratch the itch. These days, I use a sturdy notebook and cheap (but awesome!) fountain pen, because I just need something simple. No bells. No whistles. This seems ideal!
[0]https://helix-editor.com/ [1]https://github.com/mhersson/mpls
notnmeyer
shameless plug, but if you’re looking for a daily note taking thing, take a look at https://github.com/notnmeyer/daylog-cli. it’s a cli tool for daily task tracking. edits in $EDITOR (i use helix) and renders markdown in the terminal.
i use it to take notes during the day at work and then use the notes for our standup.
Lyngbakr
You had me at
> DayLog ah ahh ahhhhhh, fighter of the night log ah ahh ahhhhh.u5wbxrc3
Helix was great until I discovered something that was a dealbreaker for me. They treat newline character as a normal character which is just very very non intuitive. I just wish there was option for behavior same as vim does. https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/issues/2956
jakkos
I actually use the fact newline is a pseudo-character pretty often (e.g t-return-d to "delete till newline"). I have the opposite issue where I use Helix most of the time, but sometimes have to compromise with rebinding a "vim mode" and little things like esc-i causing the cursor to move 1 character left drive me up the wall.
unvalley
Thank you! Editors like Helix are a good choice. I just prefer GUIs, so I built one in the browser. Hope you’ll give it a try!
entropie
Pretty cool! I made something similar for myself. My primary motivation back then was to make a tomboy-like system to link the individual todo lists together. I use #hashtags to group “zettel” and individual zettel also know other zettel that refer to them. What I also find very useful are [ ] and [x] which I use as lists to check off (seems you do that allready).
Screenshot (it is not publicly available): https://i.imgur.com/js9S4wa.png
But the source is: https://github.com/entropie/ha2itat/tree/main/plugins/zettel
Ill dig a bit in your source.
unvalley
Thank you! I like how it makes Zettelkasten-style organization easy. For this ephe.app though, I intentionally limited it to a single page as you know. A deliberate choice not to expand. I’m looking forward to yours!
asjo
What is a "Markdown Paper"?
unvalley
I wanted to create a catchy, attention-grabbing phrase:) This app is meant to feel like a single sheet of paper on our desk where we can write in Markdown.
ctkhn
It looks nice and I like the general idea, but what's the difference between this and a todos folder in joplin or any existing notes app? That's what I use personally and at work I do the same thing with onenote (because of mega enterprise install restrictiveness) and a new note page every day seems to do essentially what this app offers.
unvalley
Thank you, I’ve written a bit about the thinking behind this app in the form of a short guide: https://github.com/unvalley/ephe/blob/main/.github/guide.md
I think the difference in philosophy shows up in the feature set too. For example, Ephe currently only gives you a single page because the focus is on today. If there are any features you find essential in apps like Joplin but missing in Ephe, I’d love to hear. I want to keep improving it.
spankibalt
Annoying feature bitch 'n' beg:
"Frictionless" text hoisting (incl. hoist-to-view document window capability) à la Symantec's GrandView (DOS) [1] is a must for me in a modern tool of this type. Table manipulation à la org-mode would be nice to have, text template import and export (e. g. screenwriting formats) a bonus. But lean and mean general-purpose text editors focusing on non-coding creators are just not a thing anymore.
Anyway, congratulations and good luck!
1. [https://welcometosherwood.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/grandview...]
unvalley
Thank you, I’m definitely aiming to keep making it better. Gotta admit never heard of GrandView or org-mode-style tools before. I will look them up. And yeah, it’s surprisingly hard to find tools that just let you write raw Markdown.
spankibalt
Friendly words of advice: don't get too carried away with this, especially org-mode, a massive black hole of features, nearly all of them completely irrelevant for a small, non-coder focused datatool. For me, org-mode's standout feature is just its ability to let you edit tables in a very neat fashion. And GrandView's outlining elegance, especially its text-hoisting behavior, is still completely and utterly unmatched. After 35 years! That's why I still use it. The OSF [1] is another good place to pick some brains, if you don't already know.
unvalley
Yeah, one of Ephe’s selling points is actually how few features it has. Finding that balance is fun, so I’ll keep exploring. Markdown really isn’t great for editing tables though, totally agree. Once I wrap up some work, I’ll take a closer look at outlining tools too. Thanks again!
chrisvalleybay
Like that you're using CodeMirror! With CodeMirror you can very easily add VIm-support as well [0], which many might enjoy.
unvalley
Interesting! Actually I use VSCode to be honest, but wanna try that out.
u5wbxrc3
Looks neat and simple! Gonna try it for few days atleast, thanks.
unvalley
Thank you! Any feedback is welcome, have fun.
shlomo_z
Can someone recommend something like this, but where my notes are published online (on my domain)?
SilverServer
I self host this
https://github.com/chroxify/haptic Pretty neat, mind the fact that is local based, so if you log from another device you will not have persistence
submeta
Reminds me of TaskPaper. But markdown is ubiquitously available. So yeah, makes sense.
unvalley
Thank you! To be honest, I didn't know much about taskpaper but I have seen it. The concept is similar. If there are any good features, I'd like to refer to them.
chenzhekl
Nice product. Just one minor issue. The font looks ugly on Windows.
unvalley
Thanks! really, I'll check on Windows.
Superbowl5889
That looks very neat.I was searching for a local notepad, went to length of installing a extension.
But this. Just wow. Thank you.
unvalley
Thank you! I’ll keep improving it.
Hi HN,
I built Ephe, open-source markdown paper for daily todos and thoughts.
No sign-up, no ads, no subscriptions, no AI.
## Why I made this
We have plenty of Markdown editors. And too many overwhelming to-do apps. But few tools combine both in a way that’s lightweight and focused. I thought that all I need is a single page to organize today. So I built Ephe.
It uses CodeMirror v6, React(v19, React Compiler) and Vite with rolldown.
## What makes it different
“Ephe” comes from ephemeral. The main goal is to organize what you need to do today. It isn’t for teams. It’s a quiet space for your own priorities.
Give it a spin if that sounds useful to you.