The bull, penned. A MarkText-style WYSIWYG markdown editor — your markdown renders in place as you type, with no separate preview pane.
Toril is a small, fast desktop markdown editor built on Tauri 2 + TypeScript +
Milkdown. Files are plain .md in ordinary folders, so a workspace can be a
live Obsidian vault — no proprietary container, no lock-in.
Primary platform: Windows. macOS and Linux build from the same stack but are not the current focus.
⚠️ Status: beta. The core editor and the surrounding workflow are in place (build phases 0–3 complete; phase 4 polish in progress). Prebuilt installers are available in v1.0.0-beta.1 — it's still pre-1.0 in spirit, so expect the occasional rough edge and keep backups of important notes.
- Inline WYSIWYG — CommonMark + GitHub Flavored Markdown (tables, task lists, strikethrough, footnotes) + emoji shortcodes, rendered in place as you type.
- HTML as a first-class format — open, edit, and save
.html/.htmdocuments WYSIWYG alongside.md, with the markup sanitized on load. - Atomic saves — every write is temp-file + fsync + rename, so a crash mid-save can never corrupt an existing note.
- Workspace sidebar + multi-document tabs with an external-change file watcher (so editing a folder that's also an Obsidian vault stays in sync).
- Session memory — reopens your last folder and files on launch.
- Themes — System / Light / Dark.
- Export to HTML and RTF.
- Clipboard image paste — pasted images are saved beside the document.
- Formatting toolbar, status bar (word/char count + reading time), and a native app menu.
- Quality-of-life — Find & Replace, Save All, toggle sidebar, an unsaved-changes close guard, and opening files via double-click / "Open with".
Not yet: Math (KaTeX), PDF export, and in-editor YAML front matter — see CLAUDE.md for the current status of each.
Prebuilt installers for the latest beta are on the releases page. Grab the one for your platform:
| Platform | Download |
|---|---|
| Windows | Toril_1.0.0-beta.1_x64-setup.exe |
| macOS (Apple Silicon) | Toril_1.0.0-beta.1_aarch64.dmg |
| macOS (Intel) | Toril_1.0.0-beta.1_x64.dmg |
| Linux (AppImage) | Toril_1.0.0-beta.1_amd64.AppImage |
| Linux (Debian/Ubuntu) | Toril_1.0.0-beta.1_amd64.deb |
| Linux (Fedora/RHEL) | Toril-1.0.0-beta.1-1.x86_64.rpm |
Prefer to compile it yourself? See Building from source.
Download Toril_1.0.0-beta.1_x64-setup.exe above and double-click it. It
performs a per-user install — no administrator rights needed:
- Copies the app into
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Toril(i.e.C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\Toril) — no admin prompt. - Adds a Start Menu entry, and offers a Desktop shortcut checkbox during setup.
- Registers an entry in Apps & features for clean uninstallation.
SmartScreen note: the build is unsigned, so on first run Windows SmartScreen may warn "Windows protected your PC." Click More info → Run anyway. This is expected for an unsigned personal build, not a problem with the app.
Use Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Toril → Uninstall, or run the
uninstaller in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Toril.
- macOS: open the
.dmgand drag Toril to Applications. The build is unsigned, so the first launch needs right-click → Open (or System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway) to get past Gatekeeper. - Linux: the
.AppImageis portable —chmod +x Toril_1.0.0-beta.1_amd64.AppImageand run it. Or install the.deb(sudo apt install ./Toril_1.0.0-beta.1_amd64.deb) /.rpm(sudo dnf install ./Toril-1.0.0-beta.1-1.x86_64.rpm).
The bull, penned — now learning to roam. Toril is a solid single-document editor today; the plan is to grow it into a notes system you live in: the local-first, plain-files, AI-native writing tool you defect to when you outgrow Apple Notes.
The work is organized into five movements, sequenced by one rule — trust before reach: the data-safety floor ships before the differentiators, and the AI layer stands on top of it.
flowchart TD
Now["<b>Now · v1.0.0-beta.1</b><br/>Inline WYSIWYG editor · atomic I/O<br/>tabs · file watcher · HTML/RTF export · themes"]
I["<b>Movement I — Trust Foundation</b><br/>autosave + crash recovery · safe-delete trash<br/>local version history · sync coexistence · code signing"]
II["<b>Movement II — Notes System</b><br/>global vault search · command palette<br/>wikilinks · backlinks · tags · outline · file ops"]
III["<b>Movement III — Writing Craft</b><br/>code highlighting · KaTeX · Mermaid<br/>focus / typewriter modes · stats · daily notes"]
IV["<b>Movement IV — The AI Wedge</b><br/>AI assist panel (BYO key + Ollama)<br/>chat-with-your-vault (local RAG) · AI organization · MCP bridge"]
V["<b>Movement V — Reach</b><br/>per-tab undo · large-vault perf · a11y / i18n<br/>encrypted notes · mobile (iOS / Android)"]
Now --> I --> II --> III --> IV --> V
classDef done fill:#dafbe1,stroke:#2da44e,color:#0a0a0a;
classDef step fill:#eef2ff,stroke:#6e7bff,color:#0a0a0a;
classDef ai fill:#fff4e5,stroke:#fb8500,color:#0a0a0a;
class Now done;
class I,II,III,V step;
class IV ai;
| Movement | Focus | Milestone |
|---|---|---|
| I — Trust Foundation | Make it safe to live in | "Safe to live in" |
| II — Notes System | The daily-driver core | "A real notes system" — first beta |
| III — Writing Craft | Win the focus-writer fight | "A joy to write in" |
| IV — The AI Wedge | The unfair advantage | "Your notes, with Claude inside" |
| V — Reach | Scale, polish, and the mobile bet | v1.0 — "for everyone who outgrew their notes app" |
The full branch-by-branch plan — goals, gates, new crates, and open decisions — lives in ROADMAP.md.
To run the app live with hot-reload instead of installing:
pnpm install
pnpm tauri devThe first run compiles the Rust backend, so it takes a while; subsequent runs are fast.
The same pnpm tauri build works, with platform build dependencies:
- macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools (
xcode-select --install). - Linux: WebKitGTK and friends, e.g. on Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev build-essential curl wget file \ libxdo-dev libssl-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev pkg-config
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
| Run the app (dev) | pnpm tauri dev |
| Build app + installers | pnpm tauri build |
| Frontend type-check | pnpm typecheck |
| Frontend build only | pnpm build |
| Frontend tests (round-trip, tabs) | pnpm test |
| Backend logic tests | cd src-tauri && cargo test -p fsatomic -p vaultscan -p mdhtml -p mdrtf -p imgasset |
The architecture, data-safety rules, command contract, and build milestones live in CLAUDE.md; the forward plan (branch-by-branch, with adoption guidance) in ROADMAP.md; brand and theming in BRAND.md.