Philosophy & Manifesto
Your notes app shouldn't trap you. It shouldn't profit off of you either.
See also: The Origin Story — How Skelenote came to be.
The Problem
For the last decade, we've been renting our productivity tools. Monthly fees for notes. Subscriptions for tasks. Cloud services that hold our data hostage.
We traded ownership for access. We stopped buying software and started paying landlords.
Skelenote exists because we think there's another way.
What We Built
A notes app that's:
Free — Not "free with limits." Every feature, every update.
Encrypted — Your notes are encrypted on your device with a Skeleton Key only you control.
Portable — Import from Notion, Obsidian, or Markdown. Export the same way. Your data is never trapped.
Offline — Works without internet. No spinners. No "reconnecting."
The Three Laws
Law 1: Structure is Freedom
Most apps hand you a blank page and wish you luck. That's not freedom—it's a burden.
Skelenote comes with the PARA method built in (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives). You start with a working system. Rearrange it as you grow.
Everything is an Object. A quick task and a 5,000-word thesis have the same power—properties, tags, links, history.
Law 2: Privacy Without Compromise
AI should work for you, not spy on you.
Skelenote runs AI models locally on your device. Transcribe meetings, search by meaning, summarize documents—without sending a single byte to the cloud.
Law 3: Nothing Is Lost
Fear of deleting the wrong thing shouldn't stop you from editing freely.
Skelenote records your vault's history. Revert any object—or your entire vault—to any point in the past.
Core Principles
Local. Encrypted. Yours. — Your vault lives on your device. The Skeleton Key stays in your hands.
Sync your way — Local network sync works automatically. Cloud sync is available too. Same encryption either way.
Offline-first — Full functionality without internet.
No lock-in — Export to Markdown anytime. Walk away whenever you want.
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