About

IWE brings IDE-like capabilities to markdown note-taking. It’s built for developers who want powerful tools without leaving their favorite text editor.

Philosophy

IWE is guided by a few core principles:

Local-first. Your notes live on your machine. No cloud required, no sync subscriptions, no vendor dependencies. Use Git for version control and backup.

Editor freedom. IWE works with VS Code, Neovim, Zed, Helix, and any LSP-compatible editor. Your workflow, your choice.

Plain markdown. No proprietary format, no special syntax. Your notes are portable and future-proof.

Open source. Free to use, free to modify, free forever. Built by the community, for the community.

Built for Developers

IWE isn’t trying to be everything for everyone. It’s specifically designed for technical users who want:

  • IDE features for notes — Go to definition, find references, rename symbols, code actions
  • Automated refactoring — Extract sections to new files, inline content back, transform structure
  • CLI power — Batch operations, graph visualization, document generation
  • AI integration — Configurable LLM commands with full context awareness
  • Performance — Rust-powered, handles thousands of files instantly

What Makes IWE Different

Unlike general-purpose note apps, IWE treats your notes as a knowledge graph with semantic understanding:

  • Graph transformations — Extract, inline, attach, and restructure content with code actions
  • Context-aware search — Find notes by their position in your knowledge hierarchy
  • Automatic normalization — Keep link titles, header levels, and formatting consistent
  • Cross-editor consistency — Same features work identically in every supported editor

Community

IWE is open source and community-driven.

Ready to try it? Check out the Quick Start guide.