TierNote

Notes from first principles.
Reduce complexity to what matters, make priorities visible, and turn notes into action.

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Overview

TierNote is a cross-platform desktop note agent built from a first-principles idea: before adding more information, make what matters clear. Its editable T1–T5 priority map keeps important notes visible, while local-first AI can search, organize, summarize, and create without turning the app into a coding tool or task manager.

Project	Current state
Desktop	Windows, macOS, Linux
Storage	Local Markdown library and local conversation records
Model protocols	OpenAI-compatible APIs and Anthropic Messages API
Design principle	First-principles decomposition through visible T1–T5 tiers
Model efficiency	DeepSeek prefix-cache reuse and usage visibility
License	AGPL-3.0-or-later

Release binaries are currently unsigned. Windows and macOS may show an unverified-publisher warning during installation.

What it does

• First-principles workspace — reduce a complicated body of notes to visible T1–T5 priorities, then build decisions and outputs from what matters.
• DeepSeek-aware AI chat — stable request prefixes improve cache reuse; requests, cache hits, tokens, context use, and estimated cost remain visible.
• Library Graph retrieval — searches titles, paths, headings, body text, Markdown links, and nearby notes without an embedding API, vector database, or indexing tokens.
• Local-first notes — browse and edit ordinary Markdown files in a restrained three-pane desktop workspace.
• T1–T5 priorities — rank and reorder notes directly from Home so the important work remains legible.
• My Contexts — selectively expose goals, experience, lessons, priorities, and key records to AI retrieval.
• Media to notes — turn supported video or audio links and local media files into structured notes through cloud or local speech recognition.
• Document intake — read text, Markdown, HTML, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, PDF, images, audio, and video through scoped import tools.
• Phone capture — connect Weixin or Telegram and send private webpage or media links back to the desktop for local processing.
• Replaceable providers — configure DeepSeek or another OpenAI-compatible endpoint, or use Anthropic's native Messages API.

Install

Download the appropriate installer from the latest GitHub Release, or use the remote installer:

Windows PowerShell

irm https://tiernote.org/install.ps1 | iex

macOS / Linux

curl -fsSL https://tiernote.org/install.sh | sh

Supported platforms

Platform	Architectures	Packages
Windows	x64	NSIS .exe, MSI
macOS	Apple Silicon, Intel	DMG
Linux	x64	AppImage, DEB, RPM
Linux	arm64	DEB, RPM

Architecture

flowchart LR
  UI["React + TypeScript UI"] --> IPC["Tauri IPC"]
  IPC --> Core["Rust Note Agent"]
  Core --> Library["Local Markdown Library"]
  Core --> Memory["Local Context & Conversations"]
  Core --> Models["DeepSeek / OpenAI-compatible / Anthropic"]
  Channels["Weixin / Telegram"] --> Core

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Under the hood

• Desktop shell: Tauri 2 with a React 18, TypeScript, and Vite frontend.
• Agent runtime: a focused Rust core in agent_loop.rs and agent_tools.rs, built for note search, reading, writing, memory routing, and completion-oriented tool use.
• Safety boundary: tools operate on the selected library and explicit local files; the agent does not expose arbitrary shell execution or unrestricted filesystem writes.
• Retrieval: Library Graph builds a lightweight local relationship map from Markdown structure and links, then returns only relevant passages.
• Context: recent conversation, enabled My Contexts pages, the open note, and relevant library passages are routed separately and compacted locally when needed.
• Networking: Rust uses reqwest with rustls for model streaming, web reading, release checks, and optional transcription services.
• Media: local audio decoding uses Symphonia; transcription can use configured cloud services or the local recognition path.

For more detail, see Architecture, Note Agent design, and cost-oriented agent decisions.

Repository layout

Path	Purpose
src/	React desktop UI and TypeScript application logic
src-tauri/	Rust backend, agent loop, retrieval, file and media handling
starter-knowledge/	Bilingual first-run library content
tests/	Frontend and shared-logic tests
docs/	Architecture, agent, library, and release documentation
website/	Product site, localized screenshots, installers, and download Worker
.github/workflows/	Version and cross-platform release automation

Development

Prerequisites:

• Node.js 22 or later
• Rust toolchain
• Tauri platform prerequisites for your operating system

npm ci
npm run library:check
npm run typecheck
npm test
npm run tauri:dev

Useful verification commands:

npm run build
npm run release:check
cargo check --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml

Privacy and security

• Your note library and complete conversation records stay on your computer by default.
• Only requests you initiate send the selected context to your configured model provider.
• Knowledge-library access is path-scoped and canonicalized to block traversal outside the selected root.
• Provider configuration, including API keys, is stored as plaintext JSON only in the current user's local TierNote app-data directory. A startup migration moves data from the v0.1.8 location before the app initializes. Configuration is never written into this repository or the note library.
• No telemetry service is required for the local note workflow.

Release process

Tags matching v* trigger quality checks and native builds for Windows x64, macOS Apple Silicon, macOS Intel, Linux x64, and Linux arm64. See RELEASE.md for the version checklist and asset naming rules.

License & commercial use

Open-source edition — TierNote is free, forever, under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0-or-later). Companies are welcome to use it as-is. Modified versions distributed to others, and modified versions offered to users over a network, must follow AGPL's source availability requirements. See NOTICE for the legacy MIT notice and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for third-party acknowledgements.

Commercial & enterprise licensing — A paid commercial license is only needed when you want to step outside AGPL obligations: to customize TierNote and keep the changes closed-source, redistribute it under your own brand or as a white-label product, or embed it in a proprietary product you distribute. Custom development, priority support, and SLAs are also available. Tell us what you are building and we will tailor a plan and quote.

Contact sales: hi@coffeecli.com

Contributing — See CONTRIBUTING.md. Contributions are accepted under the project CLA so commercial relicensing remains possible.