Your notes are just files
TaskForge reads a folder of markdown on your device and gives it a real notes app: a file tree, an editor that renders what you write, daily notes, and links between them. Point it at an Obsidian vault or at any folder of .md files. Both work the same way.
- Free, on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, and Windows
- Notes stay .md files on disk, nothing uploads
- Tasks, notes, and events in one app
An editor that shows you what you wrote
Open a note and you get the rendered view: headings at their real size, checkboxes you can tap, callouts with their color band, tables laid out as tables. Tap any block to edit it in place. Lists continue themselves when you press Enter, and an empty list line drops the marker instead of adding another one. On phone and tablet a markdown toolbar sits above the keyboard for indent, checklist, bold, italic, and links. On Mac, Tab and Shift-Tab indent and outdent a list line.
Beta Notes are new in TaskForge 3.0 and carry a beta badge in the app. Reading and browsing are solid. We are still refining the editing ergonomics, and the badge comes off when that work lands. Nothing about the label limits what you can do.
Every file in the folder, not just the notes
The notes tree shows your folders the way they sit on disk. Markdown notes open for reading and editing. Text files like .txt, .csv, .json, and .yaml open in a read-only preview, which is enough to check a log line or a config value without leaving the app. Images and PDFs appear in the tree as dimmed rows so a folder never looks empty when it isn't. An image opens full screen from there, with pinch to zoom, and tapping a PDF hands the file to your system viewer.
The raw file is one tap away
The note's ⋯ menu has a View source item that swaps the rendered view for the file exactly as it sits on disk, frontmatter fences included. It's a full editor, not a preview, so you can fix a YAML field by hand. Saving preserves line endings and any byte-order mark, and a note you open in source view and don't change stays byte-for-byte identical on disk.
Rename and move without leaving the app
Long-press a row on phone, or right-click on Mac and iPad, to create a folder, rename, move, or delete. Desktop supports drag and drop. Renaming or moving a note rewrites every [[wikilink]] and every task reference that pointed at it, anywhere in your workspace, and tells you how many references changed and in how many files. Deleting is not permanent: in an Obsidian workspace items go to the vault's own .trash folder, and on Mac a TaskForge workspace uses the system Trash that Finder uses.
Links that resolve, and a scan for the ones that don't
Wikilinks open the note they name. When two notes share a name, TaskForge opens the one with the shortest vault-relative path, which is how Obsidian resolves the same ambiguity, so a link opens the same note in both apps. Turn that off and you get a picker instead. For references that broke because a file changed somewhere TaskForge couldn't see, Settings has a Broken links scan that finds dangling wikilinks, markdown links, project references, and task dependencies, then takes you to each one.
Today's note, already open
Daily notes open for today and create themselves if they don't exist yet, using your template. Templater syntax works. A task written into 2026-08-23.md picks up that date without you typing it. There's a daily-note widget for the home screen, and today's note shows up in the agenda alongside your events.
Search that knows a note from a task
Full search returns tasks, notes, and events in their own sections. Tap Add Condition and the field picker offers note fields alongside task fields: name, path, tags, frontmatter properties, whether it's a daily note. A note condition only narrows the Notes section, so adding "Note Tag contains #recipes" never blanks out your tasks. Sorting offers Relevance, Name, and Date, where Date means a note's last modified time, an event's start, or a task's due date, and each section sorts itself rather than merging into one timeline.
Notes and tasks in the same file
This is the part other notes apps can't do. A checkbox line inside a note is a real task: it has a due date, a priority, a reminder, and it shows up in your lists, your widgets, and your calendar. Open a task and Open corresponding note takes you to the note it lives in. You're not syncing two apps. It's one file, read two ways.
One note per task, if that's how you work
The TaskNotes convention gives each task its own file with YAML frontmatter carrying its status, dates, and properties. TaskForge reads that format alongside inline checkboxes, custom properties included, and both kinds show up together in every list. You can set which one new tasks use by default. If you have no idea what TaskNotes is, you never need to: inline checkboxes in ordinary notes are the default and they work on their own.
Your agent can write notes, not just tasks
The taskforge command line tool and the local MCP server that ship with TaskForge have note verbs, so an agent doesn't have to write files by hand. It can create a note in a folder you name, append to today's daily note, and rename or delete one without breaking every wikilink pointing at it, which a plain mv or rm would do silently. Body edits go block by block with the same conflict protection the app uses. It all runs on your machine, with no API key and nothing uploaded.
Pointing it at a folder is the whole setup
On first run you pick a folder. If it's an Obsidian vault, TaskForge reads your existing daily-note and template configuration and uses the vault's own .trash for deletions. If it's an ordinary folder, or an empty one, it sets up sensible defaults instead: a Daily Notes folder, the date as the filename, and a plain date heading. There is no import, no indexing wait you have to sit through, and no account step in between.
What TaskForge is not
Worth saying plainly, so you can decide before you download rather than after.
No graph view and no backlinks panel
Links resolve and rename-updates work, but there's no visual graph and no panel listing what links here. If those are the reason you use a knowledge base, keep using Obsidian. TaskForge reads the same vault, so you can run both.
No PDF viewer
Images render inside a note and open full screen from the file tree, where you can pinch to zoom. PDFs don't render. Tapping one offers a single button that opens the file in your system viewer. SVG and HEIC still have no preview.
No plugins, no canvas, no publishing
There is no plugin ecosystem to extend the app and no canvas surface. What ships is what you get.
Not a rich-text editor
Notes are markdown. If you want handwriting, scanned documents, or drag-in image layout, Apple Notes does that better and it's free.
Notes cost nothing
The notes tree, the editor, source view, daily notes, file management, and the broken-link scan are free on every platform. TaskForge Premium covers custom lists and spaces, and creating or editing calendar events. Neither of those gates a single thing on this page.
See what Premium addsQuestions about notes in TaskForge
Do I need Obsidian to use TaskForge notes?
No. TaskForge works on any folder of markdown files. If you do use Obsidian, point TaskForge at your existing vault and your notes and tasks appear as they are, with nothing to import.
Where are my notes stored?
In the folder you chose, on your device, as .md files. There is no account, no server, and nothing uploads. Syncing is whatever you already use, such as iCloud Drive or Obsidian Sync.
Can I edit a note's frontmatter?
Yes. Switch to source view from the note's ⋯ menu and the whole file becomes editable text, YAML frontmatter included.
What happens if another device edits a note I have open?
TaskForge does not overwrite the change silently. A banner appears with two choices: keep your version, or take the one on disk. Both the block editor and source view show the same prompt.
Does renaming a note break links to it?
No. Renaming or moving a note inside TaskForge rewrites every wikilink and task reference that pointed at it, then confirms how many references changed. For files renamed outside the app, the Broken links scan in Settings finds what came loose.
Are notes a premium feature?
No. Notes are free on every platform. Premium covers custom lists and spaces, and creating or editing calendar events.
Which markdown does TaskForge understand?
Headings, lists, task lines, code fences, blockquotes, Obsidian callouts, GFM tables, and horizontal rules. Anything it doesn't recognize, including raw HTML, math blocks, %% comments, and Dataview queries, is preserved exactly as written rather than reformatted.
How big a folder can it handle?
TaskForge indexes the workspace once on first open and then watches for file changes, so day-to-day use doesn't re-read everything. Vaults with thousands of notes are the normal case rather than the edge case.
Can I search inside my notes, not just their titles?
Yes. Full search covers note content, and you can add conditions on note name, path, tags, and frontmatter properties. Results come back in their own Notes section alongside matching tasks and events.
What happens to tasks inside a note I delete?
They are removed from your task lists before the file moves to trash, so nothing is left pointing at a file that is gone. The confirmation tells you how many notes and how many open tasks you are about to lose track of.
Does it work with Templater?
For daily notes, yes. If your vault has Templater or the Daily Notes plugin configured, TaskForge reads that configuration, unless you have deliberately picked one of the built-in templates in Settings, in which case the app-level choice wins.
Can an AI agent edit my notes?
Yes, through the taskforge CLI or the local MCP server that ship with TaskForge. An agent can create a note, append to today's daily note, rename or delete one without breaking wikilinks, and edit a note's body block by block. Nothing leaves your machine.
Put your notes and your tasks in the same place.
Free to download and free to use. One optional purchase, premium for life.