Notvex

Notvex is an open-source desktop app for encrypted Markdown notes that never leave your computer. There's no account to create, no server and no cloud: your notes live in a single encrypted file on your own disk, and no one else can read them, not even Notvex.

Each vault is one portable .nvx file. Copy it, back it up or carry it on a USB drive, and it stays just as secure as on your disk. You can keep as many vaults as you need, each with its own password.

Writing

• Markdown editor with live preview as you type, a separate reading view and a formatting toolbar
• Find in the note, and search across notes by title
• Notes save as you type; pin the important ones, sort by date or title, restore anything from the trash
• Color-coded tags you can combine to filter your notes
• Command palette (Ctrl+K / Cmd+K) to open, create or run anything without the mouse
• Import .md and .txt files; export notes as .md with tags in YAML front matter, readable by Obsidian and most Markdown tools

Security

• Two layers of encryption: SQLCipher (AES-256) encrypts the whole database, and each note's title and content are encrypted again with XChaCha20-Poly1305
• Argon2id key derivation, tuned to about 1.5 seconds on your machine, so every password guess is slow
• 24-word recovery key in case you forget your password, plus an optional key file as a second factor
• The master key lives only in memory, kept out of swap, and is wiped when the vault locks: on sleep, on screen lock, after inactivity, and optionally on minimize
• Screen-capture protection by default
• No telemetry and no tracking. The only network request is the update check on startup, and you can turn it off

Notvex is built for one situation: someone gets a copy of your vault file but not your password. The file on its own reveals nothing. Be aware that if you lose both your password and your recovery key, your notes can't be recovered. There's no account and no way to reset access.

Free and open source (AGPL-3.0) for Windows, macOS and Linux.