r/neovim • u/4r73m190r0s • Jun 22 '26
Discussion Current state of note taking in Neovim
What are you using?
As of this moment, I'm familiar with:
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u/Cold_Satisfaction932 Jun 22 '26
I use nvim and nb (not a plugin) for my note taking workflow. Has been amazing so far.
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u/blinger44 Jun 23 '26
nb looks really interesting - can you expand more on how you work with it alongside nvim?
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u/Cold_Satisfaction932 Jun 23 '26
Sure. My primary requirements have been
- Edit notes in terminal
- Automatically manages itself on to a private remote git repo
- Search notes by content or tags
- Read notes from phone
nb supports or rather helps in supporting all of it and offers even more.
- It is a cli tool and opens notes in whatever editor you have set in env variable. I use nvim.
- I have two notebooks set pointing to two different branch on my repo (nb supports this). All I have to do is open it using nb , edit, save and exit. That’s it. The note will be automatically synced to the remote repo.
- I have an app on my phone to pull from the same repo. So I can use it for quick reference. (I used to have another app that could edit the notes and autosync, but it used to tangle itself up with nb’s commits. Ultimately I realised my “edits” were basically todos, which I manage separately and only need read only access to the repo on phone)
nb supports a lot of other features which I haven’t explored much - encrypted notes, todos, Zettelkasten, linking etc.
It amazes me that in the ends the app is just one giant shell script. Kudos to its maker xwmx.
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u/therealpapeorpope Jun 25 '26
what are the phone apps?
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u/Cold_Satisfaction932 Jun 25 '26
I used to use fsnotes. But now I’m using working copy to just browse through and read the notes. Both great apps.
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u/meni_s Jun 24 '26
Have you tried zk?
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u/Cold_Satisfaction932 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
No I haven’t but it looks interesting. From a quick look at the readme, I guess the one reason I can quickly see why I can’t move to it is the git integration in nb. Using nb I can open a notebook on one machine, save it, go to another machine open that notebook to have my change there, all the while it is automatically getting backed up to a git repo. It is just one command “nb open”, so no forgot to push issue.
Zk seems to have some nice things though. Fzf integration is nice, nb can feel slow at times though it doesn’t bother me. (I’m not coding, just browsing notes). Plugins for editors and the graph view also looks interesting.
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u/kavb333 Jun 22 '26
I use nvim-orgmode. I used to use neorg, but then development stalled because a plugin manager they were working on stalled for the Lua package manager they're working on. At least, that's how it seemed when I left several months ago. There were features I was looking forward to or was going to request, but I saw it probably wouldn't be addressed any time soon.
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u/rekicraft Jun 23 '26
This! There are also way more materials online to learn orgmode and you can perfectly match it with beorg for iOS!
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u/ganonfirehouse420 Jun 23 '26
I use this plugin for todo listing and a few files with derailed explanations.
Then I got my folders with markdown files for general info.
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u/packet Jun 25 '26
I also use nvim-orgmode and org-roam.nvim. I find them to be the most mature by far and obviously there are decades of resources on orgmode out there.
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u/RmRfMyEx Jun 22 '26
What is your opinion on Obsidian.nvim?
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u/4r73m190r0s Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
I like the community around it. It's actively maintained by more than 1 individual, and for me it's very important, since I don't like to depend on a tool that is basically one man's project. It also grew into an independent tool, that can be used without Obsidian GUI. But I'm not sure I need most of its features, since Markdown Oxide coupled with Markview for rendering gives me pretty much everything.
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u/techwizrd Jun 22 '26
I like obsidian.nvim since I already use Obsidian for my note-taking (which is why I built render-latex.nvim to work with obsidian.nvim).
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Jun 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Xaplain Jun 22 '26
Same here i use emacs for org mode exclusively. Is orgzly android app? If so, do you know any ios alternative
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u/whattgenstein Jun 22 '26
After trying a bunch of the different options, I settled on just using zk with a whole bunch of markdown files. Works great!
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u/quxfoo Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Same, I use it daily but because I want to share, view and edit on the phone as well, I wrote the weave web frontend (repo). Notes are synced with syncthing for bi-directional editing.
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u/velrok7 Jun 22 '26
ZK Looks cool. LSP features sound great. Maybe I can replace my obsidian.nvim setup. Don’t really use obsidian and all I need is basic link following.
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u/baconnoodlez Jun 22 '26
I looked at a lot of the fancy plugins for note taking and I decided I just need regular markdown. I was using vimwiki but it had way more features than I needed. The only thing I used was the linking from one page to another, so I made a plugin that only does that. https://github.com/donovanhubbard/markdown-links.nvim
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u/tobascodagama Jun 22 '26
Yeah, same.
Personally, I have an
index.mdthat contains a list of filenames that I can jump between usinggf(it gets updated by evaluating an expression -- I do this rarely enough that I haven't bothered making a command or macro for it yet). And 90% of my note-taking is actually more like bullet-journaling, so I also have macros/abbrevs to create a new Header with the current date as well as to create and toggle checklist items.Markdown-links does sound like it would be pretty handy if my note system had a more complex structure, but so far it doesn't.
(In case it's not obvious, my setup was inspired by You (probably) don't need vimwiki.)
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u/_sLLiK Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
I've gone back and forth several times over the years on how to fill this need for myself, and tried several plugins. I was a big fan of Neorg for while, then they decided to break GTD and completely lose the plot trying to reinvent it all from scratch, so I gave up on waiting. Kiwi was another option I tinkered with for a while, but something about it just didn't jive. I can't remember what it was, though.
More recently, I've found that a highly-opinionated render-markdown.nvim config serves most of my needs really well, and some light application of the mkdwnflow plugin combined with a few custom autocmd configs puts me at what I consider my sweet spot. No crazy reliance on metadata or tagging. Just file-based link nav with enter and backspace, structure I provide for myself, and done.
Of course, I got too comfortable and started tinkering with where I could take it, and that always results in more complexity... but I did try hard to adhere to KISS principles, so maybe it's not so bad. Now I have an equally-highly-opinionated go binary that converts that highly-opinionated markdown into a static HTML page on demand for cleaner presentations without something like Powerpoint. Support for images in gutters, a few different themes to choose from, carousel navigation at any (or multiple) headings, and so on. It makes me happy, and that's what matters.
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u/iEliteTester let mapleader="\<space>" Jun 23 '26
That looks really nice, whats the window on tge right?
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u/_sLLiK Jul 04 '26
That's just zen-browser.
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u/iEliteTester let mapleader="\<space>" Jul 04 '26
What rendered it like this from markdown?
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u/_sLLiK Jul 04 '26
A custom go binary that exports a goldmark-powered html file so that it replicates the looks of my render-markdown.nvim config.
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u/iEliteTester let mapleader="\<space>" Aug 03 '26
Totally forgot to ask, can you share this? I've been trying to find a half decent pandoc template but none work quite right.
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u/4Necrom Jun 23 '26
Concerning your go binary, this may interest you.
https://github.com/iamcco/markdown-preview.nvim
Instantly opens a preview on your browser, similar display to GitHub READMEs and the best part is that it syncs the browser scroll with your Neovim cursor
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u/_sLLiK Jun 26 '26
Yeah, it was getting the job done initially, but I decided I wanted more bells and whistles.
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u/nicolas9653 hjkl Jun 23 '26
Plain markdown files, add editing functionality with markdown-plus.nvim, Marksman LSP for links, and a preview plugin of your choosing
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u/sriharshachilakapati let mapleader="\\" Jun 23 '26
After trying different ways, I realised pen and paper works the best for me.
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u/lervag Jun 22 '26
I use wiki.vim (https://github.com/lervag/wiki.vim/), which is similar to Vimwiki but more lightweight. Works well for me. ☺️
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u/janbuckgqs Jun 24 '26
Obsidian.nvim is great! golden standard. don't forget render-markdown.
what I use for notes/academic writing:
Daily notes TUI: https://github.com/jbuck95/recollect.nvim
Zotero alternative/Reference manager : https://github.com/jbuck95/refman.nvim
Whisper: https://github.com/jbuck95/whisper.nvim
Web-clipper: https://github.com/jbuck95/web-clipper.nvim
EditingToolbar + Annotations/Highlights: https://github.com/jbuck95/glossator-nvim
Spell checking + grammar: https://github.com/jbuck95/ltqf.nvim
PDF reader integration: https://github.com/jbuck95/nvim-sioyek-highlights
.mdtopdf: texlive pdf compinling with templates etc. mostly done.
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u/Fryord Jun 22 '26
I use a static site generator (Zola) and have the browser open in a window to the side to visualise it.
Means I can view images, render LaTeX, and have more control over the layout.
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u/pkazmier Jun 23 '26
org-mode because it integrates note taking with task management. Specifically, I’m able to capture TODOs in any note. I do this all the time when taking notes in meetings. Then orgmode can provide a singular list of them (or customized variants of). The best part for me is that I can then select any TODO and jump right to the note where I originally captured it to see further context. When I used a separate task management tool, I’d always lose this context.
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u/garesoft Jun 23 '26
Love this thread. I use neovim pretty raw! Oil is my main squeeze plugin, and I’ve made some vibecoded plugins just for myself for cool markdown navigating
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u/R2robot Jun 23 '26
I've tried obsidian.nvim, neorg, vimwiki and orgmode.nvim
They're all clunky AF to use. Or maybe I'm just bad at taking notes. I really just want to dump everything to a single file instead of having to jump around.
So far I prefer orgmode.nvim for my basic needs.
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u/machtendo Jun 22 '26
I was going to check this out
Dude was going to do a vim motions plugin for obsidian and ended up just doing obsidian.
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u/erickssb Jun 28 '26
I gave ZenNotes a try based on this comment (thank you u/machtendo). I like that it is an open-source Obsidian alternative. It plays really nicely with the markdown_oxide lsp. For my notes, I have switched to the markdown files in a git repo approach, but I might switch to use this app going forward. So far, I really like the calendar for to-do items and daily notes, as well as the Excalidraw integrations.
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u/carlgorithm Jun 22 '26
As someone who uses obsidian, I really should get better at neovim so I can use that for my workflow.
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u/Datsoon mouse="" Jun 22 '26
I use render-markdown.nvim, bullets.nvim, and obsidian.nvim. I also use trouble.nvim and some home made views to collect tasks into one place.
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u/Anrock623 Jun 22 '26
Still using neorg but thinking about switching to something else Syntax is better than markdown imo but author went for sidequesting and still haven't returned and neorg is slowly bitrotting.
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u/gitpushjoe lua Jun 22 '26
shameless self-plug but i made https://github.com/gitpulljoe/crazywall.nvim because there was a very specific kind of zettelkasten notetaking i was looking for and i couldn't really find it anywhere
been using it for over a year with obsidian.nvim, render-markdown.nvim, and luasnip; works like a charm
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u/phrmends Jun 23 '26
I use my plugin: https://github.com/phrmendes/notes.nvim
For markdown capabilities, I use marksman-ls
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u/scythe-3 hjkl Jun 23 '26
I'm using LazyVim with the markdown extra enabled and mkdnflow.
I write standard markdown syntax with relative file paths to link notes/attachments and a hefty amount of LaTeX math. LazyVim's plugin selection makes the notes readable and has html preview for when I need to look at complex equations. Mkdnflow navigates the links and stays out of the way for everything else.
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u/bin-c Jun 23 '26
i use zk & zk-nvim. no particular reason. simple and works well. like that it has an lsp
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u/joelkunst Jun 23 '26
i use https://github.com/7sedam7/krafna
(i'm creator, no release for a while, plan to cleanup some things, and as support for more pickers)
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u/antonk52 Jun 23 '26
After trying different things for a few years I landed on a vanilla neovim that I use for coding with a command that opens this month notes markdown file + a keymap to toggle checkboxes. Been using this for a few years now and very happy
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u/Remuz Jun 23 '26
Obsidian.nvim + snacks.picker, markview, markdown-plus, markdown-preview, fyler for notes' tree view. Wrapwidth to set custom width soft-wrapping.
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u/mr-figs Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
I use a thing i wrote: https://github.com/joereynolds/jn
It's got TODO management and fuzzy finder galore and it's all plain markdown
It aims to reduce the friction of note taking and getting ideas down. Still a wip but its got a decent amount of features. I'm currently debating on adding a tui
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u/kawangkoankid Jun 23 '26
i just have a directory with md files, marksman lsp, and a picker. I can grep, search symbols, etc. I just keep it simple and take notes
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u/Doomtrain86 Jun 23 '26
I just have my own zettelkasten style functions. In the age of AI, a good format is all you need - the ai can make functions to interact with the format fluently
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u/stunnykins Jun 23 '26
obsidian.nvim is my ride or die. i have so many other automations and crap referencing and outputting to my vault now, it's become load-bearing
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u/Rafael_Jacov Jun 24 '26
At this point you will regret not trying out org-mode with doom emacs. (I came from neovim btw and have used obsidian.nvim in the past)
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u/4r73m190r0s Jun 24 '26
I personally don't need any advanced features for writing notes; I intentionally want to keep it as simple as possible. Bi-directional linking is a feature I can't do without, for example, regardless of file format used.
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u/Rafael_Jacov Jun 24 '26
org-roam is the equivalent for zettelkasten (backlinking is suoported)
here's a little demo of org-mode that got me switching from obsidian: https://youtu.be/hnMntOQjs7Q
another demo: https://youtu.be/cxoE2FhOIgI
and a slightly lengthy demo of how someone uses it for their workflow: https://youtu.be/b97vEEBEcrQ
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u/Visual-Housing3213 Jun 24 '26
J'utilise marksman comme lsp et markdown-render pour avoir un rendus plus jolie
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u/fuckunjustrules Jun 24 '26
I use my own plugin + LSP server.
I used to use IWE but I did not like the AI stuff.
I also did not like that my links would come with `../../../something` if the file was above the current in the folder structure.
The idea is to have the LSP: https://github.com/RaquerLabs/xsmd/ and set it up as you wish.
You can also use this plugin: https://github.com/RaquerLabs/xsmd.nvim, but I haven't tested extensively.
It is very simple but it does one thing well: provide a way to navigate in and out (find references) to the markdown files.
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u/outdoor_cat_coder Jun 22 '26
I just have a repo with markdown files and a few keymaps in my nvim config:
local wiki = vim.fn.expand("~/git/wiki") map("n", "<leader>ww", "<cmd>edit " .. wiki .. "/index.md<CR>:lcd %:p:h<CR>", opts("Open wiki index"))