# Quire – humans and AI agents editing local Markdown together

> Source: <https://github.com/heetdalsania/quire>
> Published: 2026-09-07 22:17:21+00:00

**Local Markdown for humans and AI agents, with every edit visible, attributable, and reviewable.**

Point Quire at a folder of Markdown. The original `.md` files become a live multiplayer workspace,
and AI agents can join the same editing sessions as first-class collaborators with visible cursors
and separately revertable edits. There is no import step, cloud copy, or conversion round trip:
your filesystem remains the source of truth, ready for git, vim, VS Code, and every other tool you
already use.

*Recorded against the real application. A person types while an agent edits the same document,
proposes a change that never touches the file until it is accepted, and then authorship is
revealed. Nobody reloads, and nothing conflicts.*

**Public beta:** Quire requires Node.js 22 or newer and runs locally with no Quire account,
subscription, or telemetry.

```
npx quiredocs ~/my-notes
```

Open `http://127.0.0.1:4321` in a browser. Press `Ctrl+C` in the terminal when you are done.

Or from a clone:

```
npm install && npm run build
node packages/cli/bin/quire.js ~/my-notes
```

No account. No signup. Binds `127.0.0.1` by default. Core editing makes no outbound requests.

Not ready to point it at your own files? Start a sample vault that is deleted when Quire stops:

```
npx quiredocs --demo
```

Plenty of tools do two of these. Quire is the one that does all three.

|  | Multiplayer | Agent-native | Plain files | 
|---|---|---|---|
| Notion · Outline · Docmost · HedgeDoc | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | 
| Obsidian · SilverBullet · Logseq | ❌ | ~ | ✅ | 
| [SoloMD](https://github.com/zhitongblog/solomd) | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | 
| [CollabMD](https://github.com/andes90/collabmd) | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | 
| **Quire** | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | 

The difference that matters: in Quire the agent is a peer in the *same CRDT session* you are typing
in — visible cursor, attributed spans, separately revertable — rather than a batch process whose
diff you read afterwards.

[Google Docs can import and export Markdown](https://support.google.com/docs/answer/12014036?hl=en),
and other cloud editors offer similar conversion workflows. That is useful when the cloud document
is the workspace. Quire is for the opposite workflow: the files in your local folder stay
authoritative while people, agents, external editors, and git can all work with them.

|  | Cloud Markdown import/export | **Quire** | 
|---|---|---|
| Source of truth | A converted cloud document | The original local `.md` file | 
| File workflow | Import, collaborate, export | Edit in place with continuous filesystem sync | 
| External tools | Reconcile after export | Changes from editors and git merge into the live session | 
| AI collaboration | Assistant output inside a document | MCP agents with presence, attribution, policies, suggestions, and author-specific revert | 
| Account and hosting | Provider account and cloud service | No Quire account; localhost by default | 

Quire does not claim that every renderer interprets every Markdown extension identically. It does
keep syntax-rich Markdown as source text, and the release suite checks a fixture containing YAML
frontmatter, task lists, tables, fenced code, Mermaid, wiki-links, footnotes, raw HTML, and comments
for byte-for-byte stability through an unchanged editing session. The same fixture changed by 22
inserted and 30 deleted lines after an untouched Google Docs import/export round trip; see the
[reproducible comparison](/heetdalsania/quire/blob/main/docs/markdown-roundtrip.md), including what Google preserved.

| **Live co-editing** | Multiple browsers on one file, remote cursors and selections, offline-tolerant reconnect | 
| **Plain files** | The filesystem is the source of truth. Edit in vim or `git pull` mid-session and it merges as a delta, not an overwrite | 
| **Agents as peers** | An MCP endpoint lets Claude Code (or any MCP client) join the *same CRDT session* — not rewrite files behind your back | 
| **Attribution** | Every span carries its author. Toggle **Authors** to tint text by who wrote it | 
| **Suggest mode** | Agent edits can be proposed rather than applied. They show inline, and never reach disk until accepted | 
| **Revert by author** | Remove one agent's contributions without touching the paragraph you wrote beside them | 
| **Comments** | Anchored to text ranges, survive concurrent edits, and are flagged rather than dropped when their anchor is deleted | 
| **Wiki-links** | `[[links]]` , backlinks panel, unresolved links flagged | 
| **Search** | ripgrep-backed, with an in-process fallback | 
| **Mermaid** | Rendered in the live preview | 
| **Git snapshots** | Optional `--git` restore points commit only Markdown paths Quire changed; snapshots are off by default | 
| **Discover** | Browse widely-used Markdown — agent configs, skills, conventions — and add it to your vault with provenance recorded. An index, not a host: files come from their own repositories | 
| **Durable collaboration** | Authorship, comments, provenance and policy persist in `.quire/state/` and survive a restart. The Markdown stays clean; delete the directory and you lose only the collaboration layer | 
| **Themes** | Sixteen colourways — Paper, Ink, Nord, Gruvbox, Solarized, Dracula, Tokyo Night, Catppuccin, Everforest, Monokai, Sepia, Terminal, and classic light and dark. Contrast is corrected per theme and asserted in tests | 
| **Live updates** | Files created by an agent, by Discover, or by another tool appear immediately | 
| **Provenance receipts** | One click turns a document into a shareable page: how much a person wrote, how much an agent did, which suggestions were accepted, and a replay of it being written. Self-contained HTML — no server, no account, works offline | 
| **Review requests** | Send a link with a brief. The reviewer comments without an account, and comment-only is enforced by the server rather than by hiding the editor | 
| **Suggesting mode** | People get the same suggest mode agents have. Your edits become proposals and stay off disk until accepted | 
| **Share links** | Capability links scoped to a file or the vault, with view / comment / edit. View is enforced server-side | 
| **Export** | Markdown, self-contained HTML, plain text, copy-with-formatting for pasting into Docs, and print or save as PDF | 
| **Typography** | Prose and editor typefaces, size, leading, measure, theme, and a focus mode. Display only — never a byte of the file | 
| **GitHub search** | Search GitHub from Discover for anything the curated index misses, then pick which Markdown file to bring across | 
| **Adjustable panels** | Drag any divider, double-click to reset. Each panel closes from its own corner and leaves a stub to reopen it — sidebar (Cmd+), source (Cmd+Shift+E), comments (Cmd+Shift+). Sizes persist | 

Keep Quire running, then add its local MCP server to the client you use. These commands download the published Quire package from npm; they do not require a Quire account or credential.

```
claude mcp add quire -- npx -y -p quiredocs@latest quire-mcp \
  --url http://127.0.0.1:4321 --name "Claude Code"
```

On native Windows, put `cmd /c` before `npx`:

```
claude mcp add quire -- cmd /c npx -y -p quiredocs@latest quire-mcp --url http://127.0.0.1:4321 --name "Claude Code"
codex mcp add quire -- npx -y -p quiredocs@latest quire-mcp \
  --url http://127.0.0.1:4321 --name Codex
```

Add this to `.cursor/mcp.json` in the project where Cursor should use Quire:

```
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "quire": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "-p", "quiredocs@latest", "quire-mcp",
        "--url", "http://127.0.0.1:4321",
        "--name", "Cursor"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

Restart or reload the client after adding Quire. The AI client may require its own account or paid plan; that is separate from Quire, which remains free and local.

Tools: `list_documents`, `read_document`, `edit_document` (with `suggest`), `append_document`,
`list_suggestions`, `list_comments`, `add_comment`, `search_vault`.

The agent gets a presence identity and a cursor. You can type straight through its edits — CRDTs make that a non-event.

Quire is open source under AGPL-3.0-or-later, and the npm package is built from this
repository. The package has no runtime dependency downloads and no `preinstall`, `install`, or
`postinstall` hooks. Its `prepublishOnly` script is a maintainer-side release check; npm does not
run it when somebody installs Quire.

What Quire can do on a user's computer:

| Surface | Default | Exact behavior | 
|---|---|---|
| **Files** | On | Reads Markdown under the folder passed on the command line. Writes edited Markdown, collaboration state in `.quire/state/` , and`quire.lock` when a Discover item is added. Paths outside the chosen folder are rejected | 
| **Git** | Off | `--git` enables local snapshots. Quire commits only Markdown paths it changed and does not push, pull, alter remotes, or include unrelated staged work | 
| **Network** | Core editing is offline | Discover contacts `api.github.com` and`raw.githubusercontent.com` only after a person searches, previews, or installs. Direct peer setup contacts Google's public STUN service only after a person chooses that command; document bytes then travel over encrypted WebRTC directly between peers, with no Quire relay | 
| **Code execution** | Off | `--allow-exec` permits a person to run a selected fenced block as their own OS user. Nothing runs when a document opens, and execution is refused when Quire is bound beyond loopback | 
| **Agents** | Disconnected | An MCP client receives vault read/edit tools only after the user starts `quire-mcp` and points it at the local server. Connect only agents you trust with that folder | 
| **Sharing** | Local only | Share links are capabilities served by the running Quire process. Quire does not upload the vault or operate a hosted relay | 

Quire has no analytics, advertising SDK, auto-updater, credential prompt, background service, or
payment integration. Discover does not read or forward `GITHUB_TOKEN`. Third-party Markdown added
through Discover is data, not executable code, but agent instruction files can influence an agent
that later reads them; inspect imported content before relying on it.

The server serves only its own origin and rejects cross-origin browser requests. **There is no
authentication**, so treat `--host 0.0.0.0` as "anyone who can reach this port can read and edit the
vault." The complete threat model and limitations are in [SECURITY.md](/heetdalsania/quire/blob/main/SECURITY.md).

Quire itself is free to download, run, self-host, and publish as a public npm package. It requires no paid Quire infrastructure. Your computer, internet connection, and any AI provider you connect are separate: Claude, OpenAI, a hosted VM, a domain, a tunnel, Codespaces, or a larger CI runner may charge under that provider's own plan. None is required for local Quire.

```
docker compose up --build
```

The container binds to `127.0.0.1` deliberately. Quire has no authentication, so anyone who
can reach the port can read and edit every document — read [SECURITY.md](/heetdalsania/quire/blob/main/SECURITY.md)
before widening that.

Questions and ideas belong in [Discussions](https://github.com/heetdalsania/quire/discussions).
Use the [issue tracker](https://github.com/heetdalsania/quire/issues) for reproducible bugs and
planned features, and read [CONTRIBUTING.md](/heetdalsania/quire/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) before opening a pull request.
If Quire solves a problem you care about, starring the repository helps other people find it.

- General questions and feedback: [GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/heetdalsania/quire/discussions)
- Bug reports: [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/heetdalsania/quire/issues)
- Security vulnerabilities: [report privately](https://github.com/heetdalsania/quire/security/advisories/new)

| File | What's in it | 
|---|---|
| [CONTRIBUTING.md](/heetdalsania/quire/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) | Development setup, verification, and architecture invariants | 
| [SECURITY.md](/heetdalsania/quire/blob/main/SECURITY.md) | Threat model and known limitations | 
| [RELEASING.md](/heetdalsania/quire/blob/main/RELEASING.md) | How to build, verify and publish a release | 
| [CHANGELOG.md](/heetdalsania/quire/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md) | What is in each version | 
| [docs/markdown-roundtrip.md](/heetdalsania/quire/blob/main/docs/markdown-roundtrip.md) | Reproducible Quire and Google Docs Markdown fidelity comparison | 
| [tools/recorder](/heetdalsania/quire/blob/main/tools/recorder) | Regenerates `docs/demo.gif` from the real app | 

The entire repository and the bundled `quiredocs` distribution are licensed under
AGPL-3.0-or-later. Quire does not currently publish a separate permissive SDK.