{"slug": "show-hn-memo-a-local-first-scratchpad-for-developers-who-live-in-the-terminal", "title": "Show HN: Memo – a local-first scratchpad for developers who live in the terminal", "summary": "Black Star Designs released Memo, a local-first scratchpad for developers that runs entirely on the user's machine, with no cloud, account, or telemetry. The tool, available as a single binary for macOS, Linux, and Windows, features AI-powered refinement via MLX or Ollama and speech-to-text via whisper.cpp, ensuring notes never leave the device. Memo is open source and installable via a one-command script.", "body_md": "Private by design: no cloud, no account, no telemetry. Your notes are plain Markdown files that never leave your machine, and the AI runs there too.\n\n`curl -fsSL https://blackstardesigns.github.io/memo/install.sh | sh`\n\nMid-debug idea, standup notes, a TODO from a code review: jot it in the next pane over. Everything runs on your machine: the editor, the AI, the speech model.\n\nThere is no server to trust, no account to create, no telemetry to opt out of. Refinement and dictation run on your hardware, and your notes are files in your home directory. Nothing ever leaves your machine, because there's nowhere for it to go.\n\nPress `n`\n\n, type, done. Vim-adjacent muscle memory, folders, search, and export; no mouse required, no Electron in sight.\n\n`Ctrl+R`\n\ncleans up grammar and adds Markdown structure using a model on *your* machine (MLX or Ollama). The original is always kept, side by side.\n\nHold `F5`\n\nfor push-to-talk, double-press for continuous listening. Speech-to-text runs locally via whisper.cpp: nothing leaves your device.\n\nYAML frontmatter, atomic saves, fully portable. `grep`\n\nthem, pipe them, commit them to a repo: your notes are readable in any editor, forever.\n\nIt's just a TUI in a shell: drop it in a tmux pane, a zellij tab, an SSH session, or Warp. If your setup renders a terminal, memo already works there.\n\nNo daemon, no background sync, no runtime to install. A single fast binary for macOS, Linux, and Windows that starts before you finish the thought.\n\nType `/`\n\nat the start of a line, or `Ctrl+O`\n\nfrom anywhere in it, and search as you type. Drop in a to-do, callout, link, heading, or hidden comment, or fire an action like *Change title* and *Refine note*. `Ctrl+L`\n\nticks a to-do off without reaching for the palette at all.\n\nOne command installs memo and sets up a local AI backend for you. Read the script first if you like; [it's open source](https://github.com/blackstardesigns/memo/blob/main/install.sh), like everything else here.\n\nOn Apple Silicon the installer sets up MLX; on Intel Macs and Linux it uses [Ollama](https://ollama.com). Prefer a manual install? Grab a [prebuilt binary](https://github.com/blackstardesigns/memo/releases).\n\nRequires Rust, CMake, and a C/C++ compiler: `whisper-rs`\n\ncompiles whisper.cpp at build time. See [the docs](docs.html#build-from-source).\n\nNew note. Start typing your rough thought.\n\nRefine it with AI: grammar fixed, structure added.\n\nFlip between your original and the refined version.\n\nBack to the list, already autosaved. Back to your code.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-memo-a-local-first-scratchpad-for-developers-who-live-in-the-terminal", "canonical_source": "https://blackstardesigns.github.io/memo/", "published_at": "2026-08-28 07:24:36+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-28 07:48:23.720311+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["developer-tools", "ai-tools", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Black Star Designs", "Memo", "MLX", "Ollama", "whisper.cpp"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-memo-a-local-first-scratchpad-for-developers-who-live-in-the-terminal", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-memo-a-local-first-scratchpad-for-developers-who-live-in-the-terminal.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-memo-a-local-first-scratchpad-for-developers-who-live-in-the-terminal.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-memo-a-local-first-scratchpad-for-developers-who-live-in-the-terminal.jsonld"}}