Works with
Connect an AI in a minute
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Download the Mac app and sign in with Apple or email.
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Add the server to your AI:
ChatGPT or Claude: add a custom connector with the address
https://mcp.pintonotes.com.Claude Code:
claude mcp add --scope user --transport http pinto-notes https://mcp.pintonotes.comOr install the plugin, which adds a skill that tells Claude how your notes are laid out:
claude plugin marketplace add pinto-notes/pinto-notes claude plugin install amber-notesCodex:
codex mcp add pinto-notes --url https://mcp.pintonotes.comGemini CLI:
gemini extensions install https://github.com/pinto-notes/pinto-notes -
Approve it in Pinto Notes on your iPhone or Mac, and choose read only or read and edit.
Then try "find my Lisbon note and add a day in Sintra". The plugin keeps its old id, amber-notes, because renaming it would break existing installs.
What it does
- AI edits you can see and undo. Whatever an assistant writes is tinted and labeled with its name, and one tap undoes it.
- Version history. Every change keeps the previous version, with who made it: you on iPhone, you on Mac, or which AI.
- A note can also be an app. Ask your AI to turn a note into a small app, like a habit tracker you tick each day or a budget that adds itself up. The note's text stays underneath.
- Apple Notes import on the Mac, and Evernote (.enex), Google Keep (Takeout) and Markdown or text imports on the Mac and iPhone, bring your notes over.
- Sync between iPhone and Mac in about half a second.
- End-to-end encrypted. Notes are sealed on your devices before upload. How AI access works with that is under Privacy and security.
- Free and open source, MIT licensed.
New versions ship most days. Star the repo to follow along, and see Releases or the changelog for what changed.
Features in detail
- Apple Notes layout and behaviour. Folders, a note list grouped by date, pinning, search, multi-select, Recently Deleted. When in doubt, it does what Notes does.
- Markdown underneath, formatted on screen. Headings, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, code, quotes, links. The markdown syntax stays out of sight.
- Lists like Notes. Checklists (ticked items slide to the bottom), bulleted (
*), dashed (-) and numbered lists. Return continues a list, Tab nests it. - Tables you edit cell by cell.
- Sub-notes. Link a note inside another, like a folder inside a page.
- Files and images inside a note: paste, drag in, or attach. PDFs open in Quick Look.
- Live sync. Typing on one device shows up on the others in about half a second. Edits made on two devices at once are never silently lost.
- Share a note as a web page with a private link, and stop sharing at any time.
- AI access over MCP. Connect ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code or Codex. You approve every connection inside the app and pick read-only or read-and-edit. Every change an assistant makes keeps the previous version.
- Apple Notes import on the Mac, and a menu bar item for quick capture.
- Evernote import. Each exported notebook (.enex) becomes a folder, with checklists, tables, images, PDFs, dates and tags kept. Importing the same export again skips what's already here.
- Google Keep import. From a Google Takeout download: text and checklists, labels as folders or tags, pins, dates and images. Archived notes come only if you ask, into an Archive folder.
- Markdown or text import. A folder or .zip from Obsidian, Notion, Bear, Joplin, Logseq, Simplenote or Standard Notes: subfolders become folders, linked images and files come along, front-matter dates and tags are kept, and [[wiki links]] keep leading to the notes they name.
- Private by default. Sign in with Apple or email. No ads and no tracking. The app sends error reports and a few usage counts, never your notes, and one switch turns that off (what it sends); the website counts visits without cookies. Delete your account from Settings.
How it's built
The Xcode project is generated from project.yml with XcodeGen. Folder and target names still say "Pane", the app's working name.
Build from source
You need macOS 26 with Xcode 26, Homebrew, and Docker (for the local Supabase stack). A fresh clone runs entirely on your machine.
brew install xcodegen supabase/tap/supabase deno pnpm
git clone https://github.com/pinto-notes/pinto-notes.git
cd pinto-notes
supabase start # local Postgres, Auth, Storage and Functions on ports 56420–56429
xcodegen generate
open Pane.xcodeproj # run the "Pane" scheme on "My Mac" or an iPhone simulator
The app talks to the local stack through Config/Backend.xcconfig, which carries Supabase's standard local-only development key. To point your builds at a real project, create Config/Backend.local.xcconfig (gitignored) with your own PANE_SUPABASE_URL, PANE_SUPABASE_KEY and PANE_SHARE_URL.
Running on a physical device needs your own Apple team. Change DEVELOPMENT_TEAM in project.yml, and the bundle ids if you like.
Tests
scripts/qa-test.sh # Mac unit and interaction tests
scripts/prepush.sh --tests # before a push: compiles what ships, runs the suites you touched
deno test --allow-all supabase/functions/mcp/notes.test.ts
scripts/mcp-e2e.sh # MCP end-to-end, against the local stack
scripts/share-e2e.sh # share links end-to-end, against the local stack
(cd web && pnpm install && pnpm test && pnpm build) # share site
The interaction tests drive the real editor in an offscreen window, so they never move your mouse or take focus.
Run your own backend
Everything the app needs runs on one Supabase project:
- Create a project at supabase.com and put a personal access token in
.envasSUPABASE_ACCESS_TOKEN=sbp_…. - Run
scripts/deploy-backend.sh <project-ref>. It links the project, applies the migrations, deploys the functions, pushes the auth settings, and writesConfig/Backend.local.xcconfig. - For share links, deploy
web/to any Next.js host and setPANE_SHARE_URLto it.
Connect an AI
In the app, open Settings → Connect an AI and follow the steps for your client. ChatGPT and Claude get a plain server address, https://mcp.pintonotes.com, and ask Pinto Notes for permission through OAuth: a page on pintonotes.com opens, where you answer in the app or sign in and answer on the web. Claude Code and Codex get a command with a revocable token. The app may still show the older address, https://mcp.ambernotes.app; it is the same server and keeps working. Connections are listed in Settings, where you can disconnect each one.
Privacy and security
- End-to-end encryption. Each account has one random 256-bit key, made on your first device and kept as a synced Keychain item, so iCloud Keychain carries it to your other iPhone or Mac. Note bodies, titles, folder names, files and old versions are sealed with AES-256-GCM before upload. The server holds no key.
- AI connections. When you approve an AI, the app wraps your key under the OAuth authorization code; at the token exchange it is rewrapped under the access and refresh tokens, and the server keeps only token hashes. Disconnecting deletes the wrap.
- The honest limit. During an AI request the server decrypts the notes that request needs, in memory. Notes you lock with the notes password stay out of reach, because that key isn't on the server. Dates, sizes, folder structure and which notes are locked stay readable. If you lose every device, have iCloud Keychain off and never saved the recovery key, nobody can open the notes.
- The full design: docs/Technical/e2ee-design.md.
- Row-level security applies to the app, the AI server and direct API calls alike, on top of the encryption.
- AI tokens are stored as hashes and can be read-only.
- Shared pages are public to anyone with the link. The app warns before creating one, and a page stops working the moment you stop sharing.
- Privacy policy · Security policy
Thanks
Everyone who has had a pull request merged, in the order they joined:
- @wufangyong973: brought the website's README up to date (#97)
- @arnavtambe: removed an unused field from the app's connections (#109)
- @sameer-dhande: made each help answer announce its own question to screen readers (#170) and named the table's row and column handles for VoiceOver (#176)
Want to be next? CONTRIBUTING.md has where to start, and ideas of your own are welcome in Discussions.
License
MIT. Made by Emil Wagman at Incredible.