obim

Give your thinking room.

A local-first desktop workspace that keeps your Markdown notes, PDFs, tasks, and Git history together — in plain files that stay yours.

Your folder is your workspace

Open any folder and make yourself at home. Your notes, papers, and tasks live on your computer, in files you can read and use beyond obim.

There is no proprietary database holding your work:

• Notes stay plain .md Markdown — open them in any other editor, anytime
• PDFs stay PDFs, untouched
• A task is a Markdown note with a small YAML header, not a row in a hidden store
• obim's internal index and board layout are derived, disposable state — your files remain the source of truth

Read side by side

A paper and a place to think, next to each other.

• Built-in PDF reader with text selection and copying, document search, outline navigation, page links, zoom, and spread display
• Import articles straight into the workspace with a DOI, doi.org URL, arXiv identifier, or arXiv link — the PDF lands in your workspace as an ordinary file
• Keep the spark and its source — select a passage, pick a color, and paste a Markdown link into a note that reopens the exact page and re-emphasizes the exact selection
• Referenced in shows every note that links to the same passage, so you can jump between your highlights and your thinking

Write in Markdown

Room for a sentence, an equation, or a working explanation — and it all stays in an ordinary Markdown file.

• WYSIWYG-style editor with live inline preview: headings, tables, callouts, KaTeX equations, checklists, and links render as you write
• Tabs and split panes keep a note, its source PDF, and the board in view at once
• Command menu, workspace search, bookmarks, and recent files for fast navigation

Built-in Git, local by default

Keep the path you took.

• Review changes, browse file history, and return to an earlier version of a note
• Git history can stay entirely local
• Connect your own remote when you want to sync, with optional automatic sync

Download

Grab an installer for your platform from the v0.9.0-beta-1 release:

Platform	Artifact
macOS	.dmg
Windows	obim-*-setup.exe
Linux	.AppImage, .deb

Opening obim on macOS

The current beta is not signed with an Apple Developer ID or notarized by Apple, so macOS may block it on first launch. If you trust the release downloaded from this repository:

1. Download the arm64.dmg for Apple Silicon or the x64.dmg for an Intel Mac.
2. Open the disk image, drag obim into Applications, and try opening it.
3. If macOS blocks it because the developer cannot be verified or Apple cannot check it, dismiss the alert and open System Settings → Privacy & Security.
4. Scroll to Security, click Open Anyway for obim, and confirm Open. Authenticate if prompted.

macOS saves this approval for the app, so subsequent launches can open normally. See Apple’s instructions for opening an unnotarized app for more detail.

Build from source

You need Node 26.7.0 (see .nvmrc) and pnpm 11.19.0.

git clone https://github.com/Coderbeep/obim.git
cd obim
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile

# Run in development mode
pnpm run dev

Package an installer for your platform:

pnpm run build:mac    # macOS
pnpm run build:win    # Windows
pnpm run build:linux  # Linux

Before contributing changes, run the full correctness gate — type checks, ESLint, and the Vitest suite:

pnpm run verify

Tip: pnpm run design-graph opens a renderer-only component and state catalog for isolated visual inspection.

License

MIT © Coderbeep

Thanks to Maciej Janicki for contributions to obim. Bundled Manrope and Outfit fonts retain their SIL Open Font License notices in resources/brand.

Your files. Your history. Room to think.