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Vulkan Glass

Every save is a commit.

Vulkan Glass is a free and open-source Markdown notes app for macOS. Each vault is a GitHub repository you own, so every note keeps its full history and syncs to every Mac you write on.

Free for macOS 14 or later. Signed and notarized by Apple.

Writing is telepathy

Writing is telepathy

#evergreen

Writing is a way of transferring a thought from one mind to another, across time.

From On Writing and Evergreen Notes. See also Philosophy.

Why it matters

  • Ideas survive longer than conversation
  • First Principles keep the argument honest
  • A little bit every day compounds
Synced to GitHubmain51 words

~/Notes git log --oneline

  1. 7c41e2a (HEAD -> main, origin/main) Update Writing is telepathy
  2. 3f9d0b8 Rename Untitled to First Principles
  3. b21e6c4 Update Philosophy
  4. e58a1f7 Update Evergreen Notes
  5. 90c3d52 Create vault

That window is a working copy of the editor. Add a bullet, then stop typing. After 1.8 seconds the note is committed and pushed, and the git log gets a new entry. Press ⌘S to sync straight away.

What happens when you stop typing

Autosync is on by default. When you pause for 1.8 seconds, Vulkan Glass runs the same git commands you would. Press ⌘S to sync right away. Renaming a note is committed too, as “Rename Untitled to First Principles”.

  1. Write the file

    The note is saved as a plain .md file in your vault folder. Nothing proprietary, no database.

    Writing is telepathy.md
  2. Commit

    Everything that changed is staged and committed, with the note's title in the message.

    git commit -m "Update Writing is telepathy"
  3. Pull with rebase

    Edits from your other Macs come down first, so your new commit lands on top of them.

    git pull --rebase --autostash
  4. Push

    The commit goes up to GitHub and the status bar changes to Synced to GitHub.

    git push -u origin main

If git can’t reapply your changes cleanly, sync stops and names the files in conflict. Resolve them and the next save carries on. Vulkan Glass never picks a side for you and never force-pushes.

A layout you already know

If you’ve used Obsidian, you can find your way around. There’s a ribbon on the left, your files beside it, the editor in the middle, and backlinks and graph on the right.

Writing

Live preview
Markdown renders as you type, and the syntax comes back when your cursor is on the line. ⌘E switches to a clean reading view.
Tables you can edit in place
GitHub-flavored tables line up as you type. Hover to add a row or column, or use ⌥⌘↓ and ⌥⌘→.
Callouts, tasks and code
GitHub alerts like [!TIP] and [!WARNING], task lists, footnotes, and highlighted code blocks for Swift, Python, TypeScript, Rust, Go, SQL and more.
Paste from anywhere
Copy from a web page or a document and paste Markdown, with headings, links, emphasis and tables intact.

Linking

Wiki links
Type [[ and pick a note from the suggestions. Link to a note that doesn’t exist yet, and following the link creates it.
Backlinks, outline and tags
The right sidebar shows which notes link here, the headings in this note, and every tag in the vault with a count.
Graph view
⌘G draws the whole vault as a graph you can pan, zoom and rearrange. The sidebar keeps a local graph of the note you’re in.
Daily notes
⌘D opens today’s note in your Daily folder, creating it the first time.

On your Mac

Native SwiftUI
A real Mac app with a real menu bar. It follows your system’s light or dark appearance and quits cleanly with unsaved work written to disk.
Quick Look in Finder
Select any .md file in Finder and press Space to see it rendered, without opening an app.
Single files too
Open a Markdown file that isn’t in a vault with ⇧⌘O. It’s saved where it is, with no git involved.
Uses your GitHub login
If you’re signed in with the GitHub CLI, Vulkan Glass uses that. Otherwise add a personal access token and it’s kept in your macOS Keychain.

Keep your hands on the keys

Everything is in the menu bar with its shortcut next to it, so you can learn them as you go.

New note
N
Save and sync
S
Quick switcher
O
Command palette
P
Search in vault
F
Today’s daily note
D
Toggle reading view
E
Graph view
G
Bold
B
Italic
I
Link
K
Heading 1, 2 or 3
1

Download it, then pick a vault

Vulkan Glass is free and MIT-licensed. It needs macOS 14 or later, and the download is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens like any other Mac app.

  1. Download the disk image

  2. Drag Vulkan Glass into Applications

    Open VulkanGlass.dmg and drag the app onto the Applications folder.
  3. Open it and choose where your notes live

    Pick one of the three options on the Welcome screen.

You only do this once. New versions arrive through the app’s built-in updater.

  • Create GitHub vault

    Makes a new private or public repository on your account and opens it.

  • Clone GitHub vault

    Pick one of your repositories and use it as a vault.

  • Open local repository

    Use a folder you already have, as long as it has a GitHub remote.

Prefer to build it yourself?

The source is on GitHub. With Xcode and mise installed, this builds a Release copy and puts it in /Applications.

$ git clone https://github.com/arkaydeustech/vulkanglass.git
$ cd vulkanglass
$ mise run setup
$ mise run install