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Tolaria: a files-first Markdown app for Mac designed for Git workflows and AI agents
Tolaria is a free, open-source desktop app for macOS and Linux built by Luca Rossi, the author of the Refactoring newsletter. Rossi created Tolaria to manage his own collection of 10,000+ notes.
That origin story matters. The feature set feels like it grew out of solving real problems for a real workflow; not something assembled by a product manager or stitched together from an AI roadmap.
At its core, Tolaria is a very 2026-style Markdown editor; modern, opinionated, and not trying to clone Notion or compete head-on with Obsidian.
The sweet-spot user is someone who:
- Already lives in Markdown and Git
- Is experimenting with tools like Claude Code or other AI agents in their daily workflow
- Wants their knowledge base to be part of their AI context instead of isolated from it
- Treats data portability as a non-negotiable requirement
Tolaria’s Core Principles
These are deliberate design choices from the developer.
Files-first.
Notes are plain .md files on disk. No proprietary database; no export step. Open them in BBEdit, Obsidian, Vim, or anything else that understands Markdown.
Git-first.
Every vault is a Git repository. You get full version history and can push to any remote you like. There are no Tolaria servers; the app doesn’t depend on one.
That alone sets it apart from a lot of the field.
Offline-first, zero lock-in.
No account. No subscription. The vault works completely offline.
Open source (AGPL-3.0).
The code lives on GitHub. You can read it, fork it, and run your own build if you want.
What It’s Not
Tolaria is not trying to be Notion.
There’s no relational database layer, no property-driven schemas, and no team collaboration platform. That trade-off is intentional; those features usually come with heavier infrastructure and less portability.
It also doesn’t have anything close to Obsidian’s plugin ecosystem. If your workflow depends on dozens of community plugins, Tolaria probably isn’t ready to replace Obsidian yet. It’s a younger, more focused tool.
Another practical detail: it runs on Mac and Linux only; there’s no Windows version. For some people that’s a dealbreaker. For others, it’s perfectly fine.
AI Support and Integration
This is where Tolaria earns its “second brain for the AI era” tagline.
Instead of bolting on a chat sidebar, the app treats your knowledge vault as something AI agents can actually work with.
Tolaria includes built-in support for tools like Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Gemini CLI. It automatically generates a shared AGENTS.md file in the vault root. That file explains the structure and conventions of your notes, and every supported AI tool reads the same one.
The practical benefit: you maintain a single source of truth for how your vault is organized instead of writing separate instructions for each model you’re experimenting with.
Tolaria also runs a local MCP (Model Context Protocol) server. When you connect an external AI tool, your vault is registered as a structured context source that the agent can query directly.
Most “AI-enabled” note apps just add a chat window. Tolaria takes a different approach: it lets AI agents navigate and operate on the vault itself using standard protocols.
There are also vault-level permission modes, so agents don’t automatically get full write access to your notes.
Power-User Bonus Feature
Tolaria clearly targets people who prefer keyboards over mice.
The Command Palette is central to the workflow, and the editor is designed around keyboard navigation. If you spend time in tools like Raycast, Keyboard Maestro, or VS Code, the design philosophy will feel familiar.
This is the difference between a command palette that drives the interface and one that feels bolted on as an afterthought.
Availability and Pricing
Tolaria is free and open source.
You can download it from tolaria.md or build it yourself from the GitHub repository.
No subscription. No account. No catch.
Hat tip to Labnotes for once again, being the first to write about a new tool