DRIP 🧠

Plain-text notes. Structured thinking. Zero AI required.

DRIP is a note-taking and project-tracking workspace that lives inside VS Code. Capture a thought in seconds, file it into a project → feature → issue structure, and find it again instantly. Every note is plain text on your disk, everything runs locally, and none of the core experience needs an LLM, a cloud account, or an API key.

Your knowledge, your files, your machine — no lock-in, no cloud, no AI in the way.

Why DRIP?

Notes and ideas have a way of piling up — scattered across loose files, chat threads, and sticky notes — until you can't find the one thing you're looking for. DRIP gives that a home:

• 🧩 Everything has a place — ideas are organized into projects, features, and issues, so you always know what exists and what's next.
• 📝 Plain text, always yours — notes are readable .d.txt / .d.md files in a folder on your disk. No proprietary format, no database you can't open.
• ⚡ Capture in a keystroke — grab a selection or your clipboard into a note without leaving the editor.
• 🔎 Find anything in seconds — a local index makes search, sorting, and backlinks instant.
• 🚫 No AI required — the whole workflow is local and private. Optional AI layers exist, but they're off by default and never a prerequisite.

✨ What you get

📥 Effortless capture

• Quick Capture (Ctrl+U) opens the Composer to draft a note in seconds.
• Capture selection / clipboard (Ctrl+Shift+U) sends text straight from your editor.
• DRIP suggests the best place for a note — merge, append, or a new heading — so filing takes one click, not a decision.

🗂️ Structured knowledge, not a junk drawer

• A Knowledge Base folder tree with drag-drop, filtering, and full create/rename/delete.
• Projects → Features → Issues, a Linear-style hierarchy so work is grouped the way you actually think about it.
• Notes carry metadata, tags, and relations with stable IDs that survive renames — links don't break.

🏷️ Connected by design

• A Tags graph shows how notes relate to each other.
• Backlinks and references keep related notes one hop away.
• Daily Notes, Drafts, and Recents make day-to-day jotting frictionless.

✍️ A real writing experience

• A rich Markdown editor for .d.md files with DRIP-aware rendering of metadata and tags.
• Colored, structured headings for .d.txt notes with autocomplete, diagnostics, and quick fixes.

🔒 Local & private

• A fast local SQLite index — nothing leaves your machine.
• Semantic search, always on — DRIP embeds your notes with a free local model, so you can find content by meaning, not just exact words. No API key, no cloud, no cost.
• GitHub backup — one-click push/pull of your whole KB when you want a remote copy.
• Optional AI extras — an LLM chat with memory and a local MCP server so any AI app can manage issues. Both off by default, and the core experience never needs them.

🚀 Getting started

1. Install DRIP from the VS Code Marketplace.
2. Open the DRIP activity bar (the notebook icon on the left).
3. Click Select Knowledge Base and choose a .driplock folder.
4. Create notes, projects, and features from the New menu.
5. Press Ctrl+U to capture a thought, or Ctrl+Shift+U to grab a selection.

That's it — your first note is already filed and searchable.

⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts

📦 Why plain text?

Your knowledge outlives any app. Because DRIP stores everything as plain .d.txt and .d.md files, you can read, edit, or migrate your notes with any tool — even without DRIP installed. DRIP adds structure and speed on top, but it never owns your data.