GitPad

A notes workspace inside VS Code. Folders, rich text, search and trash — in the sidebar, next to your code.

Your notes are plain markdown files in a folder you choose. No account, no database, no export button, because there is nothing proprietary to export from.

Install from the VS Code Marketplace

Or from the command line:

code --install-extension YahyaShareef.gitpad

What it does today

• Rich text editing. Type # and get a heading, not a hash. Headings, tables, code blocks, checklists, callouts — a document to write in, a markdown file on disk.
• A vault you pick. Point GitPad at any folder. It only ever shows its own .pad files, so a vault inside a code project does not fill up with source.
• Folders and trash. Soft delete, and restore puts a note back in the folder it came from — even if that folder was deleted too.
• Ranked full-text search. Title matches beat body matches.
• Themes for free. Every colour resolves from VS Code's own variables, so light, dark, high-contrast and third-party themes all work.

What it does not do yet

• Git sync. It is the next phase and the reason for the name: clone or create a private repo, auto-commit shortly after you stop typing, and conflict handling that never discards content.
• Wikilinks ([[note]]). Built and tested, but disabled — renames and deletes have cases still worth getting right before it ships.
• Image uploads. Images are external URLs only.
• Boards and flowcharts. Phase 3.

Version 0.1.0 is the local half, and deliberately honest about being early.

Getting started

1. Install, then open the GitPad view in the activity bar.
2. Create a vault, or open a folder you already keep notes in.
3. New note. The filename is the title — there is no separate title field to drift out of sync with it.

Notes are .pad files containing plain markdown. The custom extension exists so GitPad never claims ownership of anyone else's .md files; the contents are ordinary markdown either way.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Two documents are worth reading first:

• docs/IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md — the design, and the reasoning behind each non-obvious choice.
• docs/PROGRESS.md — what is actually built, and what is still open.

Development

npm install
npm run compile          # build extension + webviews
npm run watch            # rebuild on save
npm run typecheck        # esbuild does not typecheck; this does
npm run lint             # includes the architectural boundary rule
npm test                 # unit tests — milliseconds, no editor
npm run test:integration # boots a real VS Code — seconds
npm run package          # build the .vsix

Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host.

Licence

GitPad is MIT licensed and free permanently — not free-tier. See LICENSE.

That is a design constraint, not just a licence: dependencies whose features sit behind a paid plan are rejected during review, because a dependency that can start charging is a dependency that can break the promise.

Third-party

Icons are Codicons by Microsoft, licensed CC BY 4.0.