Lightweight local note-taking — create, organize, and browse Markdown and plain-text notes in folders directly inside VS Code. No cloud sync, no authentication, no distractions.
Installation
Launch VS Code Quick Open (Ctrl+P), paste the following command, and press enter.
Lightweight local note-taking built as a VS Code extension. Create and organize Markdown, plain-text, and any other file type in folders — directly inside VS Code. No cloud sync, no authentication, no external services.
Features
Sidebar panel — dedicated activity bar icon with a full notes tree
Any file type — .md, .txt, .json, .csv, or anything else
Folder organization — unlimited nesting to group notes by project or topic
Markdown preview — right-click any .md file → Preview for rendered view
Full file operations — rename, duplicate, move, export, reveal in Explorer, copy path
Live sync — tree auto-refreshes when files change on disk
Purely local — notes live wherever you point the extension on your filesystem
Getting Started
Click the AltNote icon in the activity bar
Click Set Notes Folder and pick a local directory (e.g. ~/Documents/notes)
Use the + button to create your first note
Usage
Creating notes
+ button (panel header) — new note at the root; prompts for filename including extension (e.g. standup.md, config.json)
Folder icon (panel header) — new folder at the root
Hover a folder → inline + to create a note inside it
File operations (right-click any file)
Action
Description
Rename
Rename including extension
Preview
(.md only) Open rendered Markdown preview
Duplicate
Copy in the same folder as name copy.md
Move to Folder…
Pick any folder in your notes tree
Export / Save As…
Copy the file to any location on disk
Reveal in Explorer
Open the containing folder in your file manager
Copy Path
Copy the full filesystem path to clipboard
Settings
Setting
Description
simpleNotes.folder
Root folder for all notes (set via UI or settings.json)
Building from Source
git clone https://github.com/merge4victor/vscode-simple-note.git
cd vscode-simple-note
npm install
npm run compile
npx @vscode/vsce package --no-dependencies --allow-missing-repository
code --install-extension vscode-simple-note-1.0.0.vsix
