Show HN: Stormah, cloud notes stored in your own Git repo | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Stormah, cloud notes stored in your own Git repo

stormah.com

79 pointsdschroer30 comments

I'd be much more interested if it was a mobile app.

I already have native git client and text writing application on my desktop, I don't need a web page trying to replace both. However, a simple to use mobile client with first-class git workflow support is missing.

I just use termux on Android; whether that counts as simple to use will depend very much on your personal preferences, but it was really easy in my opinion, and conveniently gives me the same workflow everywhere. You can also add shortcuts to your launcher and add some scripting if you want to make the whole thing smoother.

Beware, Termux + vim uses too much battery in my old phone

Give Termux a try: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.termux/

Try https://gitjournal.io/ . It's open source and works very well for me. Don't forget to donate if you like it, the dev is super nice!

I've been using Working Copy [0] for quite some time and have yet to meet any limitations. It's a freemium business model (though the free version did have more than enough functionality for me until I wanted to push from my mobile device as well) but the one time $5 payment is well worth it in my opinion for how high quality of an app it is. It has some crazy features and crisp integration with the iOS workflow, I'd highly recommend it.

0. https://workingcopy.app/

> I already have native git client and text writing application on my desktop

You can't just tell us you have a non-electron app and not tell us what it is, don't leave us hanging!

The number one priority in a notes syncing app for me is E2E encryption[1]. Even with a private git repo, you're still most likely storing your plaintext notes on a third-party server. I wish there were more options satisfying this requirement.

[1] Even if you currently have no "out of line" ideas, it's very damaging to creativity to let a medium requiring self-censorship become a part of your thought process, as notes can be. The default for notes should be as private as possible.

If folks want to use a GitHub repo for note taking, you can also try GitHub.dev, which gives you the power of VS Code, to edit repos entirely from the browser. Since VS Code has a prolific ecosystem, you can enhance and augment your note taking workflow via extensions (themes, keybinding, productivity enhancements, etc.), which makes it a pretty nice experience: https://twitter.com/lostintangent/status/1429483662257446916....

> What if I cancel my subscription?

> [...] You will no longer be able to access our suite of apps.

The try button seems to take you to a working version of the app, is the intention to make this paid at some point later?

I don't mind paying but I object to those applications that make it appear like they're free and then once you've started using them ask you for payment on the basis you were only on a "premium trial" when you start.

This seems very familiar to a bash application I created that follows the zettelkasten note taking method. The source can be found here https://github.com/AndrewCopeland/zettelkasten

Each note is saved as a markdown file in GitHub and can be searched and linked easily from the zk cli.

> What if I cancel my subscription?

I'm not sure you can charge people for what amounts to a <textarea> that makes a git commit. Seems like you're sharing this a bit early, since there's only one app despite the FAQ sounding like there's a whole ecosystem.

I didn’t get a penny about the project. I know what git is, of course. And I do store my notes in my git repository, in markdown format. I use vim on my Linux machine and Markor on my Android phone. But again: what is this project about?

Its a frontend for your notes. You can read and edit your notes using a web interface while storing them in git. A bridge from the git tools to a UI that people expect on the go.

This is frankly, useless. What is the problem being solved here?

I use GitJournal on Android for this - it's nothing fancy, just let's me write markdown notes and store/organise/search them in a private GitHub repo, but that's exactly what I wanted.

I'm really glad you like it.

Out of curiosity, if you had to pick your biggest annoyance with GitJournal, what would it be?

Disclaimer: I'm the author, looking to improve GitJournal.

I just looked at GitJournal now, first time hearing of it. Would it be able to support other note-taking formats, such as org-mode, or is it tied to Markdown?

Cheers

It currently supports Markdown, Txt Files, and OrgMode. The OrgMode is thanks to an app called Orgzly [0] whose Widgets are being used within GitJournal. Also, I'm additionally working on letting you open any text file [1], but I won't make a release of this until early next week.

I'm literally working right now on removing more of the code which assumed all notes would be in Markdown format, and make GitJournal open to supporting any.

If you try it out, please let me know how it did for your use case. I'm just getting started with OrgMode.

[0] http://www.orgzly.com/

[1] https://twitter.com/GitJournalApp/status/1449039758504697861

You know, I don't think I have any annoyances or feature requests at all - pretty rare, so congrats and thanks for GitJournal!

I like this idea, though i don't like that subfolders are displayed in the folder they are a part of

As well as while i like .txt, i can't embed images and links and for me that's a requirement sadly. Though i like the idea for purely text only note taking

A recommendation; I would think that those who this format would work really well for should have the ability to reference an image or video and have that as a "hidden" uploaded item (so that you could choose from the list of items in that folder) and have it referenced from that document

Kinda sorta related, no affiliation just think it's cool as well:

https://www.dendron.so/

hey appreciate the mention!

Im the creator of Dendron. we’re an open source, markdown based, git backed note taking tool built in to vscode. the nice thing about being file based is that interop comes (almost) for free which means as a user, you can switch between tools without worrying about lock in

Related software and previously discussed on HN - ZimWiki

https://zim-wiki.org/

It lets you run a Wiki out of a vault in your drive, which can be moved to a new machine or exported as PDF/HTML

I have been using the Joplin (https://joplinapp.org/) note taking app for a while now. I like it so far. Not stored in git, though.

Joplin is pretty cool, back filling that to git must not be super complicated…

Seems like a simpler version of TiddlyWiki¹, which is free.

It might worth a try for those who prefer less features

[1]: https://tiddlywiki.com/

Any reason to use git over a regular file hosting service like Dropbox? It seems it would be more or less equivalent and on top of that you'll easily get mobile support.

not a whole lot of info about the note-taking functionality of your app.

I've been evangelizing apps like Obsidian, Logseq, and Foam these days because note-taking has been evolving quite a bit with different PKMS methodologies and the whole zettelkasten movement (that's a bit of a rabbit hole though).

plain text markdown is imo the place to be.

to the maker: UX pet peeve - forms that dont submit when i hit enter. in this case, the "create note" form.

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