I recently moved away from a paid notes product and built my own replacement: lucabol/notes.

For a long time I used a paid notes product because it was convenient, polished, and already there. But over time I realized I was mostly paying to work around someone else’s idea of how my notes should behave.

So I did the most reasonable thing possible: I replaced it with a custom-made markdown notes tool built surprisingly fast with AI.

Now my notes are just plain files. I have a CLI, a desktop GUI, import tools, tags, search, and no monthly fee quietly judging me from my credit card statement.

What I like most is not just that it works — it feels mine. It matches how I think, how I organize things, and how I want the tool to evolve.

Also, there is something deeply satisfying about leaving a subscription behind and replacing it with a folder full of markdown and a slightly unreasonable amount of PowerShell.

AI made the build dramatically faster, but the interesting part wasn’t speed alone. It let me iterate on ideas quickly, fix annoyances immediately, and turn “I wish this app did X” into “fine, now it does.”

It’s not a giant startup product. It’s just my notes app. And honestly, that’s the whole point.