Plain files, forever
Your writing is ordinary Markdown on your disk. If Qalam vanished tomorrow, every word would still open in any editor.
Qalam · قلم — the pen
Write once.
Every AI already knows you.
Qalam is a calm, local-first Markdown notebook that doubles asmemory for the AI tools you already use. Keep your thinking in plain files on your machine — then let Claude, Cursor and ChatGPT search and read it, privately, so you stop re-explaining yourself in every new chat.
No account · Runs on your device · Apple-notarized · Works with your existing notes
about-me.md
How I like to work
I ship small and often. Prefer plain language over jargon, and I think in [[first principles]].
Everything tagged @context is fair game for my assistants to read.
اُكتب مرّة، وتذكّرك كلّ أداة ذكاء.
You keep introducing yourself to AI.
Over and over and over.
Every new chat starts from zero. You paste the same background, re-state your preferences, re-correct the same wrong assumptions. Your real context — how you think, what you're building, what you decided last month — is scattered across your head, a dozen note apps, and closed chat histories no tool can reach. The smartest models on earth still treat you like a stranger.
What if your notes were the memory?
Three steps. Then never repeat yourself again.
- 01
Write it down, once.
Notes, daily logs, the gist of a good AI chat — capture it in a calm editor that saves the instant you type. No forms, no friction.
- 02
It's just files you own.
Everything lives as plain .md in a folder you choose. No database, no lock-in. Open it in Finder, back it up, grep it, leave anytime.
- 03
Every AI can now read it.
Connect Claude Desktop, Cursor or VS Code to Qalam's open-source MCP server. They search your notes semantically — on your machine — so you never re-explain yourself again.
Your notes stay yours.
A memory for AI is only worth building if you can trust where it lives. Qalam is designed so you never have to take our word for it.
Verifiably offline
The app makes no account and no server calls to write. Block it at your firewall — it keeps working. Your notes never leave your device.
Open where it counts
The part that feeds your notes to an AI — the MCP server — is fully open-source. Read every line that touches your data.
Notarized & signed
The Mac app is Apple-notarized and code-signed. It opens with a normal double-click, no scary warnings.
Already have notes? Point us at them.
Qalam's search server works with any folder of Markdown — an Obsidian vault, exported Notion pages, or a plain~/notes directory. Installqalam-mcp, aim it at your existing files, and your AI can search them today — no migration, no import, nothing to move.
Get the open-source MCP →MIT-licensed · runs on-device
And it's a genuinely lovely place to write.
The memory only fills up if you actually enjoy writing in it. So the editor is quiet, fast, and built for long-form thinking.
- Markdown that formats as you type
- Semantic + keyword search
- Wiki-links — [[note]]
- @tags & live backlinks
- Daily notes & quick capture
- Save any AI chat as a note
- Focus & typewriter modes
- Distraction-free reading view
- Math, Mermaid & code blocks
- True right-to-left, per line
- Command palette — ⌘K
- Works fully offline
Give your AI a memory worth keeping.
Start with a single line. It's free.