Scratch

Scratch is an offline-first, single-user markdown notebook with no cloud, no account, and no internet requirement. Instead of a Notion-style block database stored on remote servers, notes are plain .md files on disk, edited in a WYSIWYG view with [[wikilinks]], slash commands, Mermaid diagrams, and KaTeX math. The project describes itself as 5–10x smaller than Notion or Obsidian.

Scratch ships native desktop apps for macOS, Windows, and Linux, built on Electron. macOS users can install via brew install --cask erictli/tap/scratch; Windows uses a .exe installer that pulls WebView2 automatically; Linux uses an AppImage-style download from the Releases page. There is no server component to run — your notes live in a local folder.

Because Scratch only consumes plain .md files, any content you can export from Notion as Markdown (via Notion's Export → Markdown & CSV) will open directly in Scratch — the app supports [[wikilinks]], Mermaid fenced code blocks, and KaTeX $$...$$ math. Notion's database blocks and relations will not map 1:1, so structured databases should be flattened to markdown before importing.

Sync is not built into the app — there is no hosted account layer. The recommended approach is the optional Git integration, which adds push/pull for multi-device sync over any Git host (GitHub, self-hosted Gitea, etc.). Because notes are just files, you can also use Dropbox, Syncthing, or any folder-sync tool you already trust.