Cairn manual

Cairn is a local-first Markdown notes app for Linux, Windows and Android. A notebook is an ordinary folder of .md files, and Cairn reads and writes those files directly. Sync between your devices is optional and end-to-end encrypted, through a small server you run yourself.

• Getting started: install Cairn and open a notebook.
• Notebooks and files: the file tree, file names, images and other files, settings, symlinks.
• Editing: Live Preview, tabs and autosave, panels, the word count, hotkeys.
• Links and embeds: wikilinks, embeds, attachments.
• Search and graph: the quick switcher, the command palette, full-text search, the graph view.
• Themes and appearance: the six themes, the accent color, fonts, CSS snippets, zoom.
• Sync and the sync server: run a server, set up each device, conflicts, version history.
• Core plugins: Templates, Daily notes, Unique note creator, Random note.
• Plugins: write a plugin, its API, turning it on.
• Android: install the APK, notebooks on a phone, sync on the local network.
• Windows: the installer, app data, deleted notes, the log, file names.
• Building from source: build the desktop app and the Android app.
• Known limits: what Cairn does not do yet, or does differently.
• Release notes: what changed in each version.