Knap is a fast reader and editor for a folder of Markdown files you already have. Thousands of notes are indexed in a third of a second and searched in about two milliseconds, so results move while you type instead of after.
There is no sidebar of folders to click through and no inbox to triage. You type, the list narrows, the top match is already open beside it. Every word has to match, in the title or the body, and a word starting with # matches tags only.
Knap opens a folder you choose and writes plain Markdown back into it. No import step, no library, no database, no account, no sync service of its own. It does not care what else touches that folder: a vault, an iA Writer library, a git repo, a Dropbox folder you have been adding to since 2011. Delete Knap and every note stays exactly where it was.
Knap is sandboxed. It can read the folder you pick and no other part of your Mac.
No servers, no analytics, no crash reporting, no telemetry. Nothing to opt out of.
Wiki links and backlinks, nested tags, callouts, embeds, footnotes, task lists you tick in the preview and it rewrites the file.
Edit a note in another app and Knap notices immediately. Edit it in both and Knap keeps yours and says so.
Knap has no Dock icon. It waits in the menu bar until you call it, then gets out of the way.
Off by default: the editor is an ordinary text field until you turn vim keys on in Settings. Then you get normal, insert, and visual-line modes with the motions and operators you reach for without thinking.
Knap doesn't need Obsidian to work, but it is built to play nicely with it if you use it. Here is exactly what Knap does with the same folder, because it sits beside your vault rather than taking it over.
Obsidian restores a workspace. Knap is already indexed and waiting in the menu bar, so ⌥Space and three characters puts the note on screen. That gap is the entire reason to keep both.
Wiki links resolved by the same rules: exact relative path, then basename anywhere, shortest path wins. Nested tags, callouts, embeds, highlights, comments, block ids, frontmatter, and single newlines that do not break lines.
No database, no sidecar files, no metadata folder of its own, and .obsidian is ignored out of the box. Knap reads and writes the same Markdown and nothing else.
Rename a note and Knap offers to rewrite every link pointing at it, listing them first so you can see what it will touch.
Edit in either and the other notices immediately. If a note changes on disk while you have unsaved edits in Knap, Knap keeps yours and tells you rather than picking for you.
Find it in Knap, open it in Obsidian the moment you want the graph, a canvas, or a plugin.
Knap has no plugins, no graph, no canvas, and no sync, and it is not trying to acquire them. It is a fast front door to a folder you already keep. Obsidian is made by Dynalist Inc., which has no affiliation with Knap.
macOS 15 or later, Apple silicon and Intel, about 2 MB. Sold on the Mac App Store for $9.99, once, with no subscription.