Tisty

<div align="center">
  <img
    src="assets/icons/tisty-256.png"
    width="140"
    height="140"
    alt="Tisty — free open source notes, documents and tasks for Windows and macOS"/>

  <h1>Tisty — Free Open Source Notes, Documents and Tasks</h1>

  <p><strong>Notes, documents and tasks that stay yours: plain Markdown on your
  own disk, for Windows and macOS.<br/>Not a to-do list you empty — a record of
  what you worked out, searchable years later, with an MCP door for your
  assistant.<br/>No accounts. No subscriptions. No telemetry. No
  server.</strong></p>

  <p>
    <strong>English</strong> ·
    <a href="README.es.md">Español</a>
  </p>

  <p>
    <a href="https://github.com/rgdevment/Tisty/actions/workflows/ci.yml">
      <img
        src="https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/rgdevment/Tisty/ci.yml?style=flat-square&logo=github-actions&label=Build"
        alt="Build status"/>
    </a>
    <a href="https://github.com/rgdevment/Tisty/actions/workflows/mutants.yml">
      <img
        src="https://img.shields.io/endpoint?style=flat-square&url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2Frgdevment%2FTisty%2Fscore%2Fmutants.json"
        alt="Mutation score"/>
    </a>
    <a href="https://dashboard.stryker-mutator.io/reports/github.com/rgdevment/Tisty/main">
      <img
        src="https://img.shields.io/endpoint?style=flat-square&label=window%20logic&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbadge-api.stryker-mutator.io%2Fgithub.com%2Frgdevment%2FTisty%2Fmain"
        alt="Mutation score of the window logic"/>
    </a>
    <a href="https://sonarcloud.io/summary/overall?id=rgdevment_Tisty">
      <img
        src="https://img.shields.io/sonar/quality_gate/rgdevment_Tisty?server=https%3A%2F%2Fsonarcloud.io&style=flat-square&logo=sonarcloud&label=Quality%20Gate"
        alt="Quality gate"/>
    </a>
    <a href="https://sonarcloud.io/component_measures?id=rgdevment_Tisty&metric=coverage">
      <img
        src="https://img.shields.io/sonar/coverage/rgdevment_Tisty?server=https%3A%2F%2Fsonarcloud.io&style=flat-square&logo=sonarcloud&label=Coverage"
        alt="Coverage"/>
    </a>
    <a href="https://github.com/rgdevment/Tisty/releases">
      <img
        src="https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/rgdevment/Tisty?include_prereleases&style=flat-square&label=Latest&color=6C5CE7"
        alt="Latest release"/>
    </a>
    <img
      src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Platform-Windows%20%7C%20macOS-6C5CE7?style=flat-square"
      alt="Platform: Windows and macOS"/>
    <a href="#licence">
      <img
        src="https://img.shields.io/github/license/rgdevment/Tisty?style=flat-square&color=lightgrey"
        alt="Licence AGPL-3.0"/>
    </a>
  </p>

  <h4>Download Tisty</h4>

  <p>
    <a href="https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PGVWXD8X93N">
      <img
        src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Windows-Microsoft_Store-0078D4?style=for-the-badge&logo=microsoft"
        alt="Get Tisty — notes, documents and tasks — from the Microsoft Store"/>
    </a>
    <a href="#getting-started">
      <img
        src="https://img.shields.io/badge/macOS-Homebrew-FBB040?style=for-the-badge&logo=homebrew&logoColor=black"
        alt="Install Tisty — notes, documents and tasks — with Homebrew on macOS"/>
    </a>
  </p>

  <p>
    <sub>Prefer a direct download?
    <a href="https://github.com/rgdevment/Tisty/releases/latest">GitHub
    Releases</a> carries the signed installers — Windows (.exe) · macOS
    (.dmg, one per chip)</sub>
  </p>

  <p>
    <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/rgdevment">
      <img
        src="https://img.shields.io/badge/GitHub-Sponsor-EA4AAA?style=flat-square&logo=githubsponsors&logoColor=white"
        alt="Sponsor on GitHub"/>
    </a>
    <a href="https://buymeacoffee.com/rgdevment">
      <img
        src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Buy%20Me%20a%20Coffee-%E2%98%95-FFDD00?style=flat-square&logo=buy-me-a-coffee&logoColor=black"
        alt="Buy me a coffee"/>
    </a>
  </p>
</div>

---

**Tisty** is Opensource. Read it, build it, run it, or take one of the stable
releases already out there. Nothing is hidden and all of it can be audited.

It is not a **to-do app** as you know it. A list gets emptied and forgotten. Here
what you close stays: what you did, when, and what you worked out on the way.
Months later you search for how you solved something and it is there — the
description, the journal, the steps, the documents you leaned on.

I am not a company. I am a developer who kept solving the same problem twice, so
I built the **notes, documents and task manager** I wanted and gave it away. It
is meant to stay small and useful, not to grow a thousand features nobody uses.
No ads, no telemetry, no accounts, no subscriptions — a **local-first
productivity tool** that lives on your machine and nowhere else.

**Why people choose Tisty over other task managers:**

- **100% local** — your tasks, your journal and your documents never leave your
  computer. No cloud, no server, no account. If you sync two machines, you can
  ask Tisty to leave the largest attachments in that shared folder instead of
  carrying them onto every disk; it never does that unless you choose it.
- **Truly free** — no premium tier, no feature gates, no trial. AGPL v3, and
  [commercial terms](docs/COMMERCIAL.md) only for organisations that cannot
  comply with it.
- **Your data outlives the app** — plain text and Markdown on your own disk,
  readable with `cat` and searchable with `grep`.
- **Finishing keeps everything** — completing a task moves it to the archive
  with its steps, its notes and its attachments intact, documents included.
- **Fast and native** — a Rust core inside a Tauri window: it starts quickly,
  stays small, and looks like it belongs on both systems.

> I use Tisty every day on macOS and Windows. If something feels off,
> [open an issue](https://github.com/rgdevment/Tisty/issues) — this project
> keeps improving because of real-world use.
>
> **It is for one person, by design.** No assignees, no permissions, no boards.
> If you need to run a team, Tisty will not carry that.

![Read in three layers, with what each task left behind](assets/Store/jpg/en-07-archive.jpg)

## Table of Contents

- [Why I Built This](#why-i-built-this)
- [What It Is / What It Isn't](#what-it-is--what-it-isnt)
- [What Makes It Different](#what-makes-it-different)
- [Who Is This For?](#who-is-this-for)
- [The Idea It Is Built On](#the-idea-it-is-built-on)
- [Getting Started](#getting-started)
- [What It Does](#what-it-does)
- [Your Data and Privacy](#your-data-and-privacy)
- [Two Machines, If You Have Two](#two-machines-if-you-have-two)
- [A Command Line, If You Want One](#a-command-line-if-you-want-one)
- [An Assistant, If You Use One](#an-assistant-if-you-use-one)
- [Where It Stands](#where-it-stands)
- [What It Will Never Do](#what-it-will-never-do)
- [Other Tools by the Same Author](#other-tools-by-the-same-author)
- [Standing On](#standing-on)
- [Contributing](#contributing)
- [Licence](#licence)

## Why I Built This

Organising your day is harder than a list makes it look. There are more moving
parts than fit in your head, plans shift under you, and something you thought
was small turns out not to be. Which is why finishing it feels good.

But look at what the task gathered on the way. The steps it actually took. The
notes you wrote while working it out. What you looked up, what it turned out to
connect to, the documents you leaned on. That is where the effort went.

Mine looked like *"fix the intermittent timeouts on save"*. By the time it was
done it had collected the ticket, the commit, and two paragraphs explaining that
the real cause was a missing index on a table nobody was looking at.

Eight months later the same thing happened somewhere else. I remembered solving
it. I could not remember how — and the note that held the answer had gone with
the tick.

**That is the whole reason Tisty exists.** A task is not a line you cross out.
It is a tree: the steps, the journal, the files and the documents that grew
around it while you worked. Finishing it should not prune it.

I wanted it to stay mine, too. On my disk, in files I can open without asking
anyone. So I built the thing I wanted, used it until it stopped annoying me, and
put it here in case it is the thing you wanted too.

## What It Is / What It Isn't

**It is** a personal task manager where finishing something is the beginning of
its useful life. Tasks carry a description, a journal, steps and attachments;
when you complete one it moves to the archive, and search reaches all of it,
documents included.

**It is for one person.** No assignees, no permissions, no boards. If you need
to run a team, Tisty will not carry that, and you deserve to know before you
install it rather than after.

**It is not something I sell.** Nothing is locked, nothing expires, and there is
no version of this with more in it. It is a program I wrote for myself and gave
away.

**Your data is files.** Plain text on your own disk, readable with `cat` and
searchable with `grep`. If Tisty disappeared tomorrow, everything you wrote
would still be there and still make sense.

## What Makes It Different

If you are looking for a **free, open-source, offline task manager with no
account, no subscription and no AI**, this is what Tisty is:

| | |
|---|---|
| Your tasks live | in plain files on your own disk |
| Account | none, ever |
| Subscription | none. There is no paid tier and no upgrade |
| Offline | always. There is no server to be away from |
| AI inside | **none**, and none is coming |
| Your own assistant | yes, over **MCP**, if you choose to open the door |
| Priorities | the **Eisenhower matrix**, by its name |
| Sorting | lists, tags, steps and a journal on every task |
| Documents | written and searched beside the tasks, not in another app |
| Attachments | kept with the task, as themselves |
| Finished work | an **archive that keeps what each task taught you** |
| Two machines | through a