--- type: Web Page title: "The Core: a markdown note editor with a graph view — Oknola" description: "Oknola, a markdown note editor: one file in Reading, Edit and Source, a bar that only writes markdown, callouts, tables, links, and the folder drawn as a graph." resource: https://oknola.com/the-core/ --- The Core · Markdown notetaker # The same file, three ways. Oknola is a markdown note editor, the core of the company brain for one-person businesses. Read the note clean, edit it beside a live preview, or open the raw file underneath. The bar only ever writes markdown, so nothing on screen is hiding a format of ours. Join the waitlist [Open the demo →](https://oknola.com/demo/) your-folder / Notes / Example Note.md ## Example Note ## Example Note A note is a plain text file. Everything below is markdown, the same markdown that note apps such as Obsidian read, so it stays yours whatever app opens it next. Pick **Edit** above and try the bar: it only ever writes markdown. ### Text Plain text, **bold**, *italic*, ~struck~, highlighted, `inline code`, a [link](https://oknola.com) and a wikilink to another note in this folder. ### Lists - A bullet - Another, pointing at Acme Corp 1. Numbered 2. Steps - A task, still open - A task, done ### Callouts *💡*Callouts carry the point A callout is a quote with a type. Tip, note, warning, question: each gets a colour and an icon, and any AI reading the file still sees plain text. *📝*Folded until you need it A minus after the type starts the callout collapsed. Click the title to open it. A working copy of the opening of the demo's Example Note, rebuilt on this page. Type in it; nothing is sent anywhere. ## The bar writes markdown and nothing else. Every control on the toolbar types characters you could have typed yourself. Bigger text adds a heading mark. Bold wraps two asterisks. A callout is a quote with a type on the first line. There is nothing under the buttons that has to be converted back later, which is why the note opens the same in any editor afterwards. Text size Smaller text steps one heading level down Bigger text steps one heading level up, adding a heading mark Marks Bold `**bold**` Italic `*italic*` Strikethrough `~~struck~~` Highlight `==highlight==` Inline code `` `code` `` Link `[link text](https://)` Lists and quotes Bullet list `- line` Numbered list `1. line` Checklist `- [ ] line` Quote `> line` Callouts Tip, Note, Warning, Question, Example, Quote `> [!tip] Tip` then a second line starting with a quote mark Inserts Table `| Column | Column |` Code block ` ```js ` Diagram ` ```mermaid ` Image `![The folder this startup runs on](oknola-folder.webp)` Embed an app `` Divider `---` Image and embed land with a placeholder already in them. Swap the file name and the address. The embed line is plain HTML, which markdown carries as it is. Templates Meeting notes, Weekly review, Project brief, Decision record four starters, shown further down ⌘B bold ⌘I italic ⌘K link ⌘Z undo Nothing is uploaded while you write, and the corner of the bar keeps the count. ## What one note holds. The specimens below are blocks from the demo's Example Note, plus the starter the Diagram button writes. The mono line above each one is the markdown that produced it. ## Text Plain text, \*\***bold**\*\*, \***italic**\*, ~~**struck**~~, \==**highlighted**\==, \`**inline code**\`, a \[**link**\](**https://oknola.com**) and a \[\[**Launch plan|wikilink**\]\] to another note in this folder. In the file In the note `**bold**` **bold** `*italic*` *italic* `~~struck~~` ~struck~ `==highlighted==` highlighted `` `inline code` `` `inline code` `[link](https://oknola.com)` [link](https://oknola.com) `[[Launch plan|wikilink]]` wikilink The highlight mark is the double equals, the same one Obsidian reads, and a wikilink takes an alias after the pipe, so the note reads in your words and still points at Launch plan. ## Lists ### Bullets, numbers and boxes. \- A bullet - Another, pointing at \[\[Acme Corp\]\] 1. Numbered 2. Steps - \[ \] A task, still open - \[x\] A task, done - A bullet - Another, pointing at Acme Corp 1. Numbered 2. Steps - A task, still open - A task, done A task is a bullet with a box. The file keeps one shape for open and another for done, so a plain text search still finds what is left. ## Callouts ### A quote with a type. \> \[!tip\] Callouts carry the point > A callout is a quote with a type. Tip, note, warning, question: each gets a colour and an icon, and any AI reading the file still sees plain text. > \[!note\]- Folded until you need it > A minus after the type starts the callout collapsed. Click the title to open it. *💡*Callouts carry the point A callout is a quote with a type. Tip, note, warning, question: each gets a colour and an icon, and any AI reading the file still sees plain text. *📝*Folded until you need it A minus after the type starts the callout collapsed. Click the title to open it. Six types sit under the Callout menu: tip, note, warning, question, example, quote. A minus after the type starts it folded, and the reader opens it when they want it. Try the second one. ## Table ### Pipes in, rows out. | Entity | Stage | Added | |---|---|---| | Acme Corp | pilot invite sent | Aug 12 | | The Accelerator | application sent | Jul 28 | | John Smith | interview booked | Sep 4 | | Entity | Stage | Added | | --- | --- | --- | | Acme Corp | pilot invite sent | Aug 12 | | The Accelerator | application sent | Jul 28 | | John Smith | interview booked | Sep 4 | The Table button writes the pipes and one row; you fill the cells. Any editor that reads markdown reads the same table back. ## Code ### Fenced, labelled, left alone. \`\`\`js const note = read('Example Note.md'); note.tags.includes('Note'); // true \`\`\` js `const note = read('Example Note.md'); note.tags.includes('Note'); // true` Three backticks and a language name. The note keeps the label and touches nothing inside the fence. ## Diagram ### Boxes drawn from the lines. \`\`\`mermaid graph LR a\[start\] --> b\[middle\] --> c\[end\] \`\`\` start middle end 3 steps, 2 arrows, drawn from the text Write the steps and the arrows between them. The note draws the boxes from that text, and the text is what stays in the file. ## Image ## Embedded app ### A picture, and an address. !\[The folder this startup runs on\](oknola-folder.webp) ![The folder this startup runs on](https://oknola.com/assets/oknola-folder.webp) The folder this startup runs on https://example.com/waitlist Waitlist widget An image line shows the file with its alt text as the caption. An embed line keeps its address on a card in the note, so you can see what the note points at. Every block above is one line of punctuation away from being plain prose again. [Open the file in the demo →](https://oknola.com/demo/) ## Start from a shape. Four starters sit under Template in the bar. Pick one and its headings, fields and task lines land in the note as ordinary markdown, ready to be written over. Nothing is locked, because there is nothing to unlock. What the menu writes \## Meeting · who, about what \*\*When:\*\* today \*\*Who:\*\* ### Agenda ### Decisions ### Follow-ups - \[ \] What the note shows ### Meeting · who, about what **When:** today **Who:** #### Agenda #### Decisions #### Follow-ups Four starters, four shapes. Overwrite any line and the shape is yours. ## Links that point both ways. Type two square brackets around a title and the note is linked. Give the link a face: a pipe, then your own words after it, and the page reads the way you wrote it while still pointing at Launch plan. The note on the other end gets a Linked from list, and that list rebuilds while you are still typing, with no save step in between. Linked from any note that points here Example Note Notes / Example Note.md This note links to Launch plan Acme Corp A link that has nowhere to land stays plain text instead of turning into a dead end, so the note never shows you a door that opens onto nothing. Both directions live in the same plain file. The links on this page are drawn, not live; in the app they open the note. ## Every file, every link. Oknola reads the links already in your files and draws the graph of the folder from them. Colour is the tag, size is how many notes point at it. Nobody draws this by hand; it is the links, rendered. The folder, from its links - BusinessOS - LifeOS - Neither Neither means a note with no side tag, or with both. Hover a note to light what it links to. Tap a note to light what it links to. **18** notes · **21** links · **2** hubs · **2** orphans A hub is a note with four or more links; an orphan has no links in or out. Launch plan and Acme Corp are the two hubs in this drawing, and Example Note is the note that stands between them. In the app - Hover lights the neighbourhood `Note` Point at a note and Oknola lights what it links to, dims the rest, and fills a card with both directions. - Click lays out the cascade `Cascade from here` Click a note and Oknola pins it at the top and hangs the notes within three links below it, level by level. - The path between two notes `Pick two notes on the graph` Pick two notes and Oknola traces the shortest chain between them, or answers that these two notes never meet. - Replay how the folder grew `Watch it grow` A slider redraws the folder by the date on each note, and plays the run back in about five seconds. - The notes one tag reaches `Tag lens` Hover a tag or a folder and Oknola lights exactly the notes it covers, then holds them when you click. - A dark sky for the canvas `Space mode` One toggle takes the graph pane to a dark sky with glowing notes and leaves the rest of the app on paper. - Flows you keep coming back to `Pinned flows` Star a note and it sits in a tile with its own small constellation and thirty days of edits as a sparkline. - A small graph inside every note `Local graph` Every note carries its own links and backlinks as a small radial graph, so you never leave the note to see them. Eighteen notes and twenty-one links from the demo's folder, drawn here, not live. In the app Oknola draws the folder, thirty-seven notes and forty links in the demo, settles it under a force layout, and lets you drag any note in it. ## The top of the file. Above the first heading sits a small fenced block: type, tags, description, created, timestamp. Oknola shows it as a panel you can read at a glance, and Source shows it as the plain text it has been the whole time. Neither reading is a copy of the other. Properties type DocumentationTyped tags \[Note\]Tagged description Every element a note can hold, in plain markdown. Edit it; nothing leaves the device.Described created 2026-09-13 timestamp 2026-09-13 filed in Notes/Filed The same thing, in the file \--- type: Documentation tags: \[Note\] description: Every element a note can hold, in plain markdown. Edit it; nothing leaves the device. created: 2026-09-13 timestamp: 2026-09-13 \--- \# Example Note A note is a plain text file. Everything below is markdown, the same markdown that note apps such as Obsidian read, so it stays yours whatever app opens it next. One block, two readings. The panel is drawn from the file, and the file is what stays on the disk. ## Plain text, provably. The block of fields at the top of every file follows the Open Knowledge Format, the open, vendor-neutral markdown spec Google Cloud introduced in 2026. A type, a tag list, a one-line description, and the dates the app keeps. Any AI you point at the folder reads that without a plugin, an import or a setup step, because the format is public and the file is text. The note is the file, the folder is the structure, and both are on your disk. The app can be gone tomorrow morning and the folder still opens tomorrow afternoon, in any editor that reads markdown. Leaving is copying a folder. ## Already in Obsidian? Move in without migrating. Oknola opens the same folder and takes over the typing, tagging and filing. Rather stay in Obsidian? The same structure comes as a free-to-start Obsidian vault from [Indexed Brain](https://indexedbrain.com/start-free); the tending stays with you. Waitlist ## Write the first note. Reading, Edit and Source on one file, a bar that only writes markdown, and a folder that opens in any editor. Early access opens in waves, first come, first served.