Reflect
An open-source note-taking app with daily notes, backlinks, and local Markdown files
About Reflect
Reflect is a networked note-taking app built around daily notes and backlinks. Its current version, Reflect Open, is a local-first, MIT-licensed Mac app that stores notes as plain Markdown files in a folder you choose, with optional bring-your-own-key AI chat, audio memo transcription, and sync through iCloud Drive or Git. The Mac app is free; the iPhone and iPad app is a paid subscription, and the original end-to-end encrypted Reflect (now called Reflect Classic) is still maintained for existing subscribers.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Mac app is free and MIT-licensed, with the source code on GitHub
- Notes are plain Markdown files, so there is no lock-in and other tools or AI agents can read them
- No Reflect account, no hosted notes database, and no product analytics
- Daily-notes-plus-backlinks workflow is simple and fast for personal knowledge management
- AI features use your own API key and can be blocked per note for private content
- Existing Reflect Classic subscribers can keep using the original app with no migration deadline
Cons
- Apple-only: Mac, iPhone, and iPad, with no Windows, Linux, Android, or web app for Reflect Open
- Mobile use requires a paid subscription
- AI and transcription require your own provider API key and are billed separately
- Reflect Open is a young rewrite and still missing some features from Reflect Classic, such as published URLs and note history
- No real-time collaboration; built for individual note-taking
Key Features
Daily notes
Each day opens on a dated note for meetings, ideas, tasks, and journal entries, with a swipeable calendar on iPhone.
Backlinks and wiki links
Link notes with wiki-style links instead of folders; Reflect builds a graph of connected notes and shows backlinks on each note.
Plain Markdown files
Notes are ordinary Markdown files in daily/, notes/, and assets/ folders that you can open in Finder, edit in other apps, or put in Git.
Bring-your-own-key AI chat
Ask questions across your notes with answers that cite source notes, plus rewrite, summarize, translate, and saved custom prompts, using your own OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or OpenRouter key.
Private notes
Notes marked private are blocked from being sent to AI or any other service that reads note content.
Local and semantic search
Search titles, contents, tags, and backlinks, with optional semantic search that runs on-device.
Audio memos
Record a thought and transcribe it into your daily note through the transcription provider you configure.
Browser capture
The Reflect Capture Chrome extension saves links, selected text, screenshots, and page text to your graph along with the source URL.
Tasks view
Markdown checkboxes across all notes are collected into a task view where they can be searched, scheduled, completed, and archived.
iCloud and Git sync
Sync between Mac and iPhone through iCloud Drive, or use GitHub or another Git remote for versioned backup, with no Reflect account or hosted database.
Calendar and contacts
Shows Apple Calendar events beside the daily note, creates meeting notes, and links people notes to Apple Contacts.
Command-line interface
Commands such as reflect today, reflect search, and reflect show let scripts and AI agents read your notes without scraping the app.
Pricing
- Open-source Mac app (MIT license)
- Daily notes, backlinks, tags, and templates
- Local Markdown files in a folder you choose
- Local and on-device semantic search
- BYOK AI chat and transcription (provider billed separately)
- iCloud Drive or Git sync
- iPhone and iPad app
- Same Markdown graph as the Mac app
- Daily notes, backlinks, tasks, and search on mobile
- Audio memos and share-sheet capture
- iCloud Drive and GitHub sync
- Everything in Reflect Pro Monthly
- Billed annually
Best For
Daily journaling and logging
Start each day in a dated note and capture meetings, thoughts, and tasks as they happen, then link them to longer-lived notes.
Personal knowledge management
Build a second brain of backlinked notes on people, projects, and ideas that you can search and chat with using AI.
Meeting notes
Create meeting notes from Apple Calendar events, record and transcribe audio memos, and link attendees to people notes.
Research and reading capture
Clip links, highlights, and screenshots from the browser with source URLs saved alongside, and connect them to your notes.
Agent-friendly note archive
Keep notes as Markdown in Git and let scripts or AI agents read them through the Reflect CLI.
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